216 
FLOWERS AND TLA NTS OF SCRIPTURE. 
FLOWERS AND PLANTS OF SCRIPTURE. 
THE POMEGRANATE. 
In the sacred text the pomegranate is 
generally believed to be indicated by the He- 
brew word Rimmon* which is not unf requent 
in the Old Testament. From the passages in 
which it is mentioned, it may be clearly seen 
that the pomegranate has, from the remotest 
historical ages, been held in very high esteem. 
It was one of the luxuries of Egypt, of the 
loss of which the murmuring Israelites com- 
plained in their wandering through the wilder- 
ness, which was " no place," they said, " of 
seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegra- 
nates." (Numb. xx. 5.) Antecedently to this, 
however, the pomegranate is mentioned as a 
decorative object, it being directed that the 
priest's robe should have " pomegranates of 
blue, and of purple, and of scarlet," worked 
round about the hem thereof. (JExod. 
xxviii. 33.) Subsequently the same object is 
employed in the decoration of the temple as 
an ornament to the pillars : " four hundred 
pomegranates on the two wreaths, two rows 
on each wreath" (2 Chron. iv. 13); "he 
made chains, and put them on the heads of the 
pillars, and made an hundred pomegranates, 
and put them on the chains." (2 Chron. iii. 16.) 
It is not at all surprising, when the beauty 
and utility as well as the familiarity of the 
pomegranate are taken into consideration, that 
it should be thus prominently employed among 
the Israelites. Their land was one " of vines 
and fig-trees and pomegranates," of which 
took the spies who " came unto the brook of 
* The Arabic name is Eooman. 
Eshcol." In Egypt it is probable that they 
made acquaintance with the plant in a culti- 
vated state, and there, no doubt, they had 
learned to know its virtues and its uses ; but 
in their own land the tree must have been 
indigenous, so pointed are the allusions to the 
vine, the fig-tree, the palm-tree, the pomegra- 
nate, and the olive-tree, as the glory and riches 
of the land. Saul, the first king of Israel, 
tarried " under a pomegranate-tree in Gibeah" 
(1 Sam. xiv. 2), while his more active son 
smote the Philistines' garrison. En Rimmon, 
the fountain of the pomegranate, is mentioned 
by more than one prophet. (Nehem. xi. 29 ; 
Zech. xiv. 10.) 
Solomon, in the book of Canticles, makes 
frequent allusion to the beauty and grateful 
qualities of this fruit. The beauty of the 
bursting fruit, when displaying the delicate 
colours of the pulpy grains, is doubtless re- 
ferred to in the passage : " As a piece of 
pomegranate are thy cheeks (temples) within 
thy locks" (Cant. vii. 7); and that of the 
flower-buds is present to the writer, when he 
says, " I went ... to see whether the pome- 
granates budded" (vii. 11); and again, "Let 
us get up early to the vineyards ; let us see 
. . . whether the tender grape appeal", and the 
pomegranates bud forth." (vii. 12.) Allusion 
is made to its cultivation : " Thy plants are 
an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant 
fruits " (iv. 13) ; and apparently to the ancient 
custom of pressing out the juice for wine or 
sherbet : " I would cause thee to drink of 
spiced wine, of the juice of my pomegranate." 
(viii. 2.) This wine of the pomegranate has 
been held to have been real wine. Indeed, 
it is stated that the art of making wine from 
the pomegranate is still practised in Persia, 
and according to Chardin, great quantities of 
it were made in his time, in that kingdom, 
both for home consumption and for expor- 
tation. 
Rimmon, the Hebrew name of the pome- 
granate, is mentioned as the title of a Syrian 
god. (2 Kingsw. 18.) It has been conjectured 
that this Rimmon is Bacchus ; for the poet 
priests of the Ionian Greeks feign that the 
pomegranate sprang from the blood-drops of 
Bacchus ; and Plutarch, describing the feasts 
of the Jews, imagines they were celebrated 
in honour of Bacchus, an opinion perhaps 
strengthened by the offerings of pomegranates 
and other fruits. Tacitus fancied that the 
Jews worshipped Bacchus, which error pro- 
bably arose from finding Bacchus Rimmon 
really a Syrian deity. Many of the heathen 
deities have been represented as holding the 
pomegranate. 
The pomegranate is called Punica grana- 
turn by botanists. It is widely distributed 
in an indigenous state, being a native of 
