Anciently the tract was much more generally wooded with them.

"Palm-trees grow in numbers over the whole of the flat country," says one of the most observant and truthful of travellers--Herodotus.

According to the historians of Julian, a forest of verdure extended from the upper edge of the alluvium, which he crossed, to Mesene, and the shores of the sea.

When the Arabian conquerors settled themselves in the lower country, they were so charmed with the luxuriant vegetation and the abundant date-groves, that they compared the region with the country about Damascus and reckoned it among their four earthly paradises.

The propagation of the date-palm was chiefly from seed.