Title: The American garden
Identifier: americangarden121891broo (find matches)
Year: 1873 (1870s)
Authors:
Subjects: Horticulture; Gardening
Publisher: Brooklyn, N. Y. : (s. n. )
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
THE ECONOMIC PLAXTS OF JAPAN—II. 8i The Pomegranate (Piiiiua graiiatinii, L.); Jap., Zaknro. The pomegranate is grown rather more com- monly than the fig, and is found quite as far north. It, too, is an introduced plant, probably also brought by the Portuguese from the shores of the Mediterranean. They utilize this shrub or small tree in a three- fold manner. It is, perhaps, first and foremost es- teemed for orna- ment. Its large and beautiful scarlet flowers are often seen on the flower ped- dlers' stands, as well as in the gardens. The flower vender carries his stock of goods on two light wooden trays, or in bask- ets, suspended from the ends of a pole that is slung over t h e shoulder. Flow- ering branches, often several feet long, of the plum, cherry, pomegranate and others, are thus peddled from door to door. The flow- ers are always cut with long stems and a lib- e r a 1 allowance of leaves, and they are never made into bou- quets. Those which fade eas- ily are often stuck into a joint of bamboo filled with water and tied to this port- able stand, thus presenting a novel appearance. Again, the pomegranate is valued for its fruit, and lastly, the young leaves are sometimes fed to silk worms when the crop of mulberry leaves is short. The fruit is about the size and shape of a Bartlett pear, though some varieties are more apple-shaped ; purple or red- dish-yellow in color, and when ripe, it bursts open, dis- playing the little bags of crisp, juicy flesh, each of which encloses a seed. They pick them usually too early, as in the case of their plums and peaches, and for this reason the foreign buyer is apt to misjudge
Text Appearing After Image:
Fig. 8. Myrica rubra. Full Size. (See page 82.) the quality of the fruit. If allowed to ripen fully, few fruits are more delicious. They have several varieties —some quite sour, others very sweet and high flavored. In this connection it may be well to mention three other fruits which are grown only in the extreme south, namely, the pineapple, the guava and the rose apple,

Note About Images