THE 



GARDEN GUi&Ei 



July, 1864. 



CULTUEE OP THE POMEGRANATE. 



OMEGRANATE is probably a compound 

 ■word signifying" grained or kerneled apple." 

 At first thought on the subject any one accus- 

 tomed to etymological analysis would consider 

 such a derivation satisfactory, but in Bailey, 

 and other authorities who follow him, there 

 is a suggestion of another, in these terms — 

 " q.d. Pomum granatum L., or Granatense, 

 a kerneled appie, or of Grenada in Spain." 

 But there are not wanting authorities who 

 affirm that instead of the fruit being named 

 from the place, the place has been named 

 from the fruit, Grenada being so-called from 

 being the province in which the grained fruit 

 was first cultivated when it was introduced 

 to Europe from Africa. The capital of the 

 province has a split pomegranate for its arms, which is seen on 

 the gate-posts of the public walks. Grenada is undoubtedly a 

 grand place for the pomegranate ; and still further east and south the 

 various species of pomegranates are found abundantly. The best briet 

 history of the pomegranate is to be found in Phillips's " Pomarium 

 Britannicum," from which the facts narrated in Paxton's Magazine, and 

 indeed, in most recent papers on the subject, are derived. The numerous 

 notices of the pomegranate in Scripture prove it to have been held in 

 high repute in ancient times in Syria and Palestine. It was selected 

 as one of the principal sacred symbols, and the Jews still use it in the 

 decoration of their synagogues. The Greeks esteemed the fruit so 

 highly that it was classed among the principal productions of the 

 Elysian fields, and there is a pretty story of Ceres beseeching Jupiter to 

 restore her daughter, Proserpine, in which the pomegranate figures in 



YOL. VII. — NO. YII. H 



