THE POMEGRANATE.—This fruit has been cultivated
in Asia from earliest antiquity, and is still quite
generally grown in most tropical climes. In the
Scriptures it is mentioned with the vine, fig, and
olive, among the pleasant fruits of the promised land.
It is about the size of a large peach, of a fine golden
color, with a rosy tinge on one side. The rind
is thick and leathery. The central portion is
composed of little globules of pulp and seeds inclosed
in a thin membrane, each seed being about the size
of a red currant. It is sub-acid, and slightly
bitter in taste. The rind is strongly astringent,
and often used as a medicine.
THE GRAPE.—Undoubtedly the grape was one
of the first fruits eaten by mankind, and one highly
valued from antiquity down to the present time.
Although this fruit is often sadly perverted in the
manufacture of wine, when rightly used it is one of
the most excellent of all fruits. The skins and
seeds are indigestible and should be rejected, but
the fresh, juicy pulp is particularly wholesome and
refreshing. Several hundred varieties of the
grape are cultivated. Some particularly sweet
varieties are made into raisins, by exposure to the
sun or to artificial heat. Sun-dried grapes make
the best raisins. The so-called English or Zante
currant belongs to the grape family, and is the dried
fruit of a vine which grows in the Ionian Islands
and yields a very small berry. The name currant,
as applied to these fruits, is a corruption of the
word Corinth, where the fruit was formerly grown.
THE GOOSEBERRY.—The gooseberry probably
derives its name from gorse or goss, a prickly shrub
that grows wild in thickets and on hillsides in Europe,
Asia, and America. It was known to the ancients,
and is mentioned in the writings of Theocritus and
Pliny. Gooseberries were a favorite dish with
some of the emperors, and were extensively cultivated
in gardens during the Middle Ages. The gooseberry
is a wholesome and agreeable fruit, and by cultivation
may be brought to a high state of perfection in size
and flavor.
THE CURRANT.—This fruit derives its name
from its resemblance to the small grapes of Corinth,
sometimes called Corinthus, and is indigenous to America,
Asia, and Europe. The fruit is sharply acid,
though very pleasant to the taste. Cultivation
has produced white currants from the red, and in a
distinct species of the fruit grown in Northern Europe
and Russia, the currants are black or yellow.
THE WHORTLEBERRY AND BLUEBERRY.—These are
both species of the same fruit, which grows in woods
and waste places in the North of Europe and America.
Of the latter species there are two varieties, the
high-bush and the low-bush, which are equally palatable.
The fruit is very sweet and pleasant to the taste,
and is one of the most wholesome of all berries.
