VEGETABLE FIBRE. 
217 
Asia, from Syria througli Persia to the moun- 
tains of northern India. The pomegranate 
forests of Mazenderan, in Persia, furnish great 
part of the dried seeds, so favourite a medicine 
in the East ; and the hite Sir A. Burnes states, 
that the famous pomegranates without seeds 
are grown in gardens under the snowy hills 
near the River Cabul. On the Himalaya 
mountains, there is a small wild sort, whose 
root is especially esteemed in medicine. It 
is common to northern Africa, and according 
to Pliny especially in the neighbourhood of 
Carthage ; in fact, the name Punica indicates 
whence the pomegranate was first brought 
to Europe by the Romans. If not indigenous 
to, it is at least naturalized in the south of 
Europe. The English name of pomegranate 
is derived from the jiommn granatum (grained 
apple) of the Eomans. 
In favourable climates the pomegranate 
forms a handsome small tree of from fifteen 
to thirty feet high, bearing some resemblance 
in its ligneous character to the common haw- 
thorn. In less favourable localities it forms a 
thorny bush. In England, it is usually trained 
against a wall, where it covers, under favour- 
able conditions, a considerable space, and has 
a very beautiful appearance during the sum- 
mer season. It is a deciduous tree, with 
oblong or lance-shaped bright green shining 
foliage, and conspiuous blossoms of a crimson 
hue, the succulent fleshy calyx having a tur- 
binate tube, forming as it were a " solid 
crimson cup ; " the petals are of the same rich 
colour, but more fugitive, membranous, and 
much crumpled. These flowers are succeeded 
by large spherical fruit, which are crowned 
by the prominent hardened tube of the calyx, 
and are in the interior divided horizontally into 
two compartments, forming several irregular 
cells, enclosing numerous seeds covered with 
pellucid pleasant tasted grain-like pulp. Its 
flowers and foliage render it an object of 
attraction in gardens, and its fruit imparts 
to it a still higher value in those temperate 
climates where it thrives and is productive. 
The pulpy grains of the fruit are sometimes 
eaten alone, sometimes with sugar ; or the 
juice is pressed out, as already alluded to, and 
made into wine or one of the esteemed sherbets 
of the East. 
In medicine various parts of the plants are 
employed. The bark of the root is power- 
fully anthelmintic ; the flowers are tonic and 
astringent, as also especially is the bark of the 
fruit, which is useful in diarrhoea and advanced 
stages of dysentery. The juice of the interior 
of the fruit is useful in bilous fevers, tlie pulp 
being sub-acid and gently laxative, allaying 
heat, and quenching thirst. In the arts, besides 
its early employment as a model for the carver, 
the sculptor, and the decorator, the pomegranate 
has furnished in the rind of its fruit a mate- 
rial preferred to any other substance for 
tanning and preparing thefiner kinds of leather. 
This part is also used as a dye. The fruit of 
the pomegranate is agreeable, and wholesome 
if taken in moderation, the pulpy interior 
being the part chiefly eaten. 
The pomegranate will grow in any good 
garden soil ; but for the production either of 
blossoms, or fruit, it should have a rich loamy 
compost. It should be planted and trained 
against a wall, of which the south and v/est 
aspects are preferable. The plant is propa- 
gated by cuttings or layers ; the choicer vari- 
eties by grafting on the common sort, which 
causes them to flower better than when grow- 
ing on their own roots. The varieties are the 
single red, which is the hardiest ; the double 
red (I'uhrum flore-'pleno), and the white 
(cdbescens), which are more tender ; the double 
white {albescens Jlore-j)Ieno), v,^hida. is tenderest 
of all ; and the yellow {Jiavum), a very rare 
kind. The tender varieties require some pro- 
tection. The double red is the handsomest 
variety for cultivation. 
VEGETABLE PIBEE, 
"We quote the following interesting account 
of certain kinds of vegetable fibre from the 
Journal of Botany, edited by Sir W. J. 
Hooker. This work has recently assumed a 
new form, coincident with a reduction of its 
price, and may now be classed among the 
number of those which are labouring to popu- 
larize science. We are gratified in being able 
to speak of it in terms of approbation. The 
extracts which follow will give some idea of 
the nature of its contents. Interesting in 
itself, the subject is rendered still more so by 
the association of the facts, which show that 
families of plants exceedingly different are 
rendered subservient to the wants of mankind 
in the manufacture of textile fabrics. 
" Jute : Fibres of Corchorus capsu- 
LARis. — Time was, when hemp and flax 
yielded almost, if not altogether, the only 
vegetable fibre largely manufactured in Great 
Britain into cloth, cordage, &c. It would be 
intei'esting to give a list of the various kinds 
that are now in use, and still more interesting 
to speculate on the numerous kinds which 
may yet be added to that list from various 
parts of the world, the introduction of which 
does not appear in any way to diminish the 
consumption of the original kinds, hemp and 
flax. A few of these we shall at present take 
occasion to mention. 
" One compartment of a glazed case in the 
Botanical Museum [in the Royal Garden of 
Kew] is occupied by specimens of an exceed- 
ingly long, glossy Indian fibre, named ' Jute,'' 
