132 POMEGRANATE. 



sionally, in very favorable situations, it grows to the height 

 of twenty feet; but this is rare. The trunk is of unequal 

 form, but has numerous branches. It sometimes bears thorns; 

 and the fruit is always crowned with the calyx of the flower, 

 presenting a peculiar appearance. When the fruit is cut 

 through, it is found to contain numerous wine-colored or red 

 globules, each enclosing a seed surrounded by a delicate and 

 tender skin, which bursts on a slight pressure, liberating a 

 cool and refreshing juice. Hence the simile of the ancients 

 which likened the fruit to the drops of the blood of Bacchus, 

 the god of wine. The Scriptural word rimmon is the name of 

 the pomegranate; and it is therefore thought that the Syrian 

 god Kimmon was the same as Bacchus. Both Plutarch and 

 Tacitus imagined that the Jews worshipped Bacchus, because 

 of the palm-tree branches carried in procession at the feast of 

 the tabernacle, combined with the offering of the pomegranate, 

 and also perhaps because the name Kimmon, that of one of 

 the Syrian gods, signified the fruit dedicated to Bacchus. From 

 the word punica (the Latin for Carthage, and the botanical 

 name for pomegranate) we may infer that its native land was 

 near Carthage; and this is generally supposed to be the fact, 

 as, according to Pliny, three kinds existed there, the white, 

 the red, and a larger and more astringent kind, seldom used 

 save in medicine. From this country the plant was introduced 

 among the Romans and throughout Europe. The ancients 

 called it the Carthaginian apple, perhaps only in allusion to 

 its abundant growth near Carthage. It grows wild upon the 

 shores of the Mediterranean, in Arabia, Persia, Bengal, China, 



