64 



THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



The commonest fig of the southern Cahfornia countryside 

 is of the black mission stock brought in by the Spanish padres, 

 but its fruit does not dry so well as the Syrian or Smyrna fig 

 which is of comparatively recent introduction. The dweller in a 

 land of figs, however, does not wait to have them dried before 

 eating them ; he plucks the fresh fruit when ripe, peels back the 

 outer skin and eats the rosy, seedy, pulpy interior immediately. 

 It possesses a mild, sweetish taste which to most palates is pleas- 

 ant enough without any addition, but at the table it is usually 

 served with cream and sugar. That the Israelites of old must 

 have had a fondness for the fresh fig is attested by that figiu'e of 

 the prophet Nahum : "All thy fortresses shall be like fig-trees 

 with the first-ripe figs : if they be shaken, they fall into the 

 mouth of the eater." 



The pomegranate is another typical Old Testament fruit 

 that thrives well in southern California. The Spanish settlers 

 of southern California had an oriental fondness for the pome- 

 granate, and it grows in all old-time gardens, the glossy green 

 foliage lighted up in early summer with the brilliant scarlet 

 flowers and the branches loaded in autumn with the rusty- 

 orange, hard-husked fruit. Often the plant is set in hedges that 

 line the higliway, and at times neglected bushes of it are found 

 growing solitary by a road which has been cut through some 

 old rancho. The exceeding seediness of the pomegranate is a 

 drawback to the enjoyment of it, and most Americans are in too 

 much haste to devote time to its consumption. Its thin, watery 

 pulp, however, has a peculiar quality especially grateful in a 

 warm climate, and the wonderful colors of its lovely, crumpled 

 petals and of the fruit appeal to the sense of the beautiful in us 

 today as strongly as they did to the ancient artists who sculp- 

 tured its forms upon the temple of Solomon and embroidered 

 them into the hem of Aaron's priestly vestment. — C. F. Saun- 

 ders, in Fomard. 



