98 CULTURE OF THE DOUBLE POMEGRANATE. 



not suffering them to become absolutely dry ; for though the plant is so 

 tenacious of life as to be able to live for a considerable time, in either 

 of those extremes, to succeed creditably both must be avoided. The 

 compost we use, consists of equal parts of brown strong loam, peat, 

 and leaf mould, with a moderate portion of broken pot ; potting is 

 regulated by the season of flowering, and may be performed imme- 

 diately after the flowers are gone, when they are potted with balls 

 entire ; but when the plants are to be divided, it is better deferred 

 until the young offsets have emitted their roots a few inches, they 

 may then be carefully separated from the parent, and potted in pots 

 of a smaller size. We have recovered unhealthy plants, by shaking 

 them out of the pot, and washing every particle of soil from the roots, 

 repotting them in the compost above named. 



ARTICLE II.— CULTURE OF THE DOUBLE POMEGRANATE, 



BY A DEVONIAN. 



Observing that the query of "C. S." in the March number of the 

 Cabinet, on the blooming of the Double Pomegranate, has not been 

 answered, I beg to forward this extract from Evelyn's Silva, which may 

 probably be useful to the enquirer. " There are of this glorious shrub 

 three sorts, easily enough educated under any warm shelter, even to 

 the raising hedges of them ; nor indeed effects it so much heat, as 

 plentiful watering. They supported a very severe winter in my 

 garden, 1663, without any trouble or artifice ; and if they present us 

 their blushing double flowers for the pains of recission and well pru- 

 ning, (for they must be deligently pruned of superfluous wood) it is 

 recompence enough. It is a Perdifolia in winter, and growing abroad, 

 requires no extraordinary rich earth, but that the mould be loosened 

 and eased about the root, and hearty compost applied in spring and 

 autumn ; thus cultivated, it will rise to a pretty tree. Tis best in- 

 creased by layers, approach and inarching (as they term it,) and is 

 said to marry with laurels, the damson, ash, almond, mulberry, citron, 

 too many I fear to hold. But after all they do best being eased, the 

 mould well mixed with rotten hogs-dung, its peculiar delight, and 

 kept to a single stem, and treated like other plants in the winter 

 shelter." There seems, however, to be some contradiction in the 

 quaint writer's statement, and most assuredly the plants do not re- 

 quire " the winter-shelter" (at least in the South of England) to in- 

 duce them to flower abundantly, but I know from experience, that 

 they are capricious bloomers, and very often the whole strength of 

 the plant is apparently engaged in the formation of countless bran- 



