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nente the corrupte matter wylle dissolve ” (Alexis, 
i. 34, in d.). 
Once only is the lemon ( Citrus acida, L.) referred 
to, and that in Love s Labour s Lost , V. ii. 653. It is 
closely allied to the orange, but a native of the conti¬ 
nent of Asia. The word is derived from its Armenian 
name, laimun ; French, limon. It was introduced 
into Europe in much the same way and about the 
same time as the orange. 
The pomegranate is mentioned three times by the 
poet, first in the humorous lines : 
Go to, sir, you were beaten in Italy for picking a kernel 
out of a pomegranate. 
All's Well that Ends Well , II. iii. 275. 
And twice in reference to the shrub, once in 
1 Henry IV., II. iv. 41, and again in Romeo and 
Juliet , III. v. 4 : 
It was the nightingale, and not the lark, 
That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear ; 
Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate-tree. 
No tree exceeds the pomegranate ( Punica Grana- 
tum, L.) in beauty ; none has a richer history or 
has been more admired and loved. Far back in the 
earliest palaces of Assyria and Babylonia we find it 
used as a mysterious and sacred decoration on the 
robes of deities and demi-gods. From thence it was 
carried into the Jewish worship and religion, both of 
tabernacle and temple. Nor was it any the less 
beloved and honoured in Egypt. It has a place, 
moreover, in English heraldry as the royal badge of 
Katherine of Arragon, who derived it from the armes 
parlantes of Grenada, Argent, a pomegranate vert 
(now gules), seeded and slipped proper. Turner, in 
