POMEGEANATE TREE. 



PUNICA GRANATUM. 



ICOSANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 



French, grenadier ; Italian, melagrano, pomogranato. 



THE Common Pomegranate tree grows eighteen or 

 twenty feet high, sending out branches all the way, 

 which also are garnished with many slender twigs, 

 making it altogether very thick and bushy. The leaves 

 are about three inches long, and half an inch broad in 

 the middle, drawing to a point at each end ; they are of 

 a lucid green, and opposite in pairs. The flowers are of 

 the most brilliant scarlet colour, and it is chiefly on their 

 account that the tree is cultivated in English nurseries, 

 for the fruit seldom comes to perfection in this country. 

 The Double-flowered variety is therefore the most de- 

 sirable, and this is often covered with its large beautiful 

 scarlet blossoms for two or three months. 



It is a native of Spain, Portugal, Italy, Barbary, 

 Persia, Japan, China, &c. In the West Indies, where 

 it is supposed to have been introduced from Europe, the 

 fruit is larger, and better flavoured than elsewhere. 



The Dwarf Pomegranate, Punica nana, is a native of 

 the West Indies, and requires a green-house, winter and 

 summer, in this country. 



We no sooner cut open a Pomegranate, than we per- 

 ceive how descriptively appropriate is the name Pome- 

 granate, seeded fruit ; and so beautiful are these scarlet 



