POMEGRANATE-TREE. 33Q 
2. P. g. rubrum flore pleno, Loudon. Double-flowering Red-flowered Pome- 
granate-tree, distinguished by its red double flowers, and reddish pulp. 
3. P. g. albescens, Loudon. White-petalled Pomegranate-tree, known by the 
white petals, and slightly yellowish calyx of its flowers, and by the pale-red 
tinge of the pulp of its fruit. 
4. P. g. albescens flore pleno, Loudon. Double-flowering wldte-petalled Pome- 
granate-tree, distinguished by its double flowers, which are nearly white. 
5. P. g. flavum, Loudon: Yellow -flowered Pomegranate-tree, has the flowers 
yellow, but very rare in gardens. 
6. P. g. nana, Loudon. Dwarf Pomegranate-tree ; Grenadier nain, of the 
French. This variety, which is usually treated as a species, is a native of the 
Caribbee Islands, and of South America, in the neighbourhood of Demerara. It 
may be distinguished by its shrubby stem, linear leaves, red flowers, and dwarfy 
habit, usually not exceeding five or six feet in height. 
Geography and History. The Punica granatum is indigenous to Barbary, 
Persia, Japan, and various parts of Asia ; and has long been naturalized in the 
south of Europe, the West Indies, Mexico, and in South America. In the Him- 
alayas, Mr. Royle informs us that the pomegranate grows wild ; and, also, that 
it is planted near villages. It forms quite a wood i-n Mazanderan, whence the 
dried seeds are exported for medical use. The famous seedless pomegranates are 
grown in the rich gardens lying under the snowy hills near the river Caubul. 
They are also described as delicious about Hadgiabad, and throughout Persia. 
" Though grown in most parts of India," says Mr. Royle, " large quantities, of 
superior quality, are yearly brought down by the northern merchants from Cau- 
bul, Cashmere, and Boodurwar." 
The pomegranate-tree, which partakes of the antiquity of the vine, the fig, and 
the olive, and which, in point of utility, is numbered with the grain-bearing 
plants, and with honey, all constituting the principal food of the eastern nations, 
in the early stages of civilization, must possess no small degree of historical 
interest. It is mentioned by Theophrastus under the name of roa ; the Phoeni- 
cians called it sida ; the Greeks, cytinos ; and the Romans, according to Pliny, 
mains punica. The Jews appear to have held the tree in great veneration, and 
still employ the fruit in their ceremonials. It is mentioned, in the Old Testa- 
ment, as one of the fruits discovered in the " Promised Land :" 
"A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and pomegranates; 
a land of oil olive, and honey ;" 
Deuteronomy, viii. 8. 
and, while the Israelites sojourned in the wilderness, it was selected as one of the 
ornaments to the. robe of the ephod. The two large pillars of brass, made by 
Hiram for the porch of Solomon's Temple, were ornamented with carvings of the 
pomegranate. In the Canticles, Solomon speaks of "an orchard of pomegran- 
ates, with pleasant fruits;" and, from other passages of Holy Writ, a wine 
appears to have been made from this fruit. In the ancient island Euboea, now 
Negropont, there was a statue of Juno, holding in one hand a sceptre, and in the 
other a pomegranate. Pliny speaks of extracting a colour from the flowers for 
dyeing cloth a light-red. He mentions nine varieties; including the sweet, the 
sour, the temperate, the austere, and the wine-flavoured. The rind of the sour 
kind, he says, is the best for tanners and curriers to dress their leather with. 
The celebrated kingdom of Granada is supposed to have derived its name from 
the trees planted in it by the Moors; which is rendered highly probable, by the 
arms of their capital being a split pomegranate. 
The earliest mention of the pomegranate in Britain, is in Turners " Herbal." 
in 1548; but it was probably introduced long before that time by the monks, and 
planted in the gardens of the religious houses. For a long period, it was kepi 
