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Pomegranate

This is the fruit of the pomegranate tree (punica granatum), a plant which grows to the height of fifteen or twenty feet. The fruit is a pulpy many-seeded berry, the size of an orange, covered with a thick brown coriaceous rind. Its value depends on the smallness of the seed and the largeness of the pulp. The pulp is of a reddish hue, and has a pleasant sub-acid taste; it is very refreshing. The singular and beautiful appearance of the fruit contributes to the variety of the dessert; pomegranates, being powerfully acid and astringent, are used medicinally in fevers and inflammatory disorders. The pomegranate is a native of most parts of the South of Europe and of China. In Languedoc, and some parts of Italy, it is employed as a hedge plant. It was cultivated in England, Loudon informs us, by Gerard, in 1596; but though it grows very well in the open air, it seldom ripens its fruit so as to render it worth anything. The finest pomegranates, called by the Persians badana. or seedless, are imported into India from Cabul and Candahar, where the tree grows to perfection. The fruit brought to this country from the South of Europe and the West Indies is very inferior to that of Persia.