"SWEET SUMMER BUDS" 215 



Pomegranate and Myrtle 



THE POMEGRANATE (Punica) is a regal 

 flower. Its burning beauty appeals to every one who 

 loves color, for the scarlet of the pomegranate has a 

 depth and a quality that is all its own. The crinkled 

 silken petals, rising from a thick, red calix and set off 

 by bright green leaves of wondrous glossy luster and 

 prickly thorns, delight those who love beauty. 

 Moreover, there is something luscious and strange 

 about the pomegranate that makes us think of Orien- 

 tal queens and the splendors of Babylon and Persia, 

 ancient Egypt and Carthage. It is a flower that 

 Dido might have worn in her hair, or Semiramis in 

 garlands around her neck ! 



Shakespeare knew perfectly well what he was 

 doing when he placed a pomegranate beneath 

 Juliet's window, amid whose leaves and flowers the 

 nightingale sang so beautifully. The pomegranate 

 was exactly the flower to typify the glowing passion 

 of the youthful lovers. 



"There are two kinds of pomegranate trees," 

 writes Parkinson, "the one tame or manured, bearing 

 fruit; the other wild, which beareth no fruit, be- 



