AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 419 



25. ICKWORTH. 



tig. 290. Tree of moderate vigor and 



a fair bearer. 



Young branches smooth and 

 somewhat slender. 



Fruit medium to large, obo- 

 vate ; purple, with irregular 

 tracings of light fawn color. 



Flesh greenish-yellow, rich, 

 juicy, and very good, becoming 

 sugary with keeping ; clings to 

 the stone. Ripens in October, 

 and may be kept in a dry room 

 for several weeks, or sometimes 

 months, if wrapped singly and 

 carefully in paper. 



This valuable late plum is a 

 somewhat recent English vari- 

 ety, usually called Ickworth 

 Imperatrice ; but as we have 

 already a " Blue Imperatrice," the latter name is dropped. 



THE POMEGRANATE. 



The wild Pomegranate of Europe and China is of a sharp 

 acid flavor, but the cultivated kinds are subacid or sweet. 



The fruit is of ordinary peach size or larger, and contains 

 numerous red seeds, and a juicy pulp of pleasant flavor, cooling 

 and excellent for use in fevers, etc. It has a tough skin, but 

 its yellow color and red cheek, with its large calyx eye or 

 crown, render it very beautiful. It grows well with less care 

 than the orange-tree in the latitude of 40 north, fruiting 

 freely in Maryland and Virginia, but not ripening its crop 

 with certainty farther north than the Carolinas. 



The tree is pretty, having small lance-formed leaves, with 

 reddish veins. It grows about twenty feet high at the most, 

 and bears a profusion of showy scarlet flowers. There is also 

 a double-flowering scarlot variety, which is still more orna- 



