BOOK T. 



POMEGRANATE, OLIVE. 



777 



SUBSECT. 2. 



and Rosacece, J 



Pomegranate. Punica Granatum, L. (Bot. Mag. 634.) Icos. Monog. L. 

 Grenadier, Fr. ; Granatenbaum, Ger. ; and Melagrano, Ital. 



5952. The pomegranate is a low deciduous tree, rising fifteen or twenty feet high, 

 thickly cloathed with twiggy branches, some of which are armed with sharp thorns. The 

 leaves are long and narrow, of a light shining green with red veins. The flowers are pro- 

 duced at the ends of the branches, in the shoots of the same year, single or three or four 

 together ; frequently one of the largest terminates the branch, and immediately under that 

 are two or three smaller buds, which continue a succession of flowers for some months, 

 generally from June to September. The calyx is very thick and fleshy, and of a fine red 

 color ; the petals are scarlet. The fruit is a berry covered with a hard coriaceous rind, 

 and beautifully crowned with the tube of the calyx, which is sharply toothed, and remains 

 even after the fruit is ripe, contributing greatly to its singular and beautiful appearance. 

 The fruit ripens in October, and, in a green-house, will hang on the trees till the spring 

 or summer following. It is a native of most parts of the south of Europe and of China. 

 In Languedoc, and some parts of Italy, it is used as a hedge plant. It was cultivated in 

 England in 1596, by Gerrard ; but though it grows very well in the open air, it seldom 

 ripens its fruit so as to render them worth any thing. It used formerly to be kept in 

 boxes, and housed like the orange-tree, which is still the practice near Paris and in the 

 Netherlands. Some of the orange and pomegranate trees in the orangery at Versailles, 

 Itisso informs us, are believed to be between two and three hundred years old. 



5953. Use. The fruit having an acid pulp is very refreshing, and is eaten like the 

 orange ; its singular and beautiful appearance contributes to the variety of the dessert. 

 It is used medicinally in fevers and inflammatory disorders ; being powerfully acid and 

 astringent. 



5954. Varieties. The Paris nurseries propagate the following sorts : those marked 

 thus (*) may be had in the London nurseries. 



The wild, or very acid-fruited 

 The suhacid-fruited, or cultivated* 

 The sweet-fruited 

 Large-flowered single red and white 



The semi-double, and double red and 



white* 



The yellow-flowered* 

 The variegated-flowered 



The proliferous ; in which a shoot 

 proceeds from the middle of the 

 hower. 



5955. Propagation. The single-flowering sorts may be raised from seed, and all the varieties by cuttings, 

 suckers, or layers, or by inoculation or grafting on the wild sort. The last is considered much the best 

 mode where fruit is the object; and the next best is by layers, but the common mode is by suckers, which 

 these plants send up abundantly. Inoculated plants, both of the single and double sorts, may be procured 

 from Genoa ; and this is the most desirable plan where the plant is to be cultivated for its fruit. 



5956. Culture. The directions given for raising and cultivating the orange-tree may be considered as 

 equally applicable to the pomegranate, which, with the olive, was formerly the common companion of 

 these trees in conservatories. Miller has observed, " that both the single and double pomegranate are 

 hardy enough to resist our most severe winters in the open air ; and that if planted against walls, the 

 former will often produce fruit, which ripen tolerably well in warm seasons, but ripening late, are seldom 

 well tasted." Where it is to be grown for fruit, therefore, either the standard or flat trained mode, under 

 glass, as recommended for oranges, should be adopted. A few trees may be introduced along with those 

 of the citrus tribe. 



Soil. Miller recommends a strong rich soil, in which he says, " they flower much better, and produce 

 more fruit than if planted on dry poor ground." In regard both to soil and mode of growth, the pome- 

 granate bears a close resemblance to the hawthorn. 



5957. Pruning and training. As already mentioned, the flowers of this tree always proceed from the 

 extremity of the branches produced the same year, hence all weak branches of the former year should be 

 cut out, and the stronger shortened, in order to obtain new shoots in every part of the tree. When the 

 trees are trained against a wall, the shoots having small leaves, may be laid in four or five inches asunder. 

 The -season for the winter pruning, Miller says, is about Michaelmas ; for if left till spring before they are 

 pruned, they seldom put out their shoots so early. In summer they require no other dressing than pinch- 

 ing off fore-right and over vigorous shoots, as it is the middling only which are fruitful. In a warm situ- 

 ation Miller obtained a great quantity of fruit from trained trees ; which, though not very well flavored, 

 were of full magnitude, and made a very handsome appearance on the trees. The double and other 

 varieties, cultivated for the sake of their flowers, should be primed, whether in boxes or against walls, on 

 the same principle. 



SUBSECT. 3. 



Olive. Olea Europcea, L. (Fl. Grate, i. t. 3.) Diand. Monog. L. and 

 Oleinai, B. P. Olive, Fr. ; Oehlbaum, Ger. ; and Uliva, Ital. 



5958. The olive is a low branchy evergreen tree, rising from twenty to thirty feet, with 

 stiff, narrow, bluish-green leaves. The flowers are produced in small axillary bunches 

 from wood of the former year, and appear in June, July, and August. The fruit is a 

 berried drupe of an oblong spheroidal form, hardish thick flesh, of a yellowish-green 

 color, but turning black when ripe. The tree is supposed to be originally from Greece ; 

 but it is now naturalised in the south of France, Italy, and Spain, where it has been exten- 

 sively cultivated for an unknown length of time, for the oil expressed from its fruit. The 

 tree attains an incredible age. Near Terni, in the vale of the cascade of Marmora, is a 

 plantation above two miles in extent, of very old trees, and supposed to be the same 

 plants mentioned by Pliny, as growing there in the first century. It appears to have 

 been cultivated in the botanic garden of Oxford, in 1648, and is generally treated as a 

 green-house plant. With protection from severe frost, Miller says, " it may be main- 



