Grenadine. This is a crystalline substance procured from pomegranate bark. It is neutral, that is to 
say, neither acid nor alkaline, and so sweet that it might be taken for a sort of sugar ; but it does not 
possess the property of fermenting. Magendie says, he is not aware that grenadine has been tried as a 
vermifuge. “ Cette epreuve serait cependant curieuse a tenter.” 
Sir Thomas Elyot tells us, in his Castle of Health, that “ pomegranates be of good juice, and profitable 
to the stomach ; specially they which are sweet.” They are also agreeable to the palate, in our opinion ; 
but on this there is some division of sentiment. Whether delicious or not, however, the mere taste of a 
pomegranate once decided the fate of a goddess, if there be any truth in Ovid. 
When Pluto had carried off Proserpine, her mother Ceres was desirous to recover the fair bride ; on 
which she was informed by Jupiter that though the match was far from a bad one, Proserpine was still 
recoverable, provided she had eaten nothing in the shades below. Unluckily, however, she had eaten seven 
pomegranate seeds ; and one Ascalaphus turned informer against her. As a punishment for his shabbiness, 
the Queen of Erebus changed him into an owl. We subjoin the latter part of the story in the original, for 
the gratification of our classical readers. + 
In Romeo and Juliet, the nightingale is represented as singing on the pomegranate tree ; the most 
melodious of birds on one of the most graceful of trees ! 
Jul. Wilt thou be gone ? it is not yet near day ; I Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate tree : 
It was the nightingale, and not the lark, Believe me, love, it was the nightingale. 
That pierc’d the fearful hollow of thine ear ; | Act iii. Scene 5. 
The pomegranate is not forgotten by Thomson, 
on the goddess of orchards to refresh him amidst the 
Bear me, Pomona, to thy citron groves ; 
To where the lemon and the piercing lime, 
With the deep orange, glowing through the green, 
Their lighter glories blend. Lay me reclin’d 
Beneath the spreading tamarind that shakes, 
Fann’d by the breeze, its fever-cooling fruit. 
Deep in the night the massy locust sheds, 
Quench my hot limbs ; or lead me through the maze, 
Embowering endless, of the Indian tig ; 
Or thrown at gayer ease, on some fair brow, 
Let me behold, by breezy murmurs cool’d, 
in that fruity passage of his Summer, where he calls 
heat of the torrid zone. 
Broad o’er my head the verdant cedar wave, 
And high palmettoes lift their graceful shade. 
Oh ! stretch’d amid these orchards of the sun, 
Give me to drain the cocoa’s milky bowl, 
And from the palm to draw its freshening wine ! 
More bounteous far than all the frantic juice 
Which Bacchus pours. Nor, on its slender twigs 
Low-bending, be the full pomegranate scorn’d ; 
Nor, creeping through the woods, the gelid race 
Of berries. 
“ King Xerxes cutting an oddly great pomegranate, and beholding it fair and full of kernels, said in the 
presence of all his council, he had lever (rather) have one such friend as Zopyrus was, than as many 
Babylons as there were kernels in the pomegranate.” (Sib T. Elyot. Governor.) 
Soil, Situation, Propagation, &c. The single wild pomegranate will grow in almost any soil ; but 
the double flowered varieties, and the species when it is intended to bear fruit, require a rich free soil. The 
double flowering pomegranate trees, grown in boxes by the French gardeners, are planted in the very richest 
soil that can be composed, and a portion of this soil is renewed every year when the roots are severally 
pruned. The head, also, is thinned out, and so cut as to multiply, as much as possible, short slender 
shoots ; on the points of which alone the flowers are produced. In training the pomegranate against a 
wall in England, it is necessary to keep this constantly in view ; for, if these slender shoots are cut off, no 
flowers will ever be produced. The plant is easily propagated by cuttings of the shoots or of the roots by layers. 
t Dixerat : at Cereri certum est educere natam. 
Non ita fata sinunt ; quoniam jejunia virgo 
Solverat ; et cultis dum simplex errat in hortis, 
Pceniceum curva decerpserat arbore pomum, 
Sumtaque pallenti septem de cortice grana 
Presserat ore suo ; solusque ex omnibus illud 
Viderat Ascalaphus, quern quondam dicitur Orphne 
Inter Avernales haud ignotissima Nymphas, 
Ex Acheronte suo furvis peperisse sub antris : 
Vidit, et indicio reditum crudelis ademit. 
Ingemuit regina Erebi ; testemque profanum 
Fecit avem ; sparsumque caput Phlegethontide lympha 
In rostrum, et plumas, et grandia lumina vertit. 
I He sibi ablatus fulvis amicitur ab alis, 
Inque caput crescit, longosque reflectitur ungues, 
Vixque movet natas per inertia bracliia pennas, 
Foedaque fit volucris, venturi nuntia luctus, 
Ignavus bubo, dirum mortalibus omen. 
Ovid. Metam. Lib. v. v. 533 — 550. 
