Pomegranate, the Puidca granatum of Linnaeus, is by universal consent acknowledged to denote the Heb. rimmon (1"53"i, also "H"!, so called, according to Gesenius, from an Arab, root signifying marrow : but according to Fiirst, from one signifying blood-red; Sept. poa, pout, potdKog, kwcwv; Vulg. malum punicum. ma- lum granatum. vialogranatum), a word which occurs frequently in the O. T., and is used to designate either the pomegranate-tree or its fruit. It is described in the works of the Arabs by the name roman. The pome- granate is a native of Asia; and we may trace it from Syria, through Persia, even to the mountains of North- ern India. It. is common in Northern Africa. The pomegranate is not likely to have been a native of Egypt; it must, however, have been cultivated there at a very early period, as the Israelites, when in the desert, lamented the loss of its fruit in the wilderness of Zin (Numb, xx, 5) — this "is no place of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates." The tree, with its charac- teristic calyx-crowned fruit, is easily recognised on the Egyptian sculptures (Wilkinson, Anc. Egyptians, i, 36, ed. 1854). That it was produced in Palestine during the same early ages is evident from the spies bringing some back when sent into Canaan to see what kind of a land it was: for we are told that they "came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, etc.. and they brought of the pomegranates and of the tigs" (Numb, xiii, 53; comp. also Deut. viii, 8). The villages or towns of Rimmon (Josh, xv, 32). Gath- rimmon (xxi, 25), En-rimmon (Neh. xi. 29), possibly derived their names from pome- granate-trees which grew in their vicinity. These trees suffered occasionally from the devastations of locusts (Joel i. 12; see also Hag. ii, 19s). Mention is made of "an orchard of pomegranates" in Cant, iv, 13; and in iv. 3 the cheeks (A.V. "temples") of the Beloved are compared to a section of "pomegranate within the locks," in allusion to the beautiful rosy color of the fruit. Carved figures of the pomegranate adorned the tops of the pillars in Solomon's Temple (1 Kings vii, 18, 20, 42; 2 Kings xxv, 17; 2 Chron. iii, 16; iv, 13); and worked representations of this fruit, in blue, purple, and scarlet, ornamented the hem of the robe of the ephod (Exod. xxviii. 33, 34; xxxix. 24). This is explained mystically by Philo (Opera, ii. 153, 226), and differently by Meyer (Blatter f. h<di<r< Wahrheit, x, 85; see also Biihr, Symbolik, ii. 123 sq.). The pomegranate seems also to have been used as a holy symbol in heathen re- ligions (see Biihr, Symbol, ii, 122). Among the later Jews the pomegranate was used in some cases as a measure (Mishna, Chelim, xvii, 1, 4). Mention is made of "spiced wine of the juice of the pomegranate" in Cant viii, 2; with this may be compared the pome- granate-wine (poirriQ oIvoq) of which Dioscorides (v. 44) speaks, and which is still used in the East. Char- din says that ^reat quantities of it were made in Per- sia, both for home consumption and for exportation, in his time (Script. Herb. p. 399; Harmer, Obs. i. 377). Being common in Syria and Persia, it must have early attracted the attention of Eastern nations. In the present day it is highly valued, and travellers describe
POMEGRANATE
384
POMERANIA
the pomegranate as being delicious through The late Sir A. Burnes stab - thai thi ram
ii in gardens und< r the snowy hills, near the river I abul. Ii i- still found in Arabia (Niebuhr, Beschr. p. 148), ] l and West
I ,,i the southern countries of Europe
19 -,. . I be pom< gran- i .:. . ks, being thi l Dioscorides (i, 151). [t was em-
is a medicine by Hippocrates, and is mentioned r under the name side, supposed to be of Phoe- nician origin; Bceot oiln (Athen. xiv, 650), and called ■ arbor (xiii, 38). I he Romans gave it the name of P was introduced
l glisb name is derived from the grained apple") of the Romans. Various j..irt - of the planl were employed medicinally, as, for instance, the root, or rather its bark, the flowers which are called kvtivoq by Dioscorides, and the double tXavoTiov; also the rind ol the pericarp, called tnalicorium bj the Romans, and triSiov by Dioscorides.
Soi i the properties which these plants possess make
them useful both as drugs and as medicines. In a nat- ural state ii i- bul a bush, eighi or ten feel high, with a Btraighl stem and a large number of branches, a rod hark, lance-formed leaves of a bright-green color, each on it- own Btem; and bears flowers which stand sepa- rate, star-shaped, and without odor, of a deep-red color, and producing a round fruit, green and partly red on the Burface, but yellow within (comp. Cant, iv, 3, and t VI- siu-. i. 275. The Romans called this fruit malum pu- nieum, the Punicapple, but sometimes also malum gra- natum, Plin. xiii, 34 ; xvi,3G; Marcell. Med. c. 27). It i- of the shape and size of an orange, three or four inches in diameter, divided into longitudinal apartments, in which the grains lie as compactly as com on the cob, and look much like B pale-red Indian corn, save that tbej are nearh transparent They ripen about the