1100

ELEMENTS OF MATERIA MEDICA.

bryo oblong : radicle short, straight; cotyledons foliaceous, spirally convolu ^Trees or shrubs. Leaves deciduous, opposite, oblong, entire, without dots. *scarlet. (D. C.)

Properties, —See Tunica Granatum.

Pu'nica Grand turn, Linn. L. E. D.— The Common Pomegranate.

Sex « Syst. Icosandria, Monogynia.

(Fructus cortex, L.— Root-bark, E.— Baccae tunica exterior; Radicis cortex; Flores, D )

History.— The pomegranate is repeatedly referred to in the( Numbers xiii. 23 ; Deut. viii. 8, &c.) Homer ( Odyss. vii. T20) al s0111 jj,tions it. The leaves, the flowers, and the fruit, were employed in u ) ecine by the ancients (Dierbach, Arzneim. d. Hippoc. 90; Dioscori ’lib. i. cap. 151 to 154 ; Pliny , Hist. Nat. xxiii. 57). , t j l6

Botany. Gen. Char. — Only one genus (See the characters otOrder).

Sp. Char .— Leaves lanceolate. Stem arborescent (D. C.

Fig. 201.

Small tree, with a brownish bark. Leav eS ^short stalks, smooth. Flowers terminal on

o:>the

young branches. Calyx thick, fleshy, red- . ^tals much crumpled, membranous, rich sC&X all .Stamina numerous, inserted on the calyx i .thers yellow. Ovary roundish ; style sinT^’stigma globular. Fruit larger than an oraUcAwith a thick coriaceous rind, and crowned ^the teeth of the calyx; cells several, arrang^in two strata, one upper, the other lower, se brated by a transverse diaphragm; lower & e

jrienc®^

Tunica Granatum.Fig. 202.

Section of the fruit of theTunica Granatum, shewingthe two strata of cells.

turn of three, upper one of from fivecells.—Some difficulty having been experien^in comprehending the structure of this anolous fruit, Dr. Lindley {Nat. Syst. 2nd ed. P'/VIntrod. to Bot.) has explained it thus: w 1 ^the calyx are two rows of carpella, a lower ainner one, consisting of three or four carp^surrounding the axis, and placed in the botof the calyx; and an upper and outer one, csisting of from five to ten carpella, surround 1 °the lower, but adherent to the upper part ot ^tube of the calyx. The two strata or tierscells in the pomegranate are formed by the 'rows or tiers of carpella; the upper and ° u . grow being forced to the top of the fruit bycontraction of the tube of the calyx from "' hl i

— - - '',forin eCI

of

they arise. The transverse diaphragm is i° r ^by the adhesion of the upper to the 1°" -stratum of carpella; and the outer parthe rind of the pomegranate is formed by the calyx which contaithe carpella.

Has. —Northern Africa , from whence it has been introduced mEurope, where it is now naturalized. Asia (Bengal, China, Persia ). .Description.— The floivcrs, called balaustine flowers (./lores gran