PUNICA GRANATUM. 
101 
rous, tomentose, doubly and irregularly pinnate, and supported upon 
long footstalks ; the pinnze are linear, lonsj, narrow, entire, concave 
on the upper surface, and convex beneath ; the flowers are small, of 
a yellowish colour, grow in close spikes, terminating the branches, 
and in their strm ture resemble those of the Artemisia Absinthium; 
the seeds are solitary and naked. 
Qualities and Chemical Properties. The leaves and tops 
have a very powerful and, to most persons, a very agreeable odour ; 
the taste is bitter, pungent and nauseous. These qualities are 
extracted both by water and spirit ; to the latter, they give a very 
beautiful green colour; the watery infusion is of a brown colour, and 
turns black by the addition of sulphate of iron. In distillation with 
water, they yitdd a small quantity of essential oil of a yellow colour: * 
viz. five or six pounds about one drachm of oil. 
Off. The Leaves. 
_ » . 
PUNICA GRANATUM. 
Pomegranate Tree,'\ 
Class IcoSANDRiA. — Order Monogynia. 
Nat. Ord. Pomaces, Linn. Myrt^, Juss. 
Gen. Char. Ca/yx 5-cleft, superior. Petals 5. Pome many- 
celled, many seeded. 
Spec. Char. Leaves lanceolate. Stem arboreous. 
This species of Punica, according to Dierbach,]: is the iro« f/Jvj 
of Hippocrates. It is a native of Persia, Barbary, Arabia, and 
Js-pan, and also of the southern part of Europe ; in the East and 
West Indies it is now much cultivated, and in the latter country 
produces fruit of the finest quality. We are informed by Olivier, in 
* The medical properties of this plant agree so nearly with those of the other 
species of Artemisia, and it is now so seldom prescribed, that we think it unnecessary 
to swell onr pages with an enumeration of its supposed virtues. Ed. 
t Fig. a. represents the leaves and flowers of the natural size', b. The fruit cut open 
to shew the pulp. c. An anther somewhat magnified. 
t Vide Dierbach's Materia Medica of Hippocrates, c. iv. 
