266 PUNICA PURSHIA 



red, i to ij ins. across, scarcely stalked, terminal on short side twigs, 

 and often in pairs. Petals crumpled, normally five but often more; 

 calyx with five or more lobes, and a funnel-shaped base to which the 

 very numerous stamens are attached. Fruit rarely ripened in this 

 country, deep yellow, roundish, 2^ to 3 ins. across, with the calyx-lobes 

 adhering at the top, filled with a reddish, very juicy pulp and numerous 

 seeds. 



The pomegranate has been grown for its fruits in the south of Europe 

 and N. Africa eastwards to Persia, Palestine, and India from remote 

 antiquity. But it is probably only native of Persia and Afghanistan. 

 Its praises are recorded in the earliest songs and writings that have been 

 preserved to us. In the British Isles, where the tree has been grown for 

 perhaps four centuries, ripe fruit is denied us. In the open ground the 

 plant is killed back to ground-level in any but the mildest winters, and even 

 on wails, where it thrives well, lack of sunshine precludes the development 

 of palatable fruits. At the same time fruits are occasionally borne : in 

 1874, according to a letter preserved at Kew from Lady Rolle of Bicton, 

 a magnificent tree that covered the whole front of a house in Bath was 

 laden with fruit; and in 1911 fruits were produced, if not ripened, in 

 various parts of the south. Grown on a sunny south wall, it bears its 

 showy flowers quite freely from June to September, and is worth growing 

 for their sake. 



Var. ALBESCENS. Flowers white or yellowish. 



Var. FLORE PLENO. Flowers double red; the showiest form. 



Var. NANA (P. nana, Linnceus). Shrubby, with linear leaves. It 

 is often cultivated as a flowering plant on the Continent. 



The pomegranate can be raised from seeds, cuttings, or by grafting ; 

 the varieties by one of the two last methods; if grafted, seedling stocks 

 of the type should be used. In the gardens of Versailles, visitors will 

 have noticed growing in tubs many remarkable, very old pomegranate 

 trees, with gnarled, crooked trunks which to all appearance are as old as 

 the chateau itself. 



PURSHIA TRIDENTATA, De Candolle. ROSACES. 



(Bot. Reg., t. 1446.) 



A low deciduous grey shrub, 3 to 6 ft. high in cultivation, but occasion- 

 ally 10 ft. in a wild state; young branchlets downy. Leaves wedge-shaped 

 or obovate, \ to f in. long, \ to \ in. wide towards the apex, where it 

 is cut into three large, rounded teeth, tapering gradually towards the 

 base; covered with white down beneath; grey-green and downy above. 

 Flowers yellow, almost stalkless, produced in May, usually singly from 

 buds on twigs of the previous year's wood; calyx covered with grey 

 down, intermixed with gland-tipped hairs, funnel-shaped, five-lobed; 

 stamens numerous, arranged in a ring. Each flower in about \ in. wide. 

 Fruit |- in. long, downy, crowned with the persistent style. 



Native of Western N. America, from British Columbia to California ; 

 introduced by Douglas in 1826, first flowered in the Horticultural 



