THE BASPBERBY AND ITS ALLIES. 



tioned among the trees which fruited in tlie orange-house 

 of Charles I. It will, however, grow well here in the open 

 air, bearing its beautiful flowers in profusion, though 

 rarely ripening its fruit ; and the former becoming thus- 

 the principal object* of the cultivator, the kind most 

 usually grown is the double-flowered variety, which is 

 barren, but bears large red; yellow, or variegated blos- 

 soms, and attains sometimes a very great size, one trained 

 against the walls of Eulham Palace being at least 40 ft. 

 high and 50 ft. broad. In Prance the tree thrives well 

 and lives long, Bisso mentioning that some planted at 

 Versailles were two or three centuries old, but there they 

 will not well bear exposure to the open air during early 

 spring. 



A dwarf species of pomegranate, bearing very small 

 flowers and fruit, is indigenous to S. America and the 

 West Indies, but the ordinary sort has also been long 

 since introduced there, and in the latter place produces 

 larger and better fruit than in Europe ; while in Peru all 

 the hedges in some parts of the country are composed of 

 this plant, and are covered in due season with abundance 

 of beautiful fruit. It has also been introduced into the 

 States of N. America, and, though in the colder provinces 

 it requires to be grown on espaliers and protected in the 

 winter, it flourishes so well in the South that, were it 

 popularized, the Northern markets might be amply sup- 

 plied thence ; bat, a taste for it having never been culti- 

 vated, no demand has yet arisen. 



In the Natural System of Botany the pomegranate is 

 generally placed among the myrtle-blooms, though Lind- 

 ley is inclined to separate it from them on account of the 

 singular structure of the fruit, which is almost an indivi- 

 dual peculiarity. It, however, reckons among its near 

 relatives the delicious guava and the rose-apple of the- 

 East, as well as the pimento or allspice and the clove. 



