940 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART HI. 



t. 183-2.; and our Jig. 664.) lias the flowers red; pulp of fruit red- 

 dish. Wild in Mauritania and the south of Europe, and enduring 

 even the coldest winters. (Dec. Prod., iii. p. 3.) 

 as P. G. 2 rubrum flora plena Trew Ehret., t. 71. f. 2., has double red 

 flowers. It is common in gardens, and is a little more impatient of 

 cold than the preceding variety. (Dec. Prod., iii. p. 4.) 

 a* P. G. 3 albescens Dec. Prod., iii! p. 4., Andr. Bot. Rep., t. 96. — Petals 

 white. Calyx slightly yellowish. Pulp of the fruit of a pale red. It 

 is cultivated in gardens, and is rather more tender than P. G. ru- 

 brum. (Dec. Prod., iii. p. 4.) 

 aa P. G. 4 albescens Jlore plcno Dec. has double flowers, which are nearly 

 white. It is cultivated in gardens, and is the tenderest of all the 

 forms of the species. (Dec. Prod., iii. p. 4.) 

 & P. G. ojldvum Hort. has the flowers yellow, but is rare in gardens. 

 Description, #c. A tree, in magnitude and ligneous character, bearing con- 

 siderable resemblance to the common hawthorn. In the south of France, and 

 in Spain and Italy, it grows to the height of 

 18 ft. or 20 h.; forming a very branchy 

 twiggy tree, seldom found with a clear stem, 

 unless it has been pruned up. In a wild 

 state, about Marseilles, it forms a thorny 

 bush; but, in the gardens about Nice and 

 Genoa, it is a very handsome small tree, 

 much admired both for its flowers and its 

 fruit. It is a native of Barbary, Persia, 

 Japan, and various parts of Asia ; and it has 

 been long introduced into the West Indies 

 and South America. In the Himalayas, 

 Mr. Royle informs us that the pomegranate 

 grows wild ; and, also, that it is planted near 

 villages. It forms quite a wood in Mazanderan, whence the dried seeds are ex- 

 ported for medicinal use. The famous pomegranates without seeds are grown in 

 the rich gardens, called Ballabagh, lying under the snowy hills near the Caubul 

 river. They are described as delicious about Hadgiabad, and throughout 

 Persia. " Though grown in most parts of India, large quantities, of a supe- 

 rior quality, are yearly brought down by the northern merchants from 

 Caubul, Cashmere, and Boodurwar." (Illust., p. 208.) At a very early period, 

 the pomegranate appears to have attracted the attention of mankind. It is 

 mentioned by Theophrastus under the name of Roa ; the Phoenicians named 

 it Sida; the Greeks, Cytinos; and the Romans, according to Pliny, Malus 

 Punica. The Jews appear to have held the tree in great veneration. It is 

 mentioned, in the Old Testament, as one of the fruits discovered in the Land 

 of Promise; and, while the Israelites sojourned in the wilderness, it was 

 selected as one of the ornaments to the robe of the ephod. The two large 

 pillars o^ brass, made by Hiram for the porch of Solomon's Temple, were 

 ornamented with earnings of the pomegranate; and, from other passages in 

 Holy Writ, a wine appears to have been made from it. Pliny speaks of 

 getting a colour from the flowers for dyeing cloth a light red. He mentions 

 nine varieties ; including the sweet, the sour, the temperate, the austere, and 

 the wine-flavoured. The rind of the sour kind, he says, is the best for tan- 

 ners and curriers to dress their leather with. The celebrated kingdom of 

 Granada is supposed to have derived its name from the trees planted in it by 

 the Moors ; which is rendered highly probable by the arms of the city of 

 Granada being a split pomegranate. The earliest mention of the pome- 

 granate in England is in Turner's Herbal, in 1548 ; but it was probably intro- 

 duced long before that time by the monks, and planted in the gardens of the 

 religious houses. For a long period, it was kept exclusively in houses, along 

 with orange trees ; and we find, accordingly, that it fruited in the orangery 

 if Charles L, as Parkinson informs us, under the care of Tradescant, when 



