A pilgrimage to the temples and tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and ...

32 DATE-PALMS.
all imitations of the human countenance being
produced in painting) consists in the portraits of
three of the Viceroy's sons suspended in one of
the saloons,—heavy, ordinary, unmeaning-looking
youths, whose faces possess none of the energy
and talent which is said to characterize that of
their illustrious old father. But enough of the
palace and its adornments.
The most beautiful, the most striking objects
in the scenery of Alexandria are the date-palms,
with their lofty elegant trunks, their graceful
feathery foliage, and their enormous pendent
clusters of fruit hanging in rich abundance be-
neath the verdant panache which forms the sum-
mit of this truly beautiful tree. They abound in
and about Alexandria ; and this being the season
when the dates are ripe, we have seen them in
full perfection, and have been enabled to judge
of the great superiority of the fresh fruit over the
dried ones, which are alone known in Europe.
We have also for the first time tasted bananas
here ; but I fancy that it requires custom to
make one relish this luscious fruit, as we all
agreed that its flavour very much resembled what
we suppose that of pommade a la vanille to be.
In Signer Ghibarra's garden, which is a charming
one, we saw a colossal description of lemon. The