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duration. Dr. Fothergill is considered to have introduced this native of China, which he cultivated in 1780. The Japan crab, or quince, (Pyrus, or Cydonia Japonica,) was brought here about 1796; but it was described as a very rare plant in the Botanical Magazine of 1803. Its blossoms are of a deep red, and its flowers succeed each other during many months. The white variety of the Pyrus Japonica is a yet more recent introduction. It blooms abundantly in April and May; and as it will grow in almost any soil, and may be increased by layers and cuttings, is very valuable as an ornamental tree. The Pyrus pollveria (figured in Loddiges' Botanical Cabinet, vol. xi.) is a native of Germany. Its flowers are beautiful, and its fruit not unpleasant. The Pyrus salicifolia is said to have been introduced into this country by Pallas, the celebrated naturalist. He found it in sandy deserts, between the rivers Terec and Cuma. It grows also on Caucasus and in Persia. With us it is a small tree, with pendulous branches, and beautiful silvery leaves *.

THE MEDLAR-Mespilus Germanica.

The medlar is a fruit resembling the smaller apples, and has a good deal of flavour, but is not fit for use until it is very ripe. This ripeness is seldom or never attained while the fruit remains on the tree. It is generally understood to be a native of the south of Europe; but it has been naturalized, though rarely, in the hedgerows in England.

The common medlar is a middle or small-sized branching tree; covered with spines in the wild state, and having ash-coloured bark. In Sicily, according

*Loddiges' Cabinet, vol. xii.

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to Miller, it rises to be a large tree, with a straight stem, and the fruit shaped like a pear. The Dutch medlar, which is the kind most cultivated in England, does not reach a great height, and is crooked and unsightly in the branches. The leaves are much larger than those of the common medlar, and they are downy on their under sides. The fruit, also, is larger, and so are the flowers; but it is inferior in pungency and flavour to the smaller sort, which is known by the name of the Nottingham medlar.

The timber of the medlar is very hard and durable. The tree is also rather a slow grower, and lasts to a great age.

CHAPTER II.

PULPY FRUITS BORNE BY SHRUBS AND TREES.POMEGRANATE; FIG; VINE.

PULPY fruits are distinguished from others by the softness of their texture, in which the seeds lie imbedded. They differ very much among themselves in botanical characters, some being berries, others pulpy receptacles; but the arrangement is sufficiently precise for our purpose.

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THE POMEGRANATE-Punica Granatum.

Before the peach, the nectarine, and the apricot had travelled from Persia to the more Western countries on the borders of the Red Sea, the pomegranate was there assiduously cultivated, and held in the greatest esteem. In the wilderness, when the children of Israel murmured for the fruits of Egypt,

they exclaimed, "It is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates." On the borders of the promised land, Moses described it as "a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil-olive, and honey." In the Canticles, Solomon speaks of “ an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits." A tree, therefore, which partakes of the antiquity of the vine, the fig, and the olive,—and which, in point of utility, is numbered with the grain-bearing plants, and with honey, all constituting the principal food of the nations of antiquity, in their early stages of civilization,-must possess a considerable historical interest. It is probable that the pomegranate, differing from the stone fruits, travelled from the West to the East. Pliny says that it is a native of Carthage, as its name (Punica Granatum) imports. Yet as it is found wild in the same botanical regions of Europe,-that is, in countries having the same temperature as the northern coasts of Africa,-it is probably indigenous there also. It is still common in Barbary, (where, according to Shaw, the fruit often weighs a pound, and is three or four inches in diameter *,) in the south of France, in Italy, in Spain, and throughout the East. The Jews employ the fruit in their religious ceremonials; and it has entered into the heathen mythology for in the isle of Euboea there was formerly a statue of Juno, holding in one hand a sceptre, and in the other a pomegranate.

This general diffusion of the pomegranate throughout the climates suited to it, implies that it possesses highly valuable properties. In hot countries its utility is incontestable; for its juice is most grateful to the palate, and assuages thirst in a degree quite peculiar to it from its pleasant acid—an acid so soft, that the

Travels, vol. i.

pomegranate may still be called "full of melting sweetness" The bark is very astringent, and was anciently employed in dyeing leather: the yellow Morocco of Tunis is still tinted with an extract from it. The flowers were also used to dye cloth of a light red. The tree is easily propagated by cuttings t.

The pomegranate tree attains the height of about twenty feet. The branches are thick, and in some of the varieties they are armed with spines. The leaves, which are of a beautiful green, stand opposite, and are about three inches long, and half an inch broad at the middle. The flowers come out at the end of the branches; they are sometimes in clusters of three or four, and the times of their blowing are so irregular, that the succession is often continued for months. The petals are handsome, very thick, and fleshy. The beauty of the tree, independently of its fruit, has caused it to be planted for ornament in the South of Europe, and in the East. "The nightingale," says Russel, in his account of Aleppo, "sings from the pomegranate groves in the day-time."

In England, the fruit very seldom arrives at maturity; but the tree is highly prized as an ornament, the flowers being of a bright scarlet colour, and (especially the double ones) very handsome. Their odour, too, is as fragrant as their colour is bright. The longevity of the pomegranate tree is remarkable. At Paris and at Versailles there are specimens which are distinctly ascertained to have existed more than two centuries. The pomegranate, even at Paris, will not bear exposure in the open air too early in the spring; but it is not quite so delicate as the orange, and is therefore generally removed from the houses eight or ten days earlier.

It is stated that the pomegranate was first cultivated in England in the time of Henry VIII. Ge* Moore, + See p. 320.

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