PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
233 
The native home of the Pomegranate is not very certainly 
known, but the evidence chiefly points to the North of Africa. 
It was very early cultivated in Egypt, and was one of the 
Egyptian delicacies so fondly remembered by the Israelites in 
their desert wanderings, and is frequently met with in Egyptian 
sculpture. It was abundant in Palestine, and is often mentioned 
in the Bible, and always as an object of beauty and desire. 
It was highly appreciated by the Greeks and Romans, but it 
was probably not introduced into Italy in very early times, as 
Pliny is the first author that certainly mentions it, though some 
critics have supposed that the aurea mala and aurea poma of 
Virgil and Ovid were Pomegranates. From Italy the tree 
soon spread into other parts of Europe, taking with it its 
Roman name of Punka malus or Pomum gnanatum. Punka 
showed the country from which the Romans derived it, while 
gnanatum (full of grains) marked the special characteristic of 
the fruit that distinguished it from all other so-called Apples. 
Gerard says : “ Pomegranates grow in hot countries, towards 
the south in Italy, Spaine, and chiefly in the kingdom of 
Granada, which is thought to be so named of the great multi¬ 
tude of Pomegranates, which be commonly called Granatak 1 
This derivation is very doubtful, but was commonly accepted 
in Gerard’s day . 2 The Pomegranate lives and flowers well in 
England, but when it was first introduced is not recorded. I 
do not find it in the old vocabularies, but a prominent place 
is given to it in “that Gardeyn, wele wrought,” “the garden 
that so lyked me; 
“ There were, and that I wote fulle well. 
Of Pomgarnettys a fulle gret delle, 
That is a fruit fulle welle to lyke, 
Namely to folk whaune they ben sike .”—Romaunt of the Rose. 
1 In a Bill of Medicines furnished for the use of Edward I. 1306-7, is—■ 
“Item pro malis granatis vi. lx s. 
Item pro vino malorum granatorun xx lb., lx s.” 
Archeological Journal xiv. 27. 
2 See Prescott’s “Ferdinand and Isabella,” vol. iii. p. 346, note 
(Ed. 1849)—the arms of the city are a split Pomegranate, 
