Birds and nature (1901) (14745342571)

Identifier: birdsnature9101unse (find matches)
Title: Birds and nature
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Birds Natural history
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : A.W. Mumford, Publisher
Contributing Library: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign



Text Appearing Before Image:
anates were two hundred, in rowsround about upon the other chapiter,and in another verse we are told that theywere of brass. Moses spoke of the promised land asa land of wheat, barley and vines, fig-trees and pomegranates. Solomon in-dicates that this fruit was cultivated in histime as he speaks of an orchard of pome-granates with pleasant fruits. The Pomegranate is frequently repre-sented in the ancient sculptures of theAssyrians and of the Egyptians. The Pomegranate belongs to the fam-ily of plants called Lythraceae. Thisfamily has about three hundred and fiftyspecies which are widely distributed, butare most abundant in tropical regions,especially in America. In discribing thetree Dr. Oliver R. Willis gives the fol-lowing characteristics: Branches-straight, strong, sub-angular, armed nearthe ends with spines; young shoots andbuds red. Leaves opposite or fascicled,short-stalked, and without stipules.Flowers large, solitary, or two or threetogether in the axils of the leaves, near 86
Text Appearing After Image:
LIBRAEmm$M Of 1LUM018 the ends of the branchlets. A beautifulobject for planted grounds. The color of the flowers, which developon the ends of the younger branches, isa deep and rich scarlet or crimson. Manyvariations have been produced by grow-ing the plants from seeds and one of thesebears white flowers. The petals arerounded and usually crumpled. The fruit, which is a berry about thesize of an ordinary orange, is when freshusually of a reddish yellow color, becom-ing brownish in drying. The rind isthick and leathery, and encloses a quan- tity of pulp which is filled with a refresh-ing juice that is acid. It is of a pinkishor reddish color, and encloses the nu-merous angular seeds. Probably thechief value of the plant lies in the use ofthe fruit as a relish, though the rind ofthe fruit and the bark of the root areused in medicine. The bark contains a large amount oftannin and from it there is also obtaineda bright yellow dye, which is used to pro-duce the yellow Levant Morocco. In r