MYRTLE AND EUCALYPTUS. 81 



the bright Eastern god who " died and rose again," 

 the Syrian Adonis. This was the mystic " apple " 

 adjudged by the Shepherd of Mt. Ida to the great 

 goddess whose power no mortal can withstand. This 

 same " Forbidden Fruit " of Eden brought sorrow to 

 our race, as the legend runs ; and the six seeds 

 sufficed to bind Persephone to six months of wintry 

 woe. The Pomegranate, like every other cosmogonic 

 tree, including the Christian Cross, was both sacred 

 and accursed ; the leaf was chewed to purge the soul 

 from sin. It was thus both a tree of life and a tree 

 of death. 



Those blue, purple, and scarlet " Pomegranates," 

 alternating with golden bells in Exodus xxviii. 33 

 are considered to be a distortion of the Egyptian 

 lotus-flower (Flinders Petrie). 



The generic name " Punica " testifies that we 

 have received this plant, like so many others, either 

 from Phoenicia, or from Carthage, a Phoenician 

 colony. The ancient Moorish capital of Spain recalls 

 the specific name " Granatum " ; and the fruit figures 

 in the arms of the city. From the Greek name for 

 the flower Browning has taken the title of his poem 

 " Balaustion." The blossoms are scarlet or white. 

 The oriflamme is commoner than the pale flag of 

 truce. The trees which I have examined bear a 

 large number of staminate flowers which fall off, and 

 only a few pistillate ones. Thus the Pomegranate 

 produces much less fruit than any one would expect 

 from the show of blossom. It is said that nightin- 

 gales prefer the Pomegranate to all other trees. 

 Canon Eliacombe, author of "In a Gloucestershire 

 Garden," calls attention to the fact that Shakespeare 



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