54 THE USES OF PLANTS. 



The POMEGRANATE (Punica Granatum, L.) is a 

 Myrtaceous shrub, native to Western Asia, but 

 naturalized in the Mediterranean region. Its fruit, 

 which resembles a brown and rosy poppy-head, is 

 imported in increasing quantities, mainly from 

 Portugal. It consists of two tiers of red carpels 

 with pithy partitions and a leathery rind. 



The BANANA (Musa sapientum, L.) and the 

 PLANTAIN (M. paradisaica, L.), fruits of closely 

 allied prolific and gigantic Monocotyledonous plants, 

 which are rather herbaceous than arboreous, are most 

 important articles of food throughout the tropics, 

 and are very nutritious, containing nearly 20 per 

 cent, of sugar and pectose (the jelly-like substance 

 common in fruits), nearly 5 per cent, of nitrogenous, 

 or ' albuminoid ' matter, and only 74 per cent, of 

 water. Reference has already been made to the 

 increased importation of these fruits, gathered when 

 green, and to the proposed introduction of ' plantado 

 passado ' (see pp. 23-24). 



WATER-MELONS (Citrullus vulgaris, Schrad.), oval 

 dark-green Cucurbitaceous fruits, with white flesh, 

 are imported from the Mediterranean ; whilst a con- 

 siderable variety of Melons (Cucumis Melo, L.) are 

 cultivated under glass in this country. 



Among English-grown small fruits, the STRAW- 

 BERRY (Fragaria vesca y L.) is pre-eminent. It is 

 cultivated on an enormous scale in the north of 

 Kent, round Rochester, for the London market, near 

 Aberdeen, and elsewhere. In the same division of 

 the Rosaceae are the wild BLACKBERRY (Rubus 

 fruticosus, L.), which is collected for puddings and 



