PROCEEDINGS OF THE HORTICULTURAL ASSOCIATION C83 



for the adorning of the tcini)lo and tlie vestments of the priests. Solomon 

 Bpeaks of it as a fruit from wliich wine was made, and also uses it symbol- 

 ically as representing^ certain graces of his beloved: "Thy temples are 

 like a piece of pomegranate within Thy locks." 



Pliny informs us that it was first found near Carthage, but so well did it 

 succeed in the climate of Greece, that that country became noted for its rich 

 crops of this fruit. It of course figures in their mythological story. When 

 Ceres discovered that Pluto had stolen her daughter Proserpine, and carried 

 her off to the infernal regions, she earnestly implored Jupiter to restore 

 her, and he consented, provided she had not eaten anything during her stay 

 in the infernal regions. Unfortunately, whilst walking in the Elysian 

 fields, she had plucked a pomegranate and eaten seven of its seeds. This 

 was observed by Ascalphus, who told Pluto of it, which so eni'aged Ceres 

 that she turned Ascalphus into an owl. 



Another legend is, that a ytjung Scythian girl was told by some divines 

 tj^at she should wear a crown. Upon this she became very proud and vain, 

 and, by promising to give her a crown, Bacchus had no difficulty in seduc- 

 ing her. lie soon tired of her and abandoned her, upon which she died of 

 grief; he then metamorphosed her into a pomegranate tree, on the top of 

 the fruit of which he affixed a crown, thus tardily and ambiguously redeem- 

 ing his promise. 



Still another story is that the Athenians and Boetians had a di-spute respect- 

 ing a place on their borders called Side. Epaminondas took a pomegranate 

 from under his robe and asked the Athenians what they called it. They 

 answered Rhoa. Very good, said Epaminondas, we call it Side, and as the 

 place takes its name from the quantity of this fruit which grows there, it is 

 clear that the place belongs to us, and the cause was decided in favor of ihe 

 Boetians. 



The myrtle is eminently Grecian in its associations, and among the ancients 

 it was a universal favorite. By them it was held sacred to Venus, who was 

 said to have sprung from the sea, crowned with a wreath of myrtle, and by 

 some of the Greelis was worshiped under the name of myrtilla. The priests 

 of Venus Aphrodite always wore circlets of myrtle on their foreheads, and 

 her temples were always surrounded by myrtle plants. At the festival of 

 Europa, at Corinth, a crown of myrtle, ten yards in circumferepce, was 

 always carried in procession. It was also worn by the Athenian magistrates 

 as symbols of their authority, and by the Olympian victors as symbols of their 

 bloodless triumphs. 



The myrtle was associated with the olive in the regards of Minerva, for 

 Myrsine, an Attic maid, who surpassed all other maidens in beauty, and ex- 

 celled all the young men in strength, had made herself very acceptable to the 

 Goddess of Wisdom. "Myrsine, being murdered from envy by some of those 

 whom she had overcome in the palestra and in the race course, was turned 

 into a myrtle tree, so that the myrtle is not less acceptable to Minerva than 

 the olive tree. 



But another story is that Myrsine, suffering her love to overcome her wis- 

 dom, offended Minerva, who turned her into a myrtle, when Venus, from .sym- 

 pathy, took the plant under her care. 



