113 



N. Ord. LYTHRACE.E. 



Tribe Granatea. Le Maout & Dec., p. 435 (N. Ord.). 



Genus Punica,* Linn. B. & H., Gen., i, p. 784. There is bub 

 a single species. 



113. Punica Granatum,t Lin.n., 8p. Plant., ed. I, p. 472 (1753). 



Pomegranate. 



Figures. Woodville, t. 190; Hayne, x, t. 35; Steph. & Ch., t. 57; 

 Nees, t. 301 (double fls.) ; Berg & Soli., t. 3 a, b; Wight, Illust. Ind. 

 Bot., t. 97; PI. Graeca, t. 476; Bot. Mag., t. 1832; PI. Brasil., fasc. 

 18, t. 8, 9 (evolution of flowers). 



Description. A bush or small tree 10 15 feet high, with 

 straight, slender, somewhat angular branches, often with spiny 

 ends, bark pale brownish-grey, furrowed longitudinally; the 

 young shoots and buds red. Leaves usually opposite, sometimes 

 alternate, often fascicled on the older branches, shortly stalked, 

 without stipules, 1 2 inches long, oblong-ovate or lanceolate, 

 tapering at both ends, quite entire, rather thick and stiff, perfectly 

 smooth and shining, often persistent (half-evergreen). Flowers 

 large, solitary or 2 or 3 together in the axils of the leaves near 

 the end of the branches, very shortly stalked. Calyx large, 

 broadly tubular, over 1J inch long, thick and leathery, adherent 

 to the ovary below, cut into 5 7 thick, triangular, acute, valvate 

 lobes above, smooth, shining, scarlet. Petals 5 7, inserted in 

 the throat of the calyx and alternating with its lobes, spreading, 

 imbricate, crumpled, roundish, with a short broad claw crimson. 

 Stamens very numerous, free, inserted in several rows on the calyx- 

 tube below the petals, crowded, erect ; anthers ovoid, dorsifixed, 

 2-celled, introrse, yellow, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary com- 

 pletely amalgamated with the lower part of the calyx-tube, thick 

 and leathery, with two tiers of cells, the lower tier of 3 cells, the 



* Mains punica (the Lybian or Carthaginean apple) was the Latin name of 

 the tree ; the Greeks called it poid. 



f Granatum was also a classical name for the plant ; from the numerous 

 seeds (grana}. 



