CHAPTER XIII 

 THE POMEGRANATE AND THE JUJUBE 



THE pomegranate and jujube are not closely related botani- 

 cally, but the cultural requirements are similar. The pome- 

 granate is the only genus of its family (the Punicacese), while 

 the jujube (genus Zizyphus) is one of 40 or 50 genera of the 

 Rhamnacese or Buckthorn family. 



THE POMEGRANATE (Plate XXII) 

 (Punica Granatum, L.) 



"Eat the pomegranate," sententiously said the prophet 

 Muhammad, "for it purges the system of envy and hatred." 

 Far earlier than in the days of Muhammad, however, was this 

 fruit esteemed in the Orient. King Solomon possessed an 

 orchard of pomegranate bushes; and when the Children of 

 Israel, wandering in the Wilderness, sighed for the abandoned 

 comforts of Egypt, the cooling pomegranates, along with figs 

 and grapes, were remembered as longingly as the fleshpots. 



It is with the grape and the fig that the pomegranate has 

 been associated since the earliest times ; but while in the East 

 it still vies with them in popularity and importance, in America 

 it occupies a minor position. Probably this is due : first, to 

 the abundance here of other good fruits ; and, secondly, to 

 something in the character of the pomegranate which makes it 

 particularly agreeable to inhabitants of hot arid regions. 

 For this latter reason it might appeal in this country to a rela- 

 tively small number; but even in the desert valleys of Cali- 



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