140 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



a way to show that it was considered fit refreshment for the gods. 

 The tree was introduced to Rome from Carthpge in the days of the 

 murderous Sylla. Pliny, in the 21st chapter of his 13th book, gives a 

 description of the tree and its fruit. He enumerates nine varieties 

 (book 23, c'-iap. 6), and says the bark of the sour kind was used by tanners 

 and curriers, and the flowers of other kinds for dyers to dye cloth. 



The pomegranate was first cultivated in England in the year 1548, 

 during the reign of Henry VIII. ; and Phillips says, " I find it men- 

 tioned among the trees that fruited in the orange-house of the unfor- 

 tunate Charles I." Gerarde raised plants from seed in 1597. Lord 

 Bacon recommended wine made from pomegranates for diseases of 

 the liver; and if wine could not be had, the freshly expressed juice 

 might take its place. The fruit, when in perfection, consists of succu- 

 lent pulp, pleasantly acid and sweetish, and is used for the same pur- 

 poses as the orange ; but it is said to be far more beneficial iu cases of 

 fever and other diseases for which usually oranges are prescribed. The 

 rind of the fruit and the flowers contain a large proportion of a whole- 

 some astringent principle, aud are the parts principally used for medi- 

 cinal purposes. The high reputation of the pomegranate has caused a 

 demand for it wherever it can be cultivated ; and nowhere out of its native 

 country has it been so successfully grown as in the West Indies, where the 

 fruit is of the finest quality, and is produced in great abundance. The 

 dwarf red kind is grown in the West India Islands as a hedge plant, 

 and makes a splendid appearance when in flower ; it is indeed so beauti- 

 ful that it ranks high among the ornamental stove plants grown in this 

 country. 



Botanical Notes. — Though hearing a name which allies it with the 

 apple and the rest of the rosaceous fruits, the pomegranate is a member 

 of the great and interesting family of the myrtle-blooms, Myrtacece. The 

 third suborder of that family is called Myrtece, and is appropriated to the 

 true myrtles ; and it is in this suborder we find myrtus, the myrtle, 

 Eugenia, Imnlosa, Psidium, or guava, extensively grown in the West In- 

 dies for its delicious fruit ; and to pass by from twenty to thirty other 

 genera, Punica the pomegranate, which agrees with all the Myrtaceae in 

 having simple opposite leaves, hermaphrodite regular flowers, calyx 

 adherent to the ovary, corolla with petals equal in number to the lobes 

 of the calvx, and the fruit many-seeded. 



Cultivation out op Doors. — The common pomegranate, Punica 

 granatum, grows in various parts of the South of Europe in the greatest 

 perfection ; a warm climate appearing to be of much more importance 

 to it than any peculiarity of soil. It can only be grown in this country 

 by methods which more or less compensate the plant for the disadvan- 

 tage under which it is placed in respect of climate. In the South of 

 England, and as far north as the latitude of Northampton, a wall with 

 a south aspect usually suffices both for its preservation during winter, 

 and free flowering in summer. Further north there is considerable 

 risk attending its cultivation out of doors; specimens of good size are 

 indeed to be met with in all parts of Britain, but the further north the 

 greater risk of the destruction of the plants on the occasion of an un- 

 usually severe winter. During the winter of 1860-61, many fine pomegra- 

 nate tiees inEnglish gardens were completely destroyed, root and branch. 



