Osmai relates (says the story in question) that an inhabitant of Yemama, a province in Arabia, once made him the following recital. “I was possessor of a garden in which was a palm-tree, which had every year produced me abundance of fruit; but two seasons having passed away, without its affording any, I sent for a person well acquainted with the culture of palms, to discover for me the reason of this failure. “An unhappy attachment” (observed the man, after a moment’s inspection) “is the sole cause why this palm-tree produces no fruit!” He then climbed up the trunk, and, looking round on all sides, discovered a male palm at no great distance, which he recognised as the object of my unlucky tree’s affection; and advised me to procure some of the powder from its blossoms, and to scatter it over her branches. This I did (said the Arab,) and the consequence was, that my date-tree, whom unrequited love had kept barren, now bore me a most abundant harvest!” The value of the palm-tree is not generally appreciated in Europe, but it is highly prized in Asia and Africa. The followers of Mahomet (as appears from Kazwini) believe it to be peculiar to those favoured countries where the religion of the Prophet is professed. “Honour the palm-tree,” (says this writer, in the words of Mahomet himself,) “for she is your father’s aunt;” and this distinction (he tells us) was given to it, because the tree was formed from the remainder of the clay of which Adam was created! It is propagated chiefly (as Shaw has informed us) from young shoots taken from the roots of full-grown trees, which, if well transplanted and taken care of, will yield their fruit in the sixth or seventh year; whereas those that are raised immediately from the kernels will not bear till about their sixteenth. Nothing further is necessary to the culture of the palm-tree, than that it should be well watered once in four or five days, and that a few of the lower boughs should be lopped away whenever they begin to droop or wither. “These” (observes Shaw), “whose stumps, or pollices, in being thus gradually left upon the trunk, serve, like so many rounds of a ladder, to climb up the tree, either to fecundate it, to lop it, or to gather the fruit, are quickly supplied with others which hang down from the crown or top, contributing not only to the regular and uniform growth of this tall, knotless, beautiful tree, but likewise to its perpetual and most delightful verdure. _To be exalted_ (Eccles. xxiv. 14.) or _to flourish like the palm-tree_, are as just and proper expressions, suitable to the nature of this plant, as to _spread abroad like the Cedar_[4].”—(Psalm xcii. 11.)