(From various, and to dry; so called from the variety of its colours and becoming soon dry: or from , to germinate). Called also malus punica sylvestris; granatus sylvestris, punica granatum, the double flowered wild Pomegranate,or the balaustine tree. The punica granatum Lin. Sp. Pi. 676.

Balaustium is properly the cup of the flower of this tree. The balaustines of the shops are large rose like flowers of a deep red colour, set in long, bell shaped, tough cups. The plant is a native of the southern parts of Europe, and is cultivated in our gardens for the beauty and duration of its flowers. The dry flowers are brought from abroad into England, but those of our own growth do not seem to be inferior to the foreign.

Those flowers are mildly astringent, but less powerful than the bark of the fruit, and have a rough bitterish taste. They give out their virtue to water and to rectified spirit of wine. The extracts made from these tinctures retain all their astringency, but the watery infusion yields most, and the spirituous a somewhat stronger extract.

The dose of these flowers may be from one scruple to two drachms, and to this quantity most of the vegetable astringents may be given. The rind of the fruit is considered as strongly astringent, and has been particularly useful in gargles, in diarrhoea, and in external applications. Sydenham, against prolapsed rectum and uterus, prescribed an ounce of the rind bruised with two pints of the decoction of oak bark and half a pint of red wine, as a fomentation; and Dr. Mead orders a decoction compounded of this bark with cinnamon and red roses, of each a drachm; in milk strained one pint, and the same quantity of water to be gradually-added, the whole reduced to one pint, and sweetened with sugar, to be taken daily in colliquative diarrhoeas.