0303 



POMEGRANATE 



Family: MYRTACEAE [Translator's note: now classified in family Punicaceae.] 

 Reproductive system: ICOSANDRY, MONOGYNY. 



According to Linnaeus, the common pomegranate tree, Punica granatum, LINN., 

 originated in the vicinity of Carthage. [Translator's note: the genus name Punica is a 

 Latin name that refers to Carthage.] Some other botanists claim that it's from the kingdom 

 of Granada in Spain, where it grows abundantly. For several centuries it's been 

 acclimatized just as well in Provence as the apple tree has been in Normandy. It grows 

 twelve or fifteen feet tall; its very numerous branches are mostly near the top. The leaves 

 are small, smooth, opposite, lanceolate, entire, and reddish when new. The flowers, 

 situated at the ends of the branches, are a beautiful red but sometimes white. There's a 

 variety that has thorns at the ends of the branches and sour fruit. The calyx is fleshy, 

 leathery, red, funnel-shaped, and terminates in five or six divisions. The five or six petals 

 of the corolla are inserted in the calyx as well as a very large number of stamens. The 

 ovary is adherent and is crowned by a stigma at the top. The fruit is spherical with a 

 leathery skin, crowned by the divisions of the calyx and divided on the inside by a 

 transverse diaphragm into two unequal chambers; each one has compartments and a very 

 large number of seeds. 



FLOWERS: in July and in September. 



RANGE: the southern provinces of France, Italy, and Spain. 



NOMENCLATURE. German, der granatbaum, granatapfel. Dutch, granaatboom. 

 English, the pome-granate tree. Italian, melagrano. Spanish, granado. Russian, 

 granatnik, gratoschnoe derewo. Hungarian, poma granat. Arabic, rumman. Hebrew, 

 rimmon. 



