42 THE FLOEIST AND POMOLOGIST. [ Febuuauy, 



shortened, or rather cut close back, so that the plants are never allowed to flower 

 excepting when they are forced. 



To illustrate the small amount of forcing these plants require, I may state 

 that two dozen of them were taken up and potted into 8-in. and 10-in. pots 

 on December 2nd, 1867, and were at once placed on the floor of an early vinery, 

 where the minimum temperature ranged from about 55° to 60°. The blossoms 

 began to open during the first week of the following January, and on the 7th of 

 that month the plants were removed into a cool conservatory, where at the end 

 of January they were in full beauty, most of them bearing upwards of a hundred 

 thyrses of blooms. I need scarcely say that, besides furnishing an immense 

 quantity of cut flowers, such plants form no despicable objects for conservatory 

 or greenhouse decoration at that season of the year. 



It is important that they should be removed from the forcing-house into a 

 cooler atmosphere as soon as the blooms begin to expand. When they have done 

 flowering they should be slightly protected for a time, and then planted out. 

 About the end of March their shoots should be cut close back, and in the second 

 succeeding winter they will again be in a fit state for forcing. 



Culford Hall. ' P. Gbieve. 



THE POMEGRANATE. 



^N Holy Writ we read of the " Paradise of Pomegranates." The ruddy glow 

 of beauty on the cheek of the fair one, is there also likened to the rind of 

 the Pomegranate ; and well had the poet marked the splendid streak of 

 crimson in the opening blossom of this tree, when, at the feast of flowers, 

 he proposes to " see if the Pomegranates have budded." It is evident that this 

 tree had played an important part in what we should now call the Orchard of 

 Palestine. The extreme beauty and abundance of its bright scarlet flowers, have 

 from time immemorial been associated with those of the Lily and the Eose, 

 wherever loveliness and beauty had to be pictured vividly to the imagination ; 

 and not only did its blossoms bear their share in the flowery language of Eastern 

 canticles, but the rich, refreshing juice or wine of its fruit was reckoned a 

 beverage of unquestionable excellence. There can be no doubt that from the 

 earliest days of civilization the fruit has been freely used, and as the tree grows 

 readily from seeds, layers, or cuttings, the burning beauty of its blossoms, and the 

 glowing harvest of its laden boughs, could scarcely fail, even then, to cause it to be 

 souo-ht after and cultivated. We have, indeed, its cultivation as an orchard tree 

 manifest in Jerusalem, and again at Carthage, for the generic name Punica 

 points to Carthage as its home. Its English name is truly characteristic, and 

 means an apple full of seeds. 



Although this plant, like the Olive and the Vine, belongs to a belt or zone of 

 climate a little to the southward of ours, yet the fact stands unquestioned that in 

 certain favoured spots in England both Vines and Pomegranates will ripen their 



