PUNICA GRANATUM. Linn. Pomegranate. Roman, Kilkul, . Dalima, . . . MALAY.
Rana, . . . . „ Madals,. . . MaLzaL. Dalim, Darim, . BENo. Itutnom paio, .
Rimmon of the Bible. Darim, . Mu S.' REG.
Tha-lai, . . . 13uam. Delumghodi, . .
Anar, . . . . HIND. Madalam, . . . . TAR.
Gangsalan, . . JAN'. I Dalim, also Mullins, Tn.
Daruni, . . . KAU HAN. Bulusitunruman,Yesass.
The pomegranate, a native of the mountainotus countries from Syria to the uorth of India, and Kabul, through Bokhara, Masandaran, and Asia Minor generally, must always have been an object of attention. It is the rimmon of the I3ible, the rurnan of the Arabs, and With well known to the Greeks and itomaus. It is common now in almost all warm climates. Excellent fruits are thoee of Balabagh, lying under the snowy hills near tho Kabul river, and very large quantities are annually imported into the north of India from Kabul and Ka.shmir. In the Himalaya and the plains, the potnegranate fruit is small, and is sold in the bazar under the name of darnii ; the rind, nas pal, is used in medicine and in dyeing, on account of its great astringency. The flowers also are the balaustion of the ancients, and in India bulusitun is given as the Greek nmne of the double flower. They are devoid of odour, but have a bitterish and astringent taste, tinge the saliva of a reddish colour, contain tannin, and strike a black with ferruginous salts. It is of a reddish-brown colour, and smooth externally, but yellow on the inside ; usually in irreguktr fragments, dry, hard, and leathery, of a very astringent taste. It contains of tannin 18.8 per cent, with 10.8 of extractive, and 17'1 of mucilage, and is used for tanning in some coun tries. The bark of the root was etnployed as an anthelmintic by Dioscorides and by Celsus, and still is so India, and it was reintroduced into European practice by Drs. Buchanan and Ander son. The root itself is heavy, knotted, and of a yellow colour ; its bark is often sold in stripa, sometimes with parts of the root still adhering to it. On the outside, of a greyish-yellow colour ;
on tho inside, yellow, sometimes like that of the barberry. It has little snaelL When chewed, colours the Rallies yellow ; has an tultringent taste, without any disagreeable bitterness. It has been analyzed, but the source of ita peculiar anthel mintie powers has not been discovered. It con tains tannin (about 20 per cent.), gallic acid, resins, wax, fatty matters, and mannite. An in fusion yields a deep-blue precipitate with dm salts of iron, a yellowish-whito one with the aolution of isinglass, and a greyish-yellow one with corrosive sublimate, and potash or colours it yellow. It is apt to be idulterated with the barks both of box and of barberry. The former is white and bitter, but not astringent ; the latter yellow., very bitter, and not thus affected by the above four re-agents. The rind of the wild fruit is useful in diarrhcea and advanced stages of dysentery ; the flowers in infusion are slightly astringent ; the bark of the root as an anthelmintic against tape-worm, may be given in doses of one scruple in powder, or a decoction may be formed by steeping for 12 hours fresh root-bark of pome granate. The juice of the fruit is acidulous and sweet, and makes a pleasant sherbet for fever patients. The dried seeds, anardana, of the pome granate, with their fleshy envelopes, are sold and used in sherbets; are considered cooling. The tree grows easily from seed ; and large, fine, juicy fruit, where the soil is good, is often pro duced. By a continuation of layers from success ive plants, the fruit becomes almost seedless.— Boyle ; O'Sh.; Gen. 3Ied. 7'op.; Riddell; Powell.