PERSON@1 wrote : `` One could go as far as to say that , had the date palm not existed , the expansion of the human race into the hot and barren parts of the `` old '' world would have been much more restricted .

Historian PERSON@1 wrote : `` Had the date palm not existed , the expansion of the human race into the hot and barren parts of the `` old '' world would have been much more restricted .
