N. 0. LYTHRA0E.E. 
569 
to petals ; with here and there an abortive anther or anthers ; 
the second is the variety which bears hermaphrodite flowers 
finally hearing fruit. Branchlets round, often spinescent. 
“ Bark grey, thin, peeling off in small flakes. Wood light-yellow, 
with a small dark-coloured, irregular heartwood, hard, compact, 
and close-grained ” (Gamble). Brandis says the tree is deci- 
duous. Leaves opposite, often fascicled on arrested branches 
commonly l-3in. long by |-fin. broad, narrower at both ends, 
oblong-lanceolate or oblanceolate, obtuse, narrowed into a slender 
petiole, intra-marginal nerve distinct or obscure. Hermaphrodite 
flowers shortly pedicelled, axillary, solitary or somewhat clus- 
tered large orange red. Calyx-tube funnel-shaped, coriaceous, 
adnate to the ovary below, enlarged above the ovary ; lobes 
5-7 persistent on the fruit. Petals ^in., inserted in the mouth 
of the Calyx-tube crumpled in bud. Stamens numerous, insert- 
ed at different levels below the petals, anther-cells attached 
to the edges of a broad connective. Style long, bent. Stigma 
capitate. Carpels in several tiers on the -inside of a hollow 
receptacle, here called Calyx-tube. Ovules numerous, placentas 
in some cells axile, in others parietal. Carpels coalesce early 
and form a large globose indehiscent fruit crowned by the 
persistent Calyx and containing under a coriaceous rind two 
tiers of cells, 3in. the lower, 5-9in., the upper, tier. Seeds 
numerous in each cell, and surrounded by red juice. Cotyledons 
foliacious, spirally convolute. 
“ An anomalous genus allied to Myrtacece through Psidlum, and to Rosacece 
through Oydonia." (Duthie). 
Uses : — Hindoo physicians use the fresh juice of the fruits 
as an ingredient of cooling and refrigerant mixtures of some 
medicines for dyspepsia. They also use the rind of the fruit 
and the flowers, combined with aromatics, such as cloves, 
cinnamon, coriander, pepper, etc., as a bowel astr ingent in 
diarrhoea. The seeds are considered to be stomachic, the 
pulp cardiac and stomachic. No notice is to be found of the 
medicinal use of the pomegranate root-bark in Sanskrit works 
(U. C. Dutt). 
The Arabs recommend the root-bark as being the most 
astringent part of the plant, and a perfect specific in cases of 
73 
