THE POMEGRANATE FAMILY 



PUNICACEiE Horaninow 



TUNICACE^ consist of but i genus, with i or possibly 2 species of 

 small trees or shrubs with opposite branches, native of Persia and 

 adjacent countries. 



Plants of the Pomegranate Family have opposite or clustered 

 leathery leaves. The perfect flowers are large and showy, on stout peduncles, 

 solitaiy, or in clusters of 2 to 5 in the axils of the leaves. The calyx is joined to 

 the ovary, 5- to 7-lobed, and leathery. The corolla consists of 5 to 7 petals in- 

 serted in the throat of the calyx-tube; the stamens are numerous, in several seri'es, 

 inserted with the petals; filaments stout, the anthers ovate, attached at the middle; 

 the pistil consists of several united carpels; ovary several-celled, inferior, the styles 

 united, the stigmas somewhat lobed; the ovules are numerous, superimposed, in 

 2 series. The fruit is a several- celled, hard-shelled, leathery berry, capped with 

 the enlarged calyx; its septa are membranous; the seeds are numerous, more or 

 less angular, in a watery pulp, their coating leathery; the embryo has spirally con- 

 volute auricled cotyledons. 



POMEGRANATE 



GENUS PUNICA [TOURNEFORT] LINN.EUS 

 Species Punica Granatum Linnaeus' 



SMALL tree, cultivated in all wann temperate countries for its fine 

 fruit as well as for ornament. It is frequently naturalized in regions 

 where it has long been cultivated, and is so found in peninsular 

 Florida, where it occurs in sandy woods and waste places. It is a 

 much-branched small tree or shrub, reaching a height of 6 meters, and is also 

 known as- the Punic apple or Garnet apple. 



The bark is very thin, about 1 mm. thick, brownish gray, very shallowly re- 

 ticulated, yellowish within; the twigs are slender, angular, becoming rovmd, gray 

 to brown. The leaves are entire, leathery, elhptic, oblong or oblanceolate, i to 6 

 cm. long, blunt or pointed, rarely notched, tapering at the short-stalked base, Ught 

 green and prominently veined. The flowers are sohtary or in clusters; the calyx- 

 tube is bell-shaped, its lobes thick, leathery, triangular or triangular-lanceolate, 

 sharp-pointed; the petals are obovate to nearly orbicular, short-clawed, 1.5 to 2.5 

 cm. long, bright scarlet. The fruit, ripening in September, is globular or nearly 



712 



