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The Date-The Cocoanut

Phœnix Dactilifera Cocos Nucifera-Phœnicacea THE HE date, whether fruit or tree, instinctively brings to mind the islands of the desert: the cocoanut those of the tropical seas. Differing thus widely as to natural habitat and as to type of fruit there are nevertheless necessarily striking points of resemblance and similarity of general products presented by these two stately, graceful members of the Palm Family, and by the increase and scattering of the human family they have become more closely associated as to places of growth. The general contour of the trees and bunching of the fruit in the bushy tops are the same; the fibre of the leaf-stems of both is used in the manufacture of cordage, the leaves themselves for mats, baskets, and innumerable other products; the wood for local building purposes or imported for making up into highly polished furniture or choice woodwork. a Both these palms yield quantities of sap, known as "toddy," and it is a common, yearly practice to tap them. The toddy, unfermented, is much liked as a drink and when in this condition and boiled down the syrup called "jaggery" is obtained, which in turn yields another product: sugar; about one pound resulting from four of the syrup, it is estimated. Fermented, the sap becomes palm wine or is distilled into arrack. The heart or terminal bud of these palms, called the “cabbage,” is sweet, tender, and nutty, but it is too luxurious an article of diet to be often indulged in, as its removal causes the death of the tree. The ends of the leaf-stalks, however, are almost identical in texture and flavour and are used as a vegetable.

With these points of similarity the general resemblance in appearance and food values of the trees ceases for the fruits borne by them are totally unlike in form and kind of nutriment. The date's distinctive and preponderating element is sugar; that of the cocoanut, oil. The small proportion of fat contained in the date is chiefly in its stones or pits which are sometimes roasted and ground for use as a substitute for coffee and sometimes ground unroasted to secure the oil contained in them. The cake or paste remaining from the latter process is given to camels as food, as are also types of imperfect dates. The dates themselves, when compressed in preparing them into dried cakes for future use, give out a syrup whichisused in cookery like molasses, and the crushed fruit may be fermented for date wine. So concentrated has nature made the food value of the date, so powerful and readily carried a storehouse of energy, that in some countries the killing of a date-palm is a criminal offence. It is true that dates contain a very small per cent. of protein but their sugar is in so pure and simple a form that they are readily digested and when eaten with nuts to furnish the nitrogen and fat the combination is an almost perfect food.

More than one variety of date bears fruit. The wild date of India, Phœnix sylvestris, is famed for its sugar production as well as for its fruit. On the whole this fruitbearing palm is not as sensitive to cold as is the cocoanut and grows luxuriantly in parts of Spain and Italy. It begins to bear from about ten years old upward indefinitely, age seeming no hindrance. Some of the Italian date trees prove their longevity for it was over one thousand years ago that those of Bordighera were planted by the monks. Cocoanuts, like dates, contain only a small per cent. of nitrogen, but, unlike that other palm fruit, provide one of the most delightful forms of oil and in as generous quantity as the date gives sugar. According to the tradition of colder climes the cocoanut is indigestible, but in the balmy countries where the cocoa-palm flourishes one does not hear of this, chiefly because its fruit is there eaten in proper condition: when at the right stages to be offered human stomachs. The white "nut"-lining is soft enough at first (when half "ripe"), to be eaten with a spoon, and the milk is not thick and white but clear, somewhat sweet, and most refreshing up to perfect maturity. It is said there is nothing more easily digested, assimilated and fattening than fresh cocoanut milk, and it is recommended to invalids to be as freely indulged in as possible: perhaps the juice of six cocoanuts a day to begin with, as a restorative. (Fresh cocoanut oil is sometimes prescribed as a substitute for cod liver oil.) There are people whose enthusiasm over it goes so far as to claim the probability of cocoanut milk being that fountain of youth so ardently sought and so persistently concealed since time itself was young. But, as with many other fruits, the cocoanut is gathered before maturity for shipment and even where cold does not affect it on the long journey it is impossible but that it should be the reverse of improved on reaching its destination. However, one may get something of the flavour of both milk and meat in the northlands and need not shun them if one uses the cocoanut from the shell and so gets it unadulterated, and uses always sufficient of all kinds of fruit to keep one's digestive apparatus in good condition.