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ORANGE CTJ-LTTJRE
TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY,
BY GEORGE GALLESIO,
ATDITOl? OF THE STATE COUNCIL, AND SUB-PREFECT OF SAVONA.
TRANSLATED Fl'.OM THE FRENCH, EXPRESSLY
THE FLORIDA AGRICULTURIST."
Jacksonville, !lfhi. :
1M I'.USIIKI) MY ('II \ltLES II. WALTON Jb CO,
1876.
or***:
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OEANG-E CULTURE.
TREATISE m THE CITRUS FAMILY,
BY GEORGE GALLESIO,
//
AUDITOR OF THE STATE COUNCIL, AND SUB-PREFECT OF SAVONA.
\
TUANSI,.\TKI> KllOM THK tKKNrii, I', V I'UESSI.Y F<)1{
FLORIDA AGRICULTURIST."
I'lMVI'Kl) AT Till-: OKKK'i: OK -TIIK PLOBTDA ACUK TI/IT !{IST.V
1876.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by
CHARLES H. WALTON, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
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PUBLISHER'S PREFACE.
While bringing before the public this learned work of M. GALLESIO, the transla- tors were impressed with the fact that in some parts it might not be clear to the unscientific reader ; they have, therefore, ventured to simplify and to explain botan- ical terms, and in some few cases geographical names.
The translation of this work was begun by Prof. S. D. WILCOX. His death occur- ring when but one-fourth of it was accomplished, we are consequently indebted to a friend for the completion of the task. Any discrepancy in the style of writing may be thus accounted for.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
Of all the plants spread by Nature upon the surface of the globe, there are none more beautiful than those we know under the names of citron, lemon, and orange trees, which botanists have included under the technical and generic name of Citrus. These charming trees are both useful and ornamental. No others equal them in beauty of leaf, delightful odor of flowers, or splendor and taste of fruit. No other plant supplies delicious confections, agreeable seasonings, perfumes, essences, syrups, and the valuable acid so useful to colorers.
In a word, these trees charm the eye, satisfy the smell, gratify the taste, serving both luxury and art, and presenting to astonished man a union of all delights.
These brilliant qualities have made the Citrus a favorite in all countries. In warm climates it is the object of careful culture, and in more temperate climes it is the necessary ornament of country-seats and villas, while, still further north, it has originated those inventions in building designed by luxury to make a summer in the midst of winter. Writers upon agriculture have occupied themselves with the culti- vation and description, and with all tending to the preservation, propagation, and uses of these t rees.
Ktienne, iSerres, and others in France; Gallo, Tanara, Trinci, and Ferraris in Italy; Herrara.in Spain; Miller in England ; Commelyn in Belgium; Volcamerius and Sicler in Germany, have all written upon these plants. Volcamerius and Fer- raris have added to their books numerous drawings of the varieties known in their time, thus seeming to leave nothing to be desired on this subject. But, after close study and thought, I have found great con fusion and want of method in their classi- fication. This is owing to the prejudices among writers concerning the nature and origin of vtn'taffcx. I have, therefore, devoted myself to the close observation of these plants, examining their caprices from their birth to their fruiting, and. seconding
*.,
Mature by culture1, not forcing her by the graft, I have been able to obtain many results, and to compare them with preceding phenomena, I have, also, attempted experiments in order to find the secret cause of these results. I have operated upon the flowers of the citrus, watching them from the moment of conception, in their development, in their fructification, and in reproduction from their seeds.
Upon observations and their consequences I have based a theory by which 1 have arranged my classification, definitely fixing, by decisive experiments, the species, the chief varieties, many hybrids, and nearly all the monsters. This theory I have elab- orated in the first chapter of this work, and in the second I have shown its applica- tion to the citrus. The third chapter offers a comparison and description of all these beings. The monsters of the genus citrus have also furnished me an article in this chapter, to which I have added remarks upon the species of India. Finally, the history of the citrus has been the subject of my fourth chapter. My chief design has been to throw light upon the physiological problems that I have tried to solve. To this end I have sought to determine the different climates in which these species were placed by Nature, and to discover by what degrees and in what manner they were spread, mingled, and naturalized in the countries where we now see them. I have endeavored to spy out the circumstances and causes which gave birth to the crowd of varieties, or which have made them disappear.
For the title to my book I have preferred the botanical name of this genus, discarding, as savoring of the fabulous, the term Ilesperides, so often used by my predecessors. I also use, in the course of this work, the ancient Italian word Ayrwni, which comprehends all the species of this family. It is thought that this word was borrowed by the writers of the sixteenth century, from the Arabs, who called their fruits by a term denoting their acidity. It is certainly a name well chosen to dis- tinguish this genus.
A TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY
BY M. OEOKGE GALLESIO,
Auditor of the State Council, and Sub-Prefect or Suvomi.
CHAPTER I.
T1IEOKY OF VEGETABLE RErilODUCTKXX.
AiiT. I.— Of the Citrus—Of its species— The inter- mediate races which unite them — The researcJies concerning the formation of new plants— The discovery of hybrids — The uncertainty respect- ing the nature of varieties. The Citrus proper lias been for a long time the only species of Agrumes known to Euro- peans, and has thus furnished botanists the name of the genus to which they have referred all the species, and consequently the varieties also with which our gardens have progressively been en- riched.
But among all these different races there have always been distinguished four, whose physiog- nomy is so marked, and whose characteristics so distinct, that it is impossible to regard them as other than the principal species into which the genus is naturally divided.
The first is the Citron, which has preserved the generic name of Citrus.
The second species is the Lemon, wrongly called Citrus medico,, but properly Citrus limon. The third and the fourth are commonly known as the Sweet and Sour (Bigaradc) orange, and have been united by botanists under the com- mon name of Citrus aurantium.
These four species have been almost infinitely multiplied by a chain of varieties, and have been crossed and confounded in such a manner that at the present time they are so united one to the other by an insensible and continuous gradation that it is very difficult to distinguish them. They are also multiplied in appearance more than in reality by the different names which these varieties have received from the botanists of different countries, as well as by the disappear- ance of several varieties once known, and the for- mation of several new ones.
In the midst of this confusion, which would very naturally exist as to the varieties, they should nevertheless have agreed concerning the species, which has always presented characteris- tics not to be mistaken. "
But botanists have never occupied themselves carefully with these secondary divisions, and sat- isfied with having classified the numerous genera of vegetables, they have regarded the different races sometimes as species and sometimes as va- rieties, without even determining the character- istics by which nature has distinguished these two analagous but different classes of the vege- table kingdom. They long di^mloil ID usa-rlain \vholliei1 tlm
earth has produced new species of plants since the creation, or whether all which now exist were created at the beginning of the world.
This question, discussed with so much erudition and sagacity, appears to have been decided since we have discovered the secret of the combination of the species by means of the fructifying pollen which passes from one plant to the others ; and it is no longer doubtful that nature, rich in her productions, has arranged a kind of marriage between plants differing a little, from which it results that a new plant is produced, distin- guished by the name of hybrid.
The discovery of these vegetable mules, which form in nature a class not originally existing, has thrown much light upon and infinitely facilitated the classification of species.
But it still remains to determine the nature and discover the origin of the third race of vege- tables, which cannot be ranked among the hybrids because they belong only to one species, but are nevertheless so different from each other and from the primitive type that wre must regard them as distinct beings, having their own peculiar char- acteristics.
It is principally upon these numerous races, known under the name of varieties, that the opinion of botanists and cultivators is still divided. The hypotheses hitherto formed con- cerning their nature and formation are so vague and unsatisfactory that it is important for sci- ence that light be thrown upon this mystery, and that an explanation of it be given more in har- mony with the principles of vegetable physiology. We will begin by examining the opinions held upon this subject.
AIIT. II. — Opinions of botanists and ayricuUtH'-
ists respecting the origin and cause of varieties
ami monsters.
When we regard the variety always reappear' ing in the productions of the vegetable kingdom, and observe the innumerable multitude of new beings by which the surface of the globe is con- tinually enriched, w'e are tempted to believe that nature has abandoned to a number of external agents, either natural or artificial, the power of modifying her productions and infinitely varying them.
But when we study vegetable life, and examine closely all its changes and mysterious reproduc- tions, we are persuaded that nature, always regu- lar in her operations, always grand in her results, has abandoned nothing to chance, and that she has (IrtPrminod from tile moment of creation all
6
GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CXTEtS FAMILY.
the details of existence, and cast inflexibly the mold in which all beings must bo modeled.
This great truth, which cannot be hidden from the view of the careful observer, nevertheless seems to be with difficulty reconciled with a number of phenomena which are every day pre- sented to view.
On the other band, we are reassured in these principles by the example of all the primitive species of plants, which are always met with on the earth in the same form under which they have existed for many centuries; we are con- vinced of this fact, by the bringing together and comparison of those remains of plants found in excavations, and by the models which have been transmitted to us by painting, sculpture, or de- scriptions of the ancients.
On the other hand, we know not to what should be attributed all those new species or va- rieties, of which, it beeuiti, our ancestors had no idea, and still more those sub-varieties and those monsters which arc daily developed under our own eyes, cither by the seed, or some chance, of which we as yet know not the principle.
It is already half a century since we succeeded in establishing order in the multitude of these new races, which have been divided into two classes. The first is the hybrids ; the second, the varieties.
Linnaeus has wrung from nature the secret of the formation of the first ; it remains to seek the principles according to which the second are pro- duced.
I will call the hybrids by the name of the species entering into their formation, because it seems to me that every individual which deviates partially from the characteristics of its type, and participates in the properties of another species, is something more than a variety, and I will re- serve this last name for those new plants whose secondary characteristics are modified by any cause whatever without departing from the species.
Without this distinction I would be embar- rassed in determining, for example, to what species, in quality or variety, the hermaphrodite orange belongs (Cifrus aurantium indicum Umo- citratum folio ct fnictu mixto), which partakes of the lemon, the orange, and the citron, aud it would necessarily follow that this pretended va- riety would be found ranked in the same line as the blood-red orange \iee(Cit-ruti&arant£um8inen86 Meroclmnticum fructu sanguineo) wjiidi has only the characteristics of the single orange of which it is a variety
I will not stop to trace the theory of the hy- brids. This system is already so well known that I can add nothing to its development. I shall occupy myself in seeking tbo cause of the formation ot varetiee, and will present my theory as the result « f mnny experiments and much ob- servation, which I invite botanists to repeat in order better to determine their phenomena and their consequences.
In all times it has been observed with aston- ishnieut that nature appears more inclined to give us wild than fine varieties. It is rare that a choice fruit is reproduced from the seed ; and we see, for example, that the seed of the most delicate butter pear regularly gives us only wild fruit, whose acrid fruit, without juico, in no way
resembles the species from which it is descended.
Even when chance procures us somo ftie variety, it is nevertheless not always equal to the fruit that has produced it, and as this chance seldom occurs, and as it is very difficult to estab- lish such recurrence, because it is not foreseen, and because it has fallen but little under the eyes of enlightened cultivators, it has generally been believed that these varieties are due ouly to the graft, to cultivating, or to the climate. Some- times, indeed, botanists have allowed themselves to be imposed upon by superficial and deceitful gardeners, who, seeing themselves the possessors of several of these new species without knowing their origin, have imagined and believed that some marvellous operation has taken place, and supposed them due to grafts, which existed not in nature, aud which would not give such a re- sult if they did exist. Heiicc the different agri- cultural systems which have reigned for several centuries, and of which a part reigns still to day, even among enlightened agriculturists.
There are, for instance, few cultivators who arc not convinced that the sour orange is the type of the species, and that all seed from an orange tree, even though it be a sweet one, gives only sour orange trees. This pretended phe nomenou, which has beeu believed on the laith of the cultivators, without ever being determined by exact experiments, has been generalized re- specting almost all fruit-bearing plants; and it has beeu established, as was supposed, in prin- ciple, that the wild fruit was the type of the species, and that fine fruits, being only individu- als improved by art, could produce by their seeds only the type of which they arc the conservators, or, in other words, individuals in a. state of nature known under the name of wild plants.
Other agriculturists have imagined that the seed of the sweet orange produced sour or bitter orange trees only when taken from a graft of the sweet prauge placed upon the sour orange tree, and this system has been extended to the other species of fruit, such as the apple, peach, pear, and other trees. They have, perhaps, been forced to this modification in the theory of artificial im- provement by the example of some individuals of choice fruit which they have soon to be pro- duced from the seed, and as they could not con- ceal the truth of these accidents, and as they saw, moreover, that such a case but rarely occurred, they imagined that those fruits which reproduced without degeneration when taken from a seed- ling, lost that property whenever they were taken from a graft on a wild tree ; and they even de- luded themselves so far as to believe that the pericarp followed the nature of the graft, while the seed followed the nature of the tree receiving the graft.
All these prejudices have prevented cultiva- tors from adopting the method of multiplication offered by nature, and, persuaded that the seed could give only a wild product, they have con- demned all seedlings to be grafted. * ,
But these artificial methods ouly preserved the species already acquired. They multiplied the individuals but never renewed the race, and con- sequently it still remains to be discovered in what manner those varieties were obtained, which they could not deny were unknown to our an- or? tor*. In order to pfUWv thi* nntnrnl inquir-
'S TltLATibi; ON T1IK dTJ'iltf FAMILY.
hide of human curiosity they sought in cultiva- tion the solution- of this problem. In vain did experiencq disprove this system. They went be- yond our record and remembrance, and hid in the obscurity of antiquity the ignorance of an origin which they were forced to admit must bo sought after the creation.
t This theory, nevertheless, could not be suffi- ciently satisfactory to explain the origin of some new races which they had seen appear in gar- dens under the eyes of their contemporaries.
The graft and the slip (cutting) then came to The assistance of cultivators. They commenced by believing that the subject or stock grafted can sometimes influence the grafted bud in modify- ing its juices, and they imagined the existence of extraordinary grafts which, uniting very differ- ent species, seemed destined to produce new rares having the characteristics of both.
Others attributed these marvellous fruits to some capricious combinations formed by the union of. two buds. Others finally established, in substance, that by the single fact of the graft being repeated several times on the same indi- viduals an improvement in the plant was ob- tained.
There have been agriculturists who thought themselves able to change or modify the taste of vegetable productions cither by infusing the seed in substances sugared or aromatic, or by the introduction of these substances into the pith of the plant ; and the ill-success of those operations was always attributed to a defect in the manner of proceeding rather than to an insufficiency pf the means employed.
It is to these different methods that have been attributed all the phenomena of the vegetable system, of which the cause was not understood.
Thus it has been believed, and is still believed perhaps, that the absence of spines and down be- longing to certain vegetables is only the effect of, the change of climate, of long cultivation, or of the graft.
In like manner, to the multiplication by slip or by layer, the loss of the pistils of certain plants, and the sterility of certain fruits have been attributed, in which fruits it was believed that, th's method of multiplication nets' to obliter- ate the female parts and to increase the volume of the fruit, The lack of proofs was hidden in the necessity of following those methods during a succession of several generations, and the sys- tem was supported by the example of several sterile plants, such as the Persian lily, the snow- ball, the syringa, and many other ornamental bushes; and on that of the barberry bush, the medlar tree, without seeds, &c. This theory could not, it is true, be extended to annual or bi- ennial plants which the seed produce every y«-:ir, and in which we so often see examples of sterile flowers. But they found in their principles a very plausible explanation of sterility, -and they attributed the double and semi-double flowers fo the force of cultivation, imagining that this agent, aided by surrounding substances, occa- sioned the transformation of the fructifying parts into petaK
Finally, wishing to give an explanation of those monstrosities which the vegetable world con- stantly presents, they regarded them as diseases produced by exterior causes -which they have
never determined, and they attributed to these unknown causes the variegated coloring of flow- ers and the diversified foliage of trees, together* with the extraordinary forms of those fruits which offer excrescences in the pericarp, or other similar phenomena. All these opinions have reigned for centuries among agriculturists, and it is but re- cently that they have begun to forsake them. It is certainly interesting to discuss them, and im- portant to establish or refute them. This is the task which I have undertaken. I have employed my leisure in examining them with the principles of a severe philosophy, and submit them to the analysis of observation and experience. The first fact which it was necessary to examine waR to know if wild trees existed which the graft or culture has changed into fine varieties. This question holds the solution of a problem of vegetable physiology which appears not to have hitherto occupied the learned, viz. : What is the influence of these agents (ihc graft and cultivfi tion) on vegetables ?
ART. Ml.— Influence of the graft upon vegetable*.
It must certainly be acknowledged that the graft as well as the cultnite and soil may influence the development of vegetable organs. * A grafted . » tree is an individual forced to live upon a stock not its own, but from which it must draw its nourishment, so that only the subject of the graft can be assimilated to the soil. If its or- gans are adapted to furnish the graft all the ali- ment of which it can make use, then the graft, will take on an extraordinary growth, which it; would not have equalled on a less thrifty stock. If the stock which bears it be unable by its or- ganization to supply the food it needs, then will it remain meagre and" spindling.
These different circumstances, as well as the culture, may produce the phenomena presented by the wild service tree (Sorbna Avcuparia), which, grafted upon the hawthorne, (Mexpyhtx Oxyacantha) grows, it is said, with more than usual rapidity, and attains more than its wonted height and fruitfnlncss. Also that of the wild apple, which, grafted upon the paradise apple, becomes a slender shrub whose branches grow hardly ten feet high.
These phenomena are due only to the abun- dance or lack of nourishment, and present no other effect than a greater or less development of the different parts of the plant. We remark one thing still more striking in ordinary grafts. Every grafted plant- appears to display, at least for a time, a luxuriance of foliage more marked than the seedling, for instance, ff the graft has been put into an individual of thfa nature, butihis is due to a very simple cause. The seed- ling d» -velopa many branches. It gives fruit gen- ernlly once in two or three years, and when it does bear, the tree fa so loaded down that it can only nourish them all with difficulty. From tho time it is grafted several changes" nro effected. Ita plump and bushy top disappears and is re- placed by a single brunch, which has for its own nourishment all the sap which supported that, large quantity « f foliage. To be sure the graft may enlarge afterwards, but it never replaces i he quantity of branches whicn crowned the original tree. • A grafted tree h always lesi large and
GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITIU'S FAMILY.
bushy, and hence the foliage is better nourishcc •tfind more beautiful, and its fruits, which are less abundant, are of greater si/e and more agreeable flavor.
Another circumstance also influences, perhaps the greater elaboration of fruit in the grafted tree.
The graft unites a branch of one variety to a stock of another variety. This union, which i not natural, forms always a kind of knot at the point of insertion, which may check the rapidity of the flow of sap ; and we know that on account of this slowness in the current of the sap, buds fed by it produce fruit rather than branches.
A tree which bears but little may be rendered fruitful by rubbing off the bark at its foot. The cultivators of vineyards bend the vines or break them a little at the place where they wish the fructification to commence ; and I have several times obtained oranges of extraordinary size by twisting the branch which bore them.
All these means have been long known to cul- tivators, and it is no longer doubtful that this effect is due only to the great slowness in the flow of the sap, which thus influences the quan- tity and quality of the fruit.
But such are the limits which nature has fixed to the influence of the graft upon vegetables. It facilitates or improves their development, but never changes or modifies their forms, juices, or colors. Never has the wild pear been trans- formed by the graft into the butter pear, nor the butter pear into the muscat pear ; never has the bitter orange been so improved as to lose its bit- terness by grafting. I have a stock of this species which I have grafted three times upon itself, graft upon graft, but it gives me only larger fruit, differ- ing in no other way from that of the plant which furnished the bud.
The graft is nothing more than a kind of slip. It transfers the bud of one plant to the stern or body of another ; and this bud, which encloses within itself the rudiments of the vegetables des- tined to grow from it, draws from the stock on which it is placed the juices necessary for its nour- ishment in the same manner as the slip draws them directly from the earth. It is possible that, from the passage which these juices are forced to make through the roots and trunk of the plant, they reach the fibres of the bud more elaborate*} than if drawn more directly from the soil ; but what- ever may be their condition when they enter the bud, they are there always modified by its organs as are those elements drawn from the air, and as those taken from the earth would be, if it were placed with its own roots directly in the soil.
Experience has confirmed these principles, and it is now established that the graft is useful only in perpetuating species or varieties without im- proving them. I have made constant observa- tions on this subject during more than fifteen years, by keeping beside the grafted plant the plant which furnished the bud. I have grafted oranges upon lemons and lemons upon oranges. I have grafted sweet oranges upon bitter oranges and bitter oranges upon sweet ones ; apricots on prunes and peaches upon apricots ; and I never could recognize the least difference between the fruits given by the plant which furnished the graft and those of the plant which received it. I never obtained from these operations anv other
result than that of preserving rare varieties, which could not be propagated by seed, for the double reason that they but rarely contained any, and that when they did, we could obtain from them usually only degenerated varieties.
The theoretic principles which prove the in- sufficiency of the stock and of the sap to effect changes in the product of the graft, can not be equally applied to those remarkable grafts formed by the union of two or three buds, the manner of which occurrence is described in the works of ancient writers upon agriculture, and to which it is still pretended mixed species arc due, such as the orange de buarrerie, which partakes of the character of the orange, the lemon, and the citron.
We have great difficulty in conceiving how two half buds, applied the one upon the other, can amalgamate and form one single bud par- taking of the nature of the two. I would not dare cite my experience to prove that two dif- ferent buds united together inserted upon an analogous stock, or even placed in the earth, perish if too much mutilated, or develop, each one separately, its scion.
The ill success of these operations would be on- ly a negative proof, which could not destroy the facts if any existed ; but I challenge the gardeners to cite me an example, supported by impartial observations, whose exactness they can guaran- tee. Moreover, if in presenting me such an ex- ample they offer me only such individuals as those I possess, and such as I have seen in Liguria, in Tuscany, and such as are known in France under the name of orange de Mzarrcrie, I would venture to contradict them respecting it.
The anatomy of the tissue of these individuals would furnish me an irresistible argument. This tissue does not present traces of three buds to whose unions the hybrid is pretended to be due. It shows only a branch which bears at one time, but isolated under distinct leaves, buds of three species and buds which give mixed fruit, without, however, enabling us to recognize in these spe: cies of embryos anything announcing this mix- ture.
I will not speak of those imaginary grafts by . which some have pretended to make branches of the fig, grape, rose, and jasmine grow on orange and lemon stocks. I have several times seen such phenomena in Tuscany and Milan, and confess to have been deceived by them ; but having been a long time cheated by those gar- deners, who sold at exorbitant prices ridicuTous recipes for obtaining these extraordinary unions, and after having lost, by making trial of them, several orange stocks, I finally succeeded in dis- covering the fraud, and am convinced that these lietcrogenous unions do not exist in nature. I bought a vase containing an orange stock on which a fig scion seemed to be grafted. As soon as 1 got possession of it I opened the stock' where the fig branch was inserted, and discovered that this stock was hollowed out inside, and that through this hole in the interior the would-be ojraft found its way to the soil, thus living upon ts own root instead of that of the orange tree. This discovery completed my conviction that a difference really exists in the organs of different vegetables as well as in the organs of animals, ind that from this difference of organization the .lifference of products results. I know that in
GALLEBIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY
l he vegetable kingdom details escape the obser- vation of the physiologist, and it is extremely difficult to give some of the comparative anato- mical appearances of vegetables, but it is for this reason no less true that differences may ex- ist and be as unchangeable as In the animal king- dom. Every species has its determined forms, which may be destroyed but not modified, and whatever the nature of the stock which nourishes the plant, it will always give the product proper to its species.
ART. IV. — Influence of culture and soil on plants.
Culture and climate have appeared to many writers more powerful than the graft, and they have attributed to them the very decided changes in the secondary characteristics of trees. It is principally to the force of culture that they at- tribute the sensible difference existing between the wild and cultivated trees. But it is easy to see that this is a mistake in their judgment, and that they attribute these differences to culture or the graft, merely because these are the processes which always accompany the individuals— which undergo a change and become improved fruit, and because these are the means of multiplying the number of the improved individuals. Where- as these are mere accidents ; they have, because constantly used, been considered the causes of the changes in the fruit.
Nature gives some trees which bear ordinary fruit and others which bear fine fruit. The first, always being grafted when in our gardens, bears its own peculiar wild fruit only when found in the woods; and the cultivator who sees them there in a degraded condition concludes that this degeneration is due to the want of cultiva- tion. The trees bearing fine fruit, being seen only in a state of cultivation, and multiplied by the graft only, the cultivator, ignorant of the origin of their ancestors, judges that they owe their improvement to the graft and the culture which they have undergone. I say the cultiva- tor judges in this manner on account of this ig- norance of the first original tree which gave these different results which he observes; because there has never existed a writer, to my knowl- edge, who has carefully noted how one of these changes has occurred. They all speak of the changes and note the difference which exists be- tween those individuals found in the woods and those found in the gardens, but no one has seen this change take place on one and the same in- dividual. I say all see it through the dimness of ages, and their conclusion is the result of con- jecture rather than of observation.
But a close and continuous attention to nature will show that these differences, which exist in two distinct individuals, as, for instance, the pear of the forest and the pear of cultivation, never appear successively on the same individual. I call an individual the plant which exists on its own stock, and which enjoys the life given it by Nature, and I also term an individual the collec- tion of all the plants which proceed from a single germ, and consequently form only one single plant, which may be multiplied without changing its character, either by passing successively on to an infinite number of stocks as a graft, or by form- ing by means of slips an infinite number of stocks
of its own, having a root in the earth, and pro- longing in this manner its own life, as well as that of the species, and thus varying infinitely (he places and modes-of its existence, but always bearing in itself the principles of organization received in its conception.
The individual which perished on the root where it germinated, and that which renews for the millionth time, it may be, its life, in a graft or a slip, have a single and common origin, and hence are one and the same individual. ^This in- dividual, though infinitely multiplied, will always bear in the numberless subdivisions of its being the same characteristics and the same aspect which it had in the beginning. To illustrate, take the sugar-cane. In India, beyond the Ganges, there are several varieties of this plant which are propagated by seeds, but in -San Domingo, where it is reproduced by slips, only one variety is known. It has been cultivated there since 1606, with different methods and a variety of soils, and still remains unchanged. Neither the processes of cultivation nor the difference in soils have im- proved it in the course of two centuries, and the only reason why it has not degenerated is be- cause it has always been multiplied by cuttings.
This fact is perfectly in harmony with the theory of the manner 'in which culture affects- vegetables. Nutrition is the most powerful mean? by which they can be influenced in cultivation. The nourishing juices, of which the earth is the principal vehicle^ are everywhere of the same na- ture; chemistry has proved that the same ele- ments unite to form, the acorn in the oak tree^ and the orange in the orange tree. It is in the" different organs of the diverse genera of vege- tables that these same principles are decomposed, elaborated, and finally acquire forms and prop- erties widely different from each other.
Now, can we suppose, without wounding the principles of sound philosophy, that this passive material, which is designed only to receive modi- fications from the different agents by which it ia elaborated and used — that this can react upon those organs or agents and change their exist- ence, a work so marvellous that Nature only can perform it ?
It has been held that th'e multiplicity of petals, which form double flowers, and the certain lusti- ness of some varieties arc due to a superabundance of nutrition. But this formation of petals is not the simple development of a principle pre-exist- ing in the flower. It is a real change of the male and female parts into corollas ; andihe lux- uriance of these beautiful varieties bears in the leaf and in the fruits new forms, which distin- guish them from others and constitute them dis- tinct races.
Nature has fixed for all races a maximum and a minimum of development which no cause can surpass. When a plant has little nutriment it becomes feeble and languishes, but it will die before departing from the characteristics of its species. If well nourished it attains the max- imum of its growth, but if engorged it refuses the superabundance, or, if forced to absorb, it is injured; its canals are blocked up, its organs affectecl, its vital functions changed, and it per- ishes. The facts wo possess are in harmony with these principles. We find double flowers only in species which are multiplied by seed. Thosf
LI)
(JALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY
propagated by slips or the grai'L never present this phenomenon. We never find it in the jas- mine, the horteusia, nor in any of those exotics which in our climate yield, no seed. Bat they are certainly cultivated with as much care as roses, hyacinths, or carnations ; but they never present the caprices of these beautiful varieties, which reappear every day in our gardens under new forms and with a mixture of the most charm- ing colors. The error of these cultivators has been still more extraordinary iu regard to steril- ity of plants, which they have attributed to the mode of propagation by slips or by layers. All these opinions could result only from erroneous reasoning.
TVc have already seen that — having observed that plots of ground were covered with choice va- rieties while the woods were full only of wild ones —it was inferred that it was culture which had changed the savage varieties to fine ones, so that these last are now called domesticated varieties. In this case of the sterile plants — having ob- served that they were multiplied only by the slip and the layer, it has been inferred that it was the mode of propagation which effected in the plant subjected to this operation for several generations, the insensibly gradual los.s of its stamens and pistils, and finally produced sterility. Here it is easy to see the effect has been taken tor the cause. These plants have been considered sterile because propagated by the cuttings, where- as the contrary is true, and they are propagated by the cuttings because they are themselves sterile ; otherwise" it would follow that all plants multi- plied by the slip would be wterile, which is not the case. Examples might be given in abun- dance of plants bearing fertile seeds, which have long been multiplied by the cuttings, as the olive and the grape ; and a great number of superior varieties'are produced by the slip only to keep them from degenerating.
But the most conclusive proof of the futility of this belief is the fact that these plants of sterile flowers all have their type, which is not sterile, and whose seeds have probably given the sterile variety which has been multiplied by cuttings. Indeed, we sometimes find this variety in the woods, where nature certainly ha? used no graft- ing knife, as, for instance, in the sterile snowball (viburnum opulus sterilis) beside the viburnum opulus or snowball of fruitful flower.
I shall not occupy my time in discussion upon the influence of infusions of sugary substances and other similar processes by which all the an- cient writers pretend to change the taste and color of fruits ; all these notions are now relega- ted to the books on agriculture of the seventeenth century, and there is no cultivator, however lit- tle enlightened, who is not convinced of their nselessness.
Besides, these errors cannot but disappear from the moment that we arc convinced that nutrition (by which means the cultivation of the soil acts upon plants or trees,) influences only their sim- ple developments, but that forms, colors, proper- tics, can only be changed by the seed.
Such is the march of nature in all the chain of organized beingo. Generations vary infinitely, but individuals never change. The negro and the white man give rir-e to numerous mulattoes.
but the negro transported to the eternal snows of the North will suffer no change any more than will the white man under the burning sun of Af- rica. The giant will procure his stature amid the most cruel want, and the dwarf will never change his proportions, though supplied with the most nourishing food. Nature has determined the forms of all beings ; she has fixed the principles of their organization iu the embryo, and nothing can alter them. They resist every force that sur- rounds them, and ever preserve, amid the contin- ual variation of nourishment and soil, the original impress received from the hand of Nature.
ART. V. — The reproduction of pltinl* by Iliczecti.
The seed is the only source of varieties in vege- tables. It is only by this means that nature ef- fects those wonderful transformations every day witnessed, but too little understood. The major- ity of cultivators acknowledge this fact ; and even those who attribute beautiful varieties to culture also agree that many are furnished by the seed.
Wo propose, by the following experiments TO corded by a French naturalist of great experi- ence, to show the results of reproduction by seed.
Experiment L — I sowed, during several years, seeds of the china orange (citrus aurantium si- neme\ of a fine shining skin. I always obtained sweet orange trees, of which a part bore oranges of a thick, rough skin, and a part beautiful fruit of a skin still finer than the original which fur- nished the seed. The same thing occurred in the sowing of ordinary oranges of thick and rough skin — there grew up several trees of beautiful fruit, and one stock, whose leaves were like «hells in shape, but the fruit very ordinary and seeds few, and even those very poor.
I made the same experiment with the peach tree ; seeds from peaches borne on the same tree gave several varieties, for tho most part of ordi- nary fruit, but a few finer than the original planted ; but the stones never gave a cling-stono peach, nor a cling-stone tho ordinary fruit.
Tho almond gave the same result. Sweet al- monds produced only sweet almond trees. There was some difference'in the hardness of the shell, but I never obtained a single bitter almond.
Experiment II. — I sowed seeds of the red orange (citrus aurantium nncnse^hwrocJiuntwum, fructu sanguined). The trees which came from these produced only ordinary fruit of orange color.
Experiment III. — I sowed lemon seeds taken 'from fruit gathered in a garden where lemon and citron trees grew together, and obtained many trees, whose fruit presented a series of varieties, from the lemon to the poncire, but the larger part of them were simple lemons. Those having the characteristics of the poncire produced no seeds.
Experiment IV.— During a long series of years I sowed seeds of the sweet orange, sometimes taken from seedlings, sometimes from seedlings grafted on a sour orange stock or a lemon stock, but always obtained sweet oranges. This result is confirmed by all tho gardeners of Finale (a small town in the north of Italy) for more than sixty years. There is no oxample of a sow orange produced from a sweet seed, nor of M sweet orange produced from a sour seed.
OALLESIO'S TREATISE 0^~ THE CITRUS FAMILY.
11
are obtained the fol-
From these experiment: lowing conclusions:
Consequence I. — The seed perpetuate., the bpe cics and is tho source of varieties. It produces | mind!
sterility, ami illume modifications ul leaf known as curled or streaked.
more' frequently varieties interior to the mother plant ; sometimes, however, those superior to it. It never departs from the species unless the fecun- dation of another species gives it tho germ of a hybrid. (Exp. 1 and III.) This occurs equally in the seed of the seedling and that of the grafted tree. The trees which come from them repro- duce the same species which gave the seed, aside from the modification of varieties noticed above. (Exp. IV.)
Consequence 11. — The seeds of monsters, when they arc found, produce only ordinary fruit, which indicates that this extraordinary fruit is only a variety, and that the variety returns to the type in the seed. (Exp. II.)
Consequence III. — The seeds of the ^weet orange produce only sweet orange trees ; sour orange seeds produce only sour orange trees. These two orange trees arc preserved and perpetuated by the seed, and are, therefore, distinct species.
A crowd of reflections were presented to my It is recognized, I reasoned, that two dif-
ferent principles must co-operate for the repro- duction of all organized beings. We know that when these principles belong to different specieo monstrosities result, such as rnules among ani- mals, and among vegetables tho mixed plants known under the name of hybrids.
Why may not this principle, which effects so many phenomena, be the cause of monsters and varieties V These, it is true, do not prove the mixture, lor they arc produced even from the seed of isolated trees ; but is it necessary that the principles of two different species unite in fecundation in order to change the physiognomy of the product ? Cannot this be as well accom- plished by different properties of the two agents in the same species, and perhaps also by a differ- ence in the force of their action, or by a defect in tho uimlofiry in their principles? Is it not from the different proportion of these two agents of organic reproduction, that results this mar-
peculiar physiognomy? There is no fruit in the same plant even which is exactly like any other.
The ordinary peach never produces the cling- , } ^ . ^ distinguisbiug all animal8 by a
*tone, nor the cling-stonc the ordinary peach, | ..._„,._„ _,._/•? °o rru°,_: ,„„.-. .•„•;,.,.
and hence they are two distinct species, and can | not degenerate from the one to the other. The • same is true of the sweet and bitter almond. \ (Exp. I and IV.)
Consequence IV. — The seeds of lemons grow- \ ing in a garden where lemon and citron trees | rew together, produced poncires. This fruit is,
therefore, probably a hybrid of the citron, the absence of seeds showing that it is due to a for- eign fecundation. (Exp. III.)
AIIT. VI. — The theory of vegetable
My experiences as a whole sufficiently sub- stantiated the most of the phenomena presented by the multiplication from seed. They deter- mined the origin of varieties in plants. But it remained still to know the secret causes of these results — why nature departed in some cases from the system generally followed in reproduction. Every seed in nature is only the germ which is to renew the individual which produced it ; but some vegetables we have seen depart from this system.
What is the cause of these exceptions ? I ob- served that these phenomena took place from pref- erence in the seeds taken from plantations where there was a mixture of species or varieties ; that lemons gathered in the garden where there were citrons gave more varieties than those from trees standing alone ; that the seed of the black cabbage which had flowered in the midst of many cabbages of different varieties, produced frequently cab- bage remarkably well headed, much sought for its j
Might not the inequality which exists among the fruits of a single tree, as we observe it among the children of the same father, exist still more pronounced between tho fruits of two different plants, although of the same species ? Should not the pollen of the flower of one peach tree have a family likeness which would make it different from, that of the flower of another peach tree, and if these two peach trees, modified in their conception by fecundation, were already marked by those differences which constitute varieties, would not the reunion of their flowers produce a new combination which would constitute a variety still more irregular V Finally, what might not the difference in the proportions and the mixture of several pollens produce ? Would iiol a forced fecundation act upon the ovary in an extraordinary manner, and changing tho natural relations of the principles, form heterogeneous combinations incapable of bearing sexual organs ?
All these queries were presented to my mind in a manner so favorable and seductive that I made no delay in preparing experiments to throw light upon them. Their results have been so satisfactory that I have been able to draw therefrom a theory which has served as the basis of my classification of orange trees. I shall give an explanation of them.
AKT. \LL—fcrpci'intcnts in artificial fecundation,. Experiment V. — I chose a number of plants of
delicacy and whiteness ; that the seed of the ' the Asiatic, ranunculus, of simple flower, and of
crowfoot of several colors, which I cultivated in quantity in plots of my garden, gave very often double flowers, while this did not happen with the seeds of the same flowers which I had culti- vated in vases, each by itself, before the estab- lishment of my flower garden.
All these observations presented a certain anal- ogy between the hybrids and the monsters, and i suspected that the influence of the pollen which rfl'pptod Ihe mix'lurp in hybrids might also ciui^c
different colors. I put each one in a vase, and placed them in as many different windows, sep- arated from each other. I fecundated the flowers of ouc-hnlf these slants with the pollen of each other, but left the other half undisturbed. The following results were obtained : The seeds of the flowers fecundated a.s albrcstated produced roots of which some gave double flowers, others
semi-double, and the greater part only Hewers. Thr plants not fecimanted jrnvo only
GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILt.
plants willi single ilowcrs. This experiment was continued in the i'ollowing manner: I chose plants of semi-double llowers. and fecundated them with the pollen of other semi-double llowers. Several others of semi-double llowers were left untouched. The seeds from the fecun- dated flowers produced roots bearing for the most part double llowers, crowned often in the middle by a tuft of green leaves which rendered them very pretty. The seed from the Ilowcrs not fecundated, although already semi-double, gave only plants bearing single flowers. I re- peated this experiment for several years, but always with the same result, and a similar ex- perience with other llowers gave also the same.
Experiment VL—L fecundated the llowers of the orange with the pollen of the lemon tree, and I obtained a fruit whose skin was cut from end to end by a stripe yellow and elevated, hav- ing the characteristics of the lemon. The taste of the fruit was entirely that of the orange. It had few seeds, and these small and poor.
Experiment VII. — I fecundated the flowers of an orange tree with the pollen from several other orange trees, and obtained several times fruit whose pericarp had an irregular form, containing few seeds and those very defective.
Experiment VIII. — I sowed orange seeds whose flowers had been fecundated, and whose pericarp had suffered no change ; and obtained plants which do not yet bear fruit, but one of them is devoid of spines, and another displays a very vigorous foliage, which distinguishes it from ordinary orange trees.
METHOD PURSUED IN ARTIFICIAL FECUNDATION.
The procedure which was employed in the ar- tificial fecundation is simple, and indicated by na- ture herself.
I chose the ripest and most highly colored pol- len from the most thrifty flowers, and those most nearly ready to bloom, and applied it to the pistil of the flower which I wished to fecundate. In order to render the operation more exact, I de- tached the flower from its stem, and having de- spoiled it of corolla,! rubbed the anthers without touching them, upon the stigma to be fructified. This operation was repeated with several differ- ent flowers, without depriving the flower sub- mitted to thQ operation of its stamens. I took care to repeat it several times each day for sev- eral days. This precaution was necessary in or- der not to miss the moment of "blooming in the pistil which was to receive the pollen, and to as- sure myself by means of a quantity of this pollen taken from different flowers, respecting its dis- position to exercise its fecundating dualities.
In the flowers of the orange tree the moment of maturity for fecundation seems to be an- nounced by the appearance of a honey-like drop which forms on the stigma of the pistif,aud serves to retain the dust applied to it ; and the same maturity in the pollen is indicated by the deep yellow color it then assumes, and by its quality of adhering to the finger when touched ; but it is also necessary to be careful to multiply the exper- iments, because often after having fecundated several flowers as one may suppose, none, or but lew, may be successfully operated upon. But success is more certain with the ranunculus and carnation.
CONSEQUENCCS.
itcel. — Mixed fecundation operates in various ways upon vegetables. It may act upon the ovaries or upon the ovules. (Exp. V., VI., VII., and VIII.) When it acts upon the ovaries the pericarp of the fruit which has been fecun- dated receives modifications, and bears but few if any seeds. (Exp. VI. and VII.) When the ac- tion is upon the ovules the fruit which encloses them does not seem affected by it, but these ovules grown into seeds give sonic trees which do not resemble the parent tree, and most fre- quently have a tendency to sterility.
This tendency to sterility determines itself in different ways ; sometimes upon the flower, when we have plants with double, or semi-double, or possibly with simple and sterile flowers ; some- times upon the fruit, when we have plants with sterile or semi-sterile fruit, for these fruits either bear no seeds, or very few, and those badly nour- ished. In all cases these species of mules or hy- brids show unusual vigor in the thrifty branches free from spines, or in the better nourished leaf, or the flower with multiplied petals, or the fruit of more beautiful pericarp. These characteris- tics especially distinguish the greater part of the beautiful varieties ; hence the varieties are due only to an extraordinary fecundation which acts upon the seeds and modifies them at the moment of their conception.
ART. VIII. — Phenomena observed in hybrid plants. Observation /.—There is a species of Citrus known in Italy by the name of bizzaria, and in France by that of the hermaphrodite orange (aurantium limo titratum,fplio etfructo mixto), and which bears at the same time sour oranges, lem- ons, citrons, and mixed fruits.
I have observed upon this hybrid that the same branch bears at the same time" leaves and flowers, of which some announce the sour orange tree, others the lemon, and still others the citron tree. They produce fruit which belong sometimes to one of these species, at other times to two or even three of them mixed.
A scion which springs up violet often devel- ops a branch, some of whose flowers are violet, others white, and the buds of this branch grafted upon another stock sometimes produce there the caprices of the variety, and sometimes perpetu- ate a simple sour orange, although they may have been taken from the axil of a citron leaf; and reciprocally a simple citron, though taken from the axil of a sour orange leaf.
This caprice has forced the gardeners to mul- tiply it by the layer. It is thus that this hybrid is perpetuated without degenerating.
Observation II. — I fecundated white pinks with red pinks reciprocally The seeds thus produced gave pinks of mixed flower. Several of these plants presented the following phenomena : The same plant which gave mixed flowers gave some flowers entirely white, and others entirely red. One .year it gave only red flowers, and the next mixed flowers again. Others, after having pro- duced mixed flowers two or three years, subse- quently produced only red ones ; they seemed entirely to have returned 1o the species.
GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
.— Similar to the bizarrerie is the violet sour orange, which is cultivated at Paris, (citnts aurantium indicum fructu violaces). I have noticed in the specimen growing in the Jardin des Plantes that of the flowers springing from the same branch— some were white, like those of the orange tree, and others violet, like those of the lemon tree — a variation appearing equally in the fruit. Others have observed in individuals of this race that this caprice may ap- pear one year, be wanting the second, and reap- pear the third year.
Observation IV. — With the pinks, of which I spoke above, may be compared the streaked orange trees (citrus aurantium folio et fructu va- rief/ato). I have seen some of them which devel- oped branches in no way affected by that yellow- ish border which marks the foliage of these trees ; and I have seen this caprice reappear. in others after it had been almost lost for years.
Observation V.— The gardeners of Liguria have a practice of separating from other cabbages the cauliflower, destined for seed, by transporting them into isolated gardens, and surrounding them by a sort of enclosure of branches or straw in order to preserve them from the influence of the other species.
Owing to this precaution vegetable gardens present only plants of the ordinary form.
I have seen plots of cauliflowers (brassica olcracea botrytix) and of'brocolis (brassica vulgar is witiva), whose seeds had been gathered from plants of these two species, which had been sown pell-mell in the same bed, and almost every head had curled and streaked leaves.
CONSEQUENCES.
The pollen of one species acting upon the ovary of another, produces a modification in the seed which results from it. This modification is sometimes uniform and constant, and some- times variable and inconstant.
It offers most frequently the example of a mix- ture in the substance of the germ, which is iden- tified with it and affects all its parts without un- dergoing afterward any change.
It offers sometimes the example of a principle which circulates in the essence of the vegetable and sometimes affects its products, and which sometimes, without affecting them externally, passes, nevertheless, into their essences, to reap- pear in succeeding products, as well as some- times abandoning one part of the vegetable to concentrate itself in another. These caprices appear in hybrids but not in varieties. In these last the principles which are blended have among them considerable analogy, while those united in the hybrid are by nature heterogeneous.
The hermaphrodite orange is due to the seed. This is an ascertained fact, established in a dis- sertation by a Florentine naturalist, published ' in 1644.
It is owing to fecundation ; it is a fact which results from its forms, from the nature of its productions, and from all the phenomena of its existence.
The pink of mixed Mowers, giving red and white flowers, is due to the seed, and to a seed proceeding from a fecundated flower; it is a physical lact, since it results from an operation made with the greatest exactness.
The phenomena of these two hybrids have a
groat analogy with the phenomena of the streaked plants.
We remark in these hybrids this same incon- stancy in the accidents which gave rise to the belief that the streak is only a disease. If the heterogeneous mixture in fecundation is the cause of the mixture which affects the fruit of the bizar- rerie and of the colors which appear and disap- pear in the pink, it may be equally the cause of the streak. The streak offers no other circum- stance which it might be difficult to reconcile with these principles except the inconstancy of its phenomena. The example of the orange and the pink prove that it is not incompatible with this cause. If this streak be a disease, it origi- nates in the germ and affects the substance of it in the fructifying principle, and in this case can be due only to fecundation. But this phenome- non of streaks seems to be rather a monstrosity than a malady, since it has uniform and regular forms which affect all the leaves alike. If it were a malady, the individuals affected by it would not possess the vigor and health which usually characterize them. It would not be produced by preference from seeds gathered from plants mixed with other varieties, and a whole plot would not be affected by it, as hap- pens in the cauliflower, but they would appear isolated among healthy individuals, and might be produced by any seed whatever.
ART. IX. — Theories respecting vegetable reprodiiC'
tion — Corollaries — Conclusion. These experiments, facts, and analogies, taken as a whole, necessarily give rise to principles which form so many theories in the system of vegetable reproduction.
1. Nature has created the genera which form so many families distinguished from each other by peculiar marks.
2. Nature has created the species also which form so many branches in these families to which they belong on account of common char- acteristics.
3. The mixture of these species in the union of the sexes has given rise to hybrids.
4. The mixture and proportion of the produc- tive principles of several individuals of the same species have produced the varieties.
5. The irregular and forced action of one princi- ple upon the other in the act of fecundation, either in the same or in different species, has given rise to monstrosities.
6. The varieties are, therefore, due only to the seed.
7. The seed originates equally the varieties called choice and those growing wild.
8. Cultivation has destined the first to furnish the graft and the second to bear it.
9. The graft and the slip only can perpetuate these varieties in their natural condition.
10. The seeds of these varieties are also sub- mitted to the influence of fecundation and sub- ject to give new varieties by it, sometimes better, sometimes inferior, in quality. It gives types when the fecundation takes place according to the laws of nature.
11. Monstrosities arc individuals whose organi- zation has undergone an alteration by the fact of fecundation.
12. If this alteration occurs in the ovary the
14
GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
monstrosity is in the fruit which results from it and perishes with it. If this alteration be in the ovules, the monstrosity is in the germ, and this germ sown produces a variety which bears only monsters.
13. Every monstrosity regularly is sterile, either from the nature of the flowers which are without sex, or whose sexual parts become petals, or by the nature of the fruit which has no seeds. It must be multiplied by the graft or slip.
Corollary I. — The species form many branches in the families known as genera and to which they belong by common ties or characteristics; | these are disiinguished from each other by pecu- liar marks or features.
These features or characteristics are constant, and distinguish the type from the varieties. The types are always fruitful. They are reproduced by their seeds unless these seeds are modified by fecundation. They are also reproduced by the seeds of the varieties.
Thus the seed-beds offer the surest means of distinguishing the species from the varieties.
Every tree which is perpetuated by descent and preserves its forms, characteristics, and prop- erties is a type. It can undergo no changes ex- cept by fecundation ; but those changes which are made in the germ do not extend to the re- productive principle. The sexes disappear in these individuals, or pass intact througli the modifications of the flowers and the ovary. They bear in them the principles of the type. Among peaches I have verified three types, the peach, the cling-stone, and the nectarine peach. Among cherries I have verified two, the white-heart cherry, and the round or black cherry. I have data which leads me to suspect that there is a third type.
I have not yet determined the types of the apri- cot, the apple, or the pear. My experiences are not yet sufficiently advanced respecting these species. I have, however, determined to a cer- tainty that the Citrus has but four species.
Corollary //.—The blending of species in the reunion of the sexes has given rise to hybrids.
The hybrid partakes of the characteristics of the two species of which it is composed. Thus its exterior physiognomy reveals its origin. It has a tendency to sterility. The hybrid presents phenomena which are very singular. The mix- ture sometimes affects the substance of the vege- table, and we have then a mixed fruit whose forms are constant, but which is generally un- fruitful. Such are the poncire, the double mixed pink, and the double flowered ranunculus. At other times the mixture seems to be, as it were, wandering in the vegetable, and then it affects isolated parts of the plant capriciously, and dis- appears sometimes, to reappear in the products even of those parts which did not seern before to be affected. Such are the orange de bimrrerie, the violet orange, and the variable-flowered pink. In these cases the fruits affected are sterile, or semi-sterile, and the fruits not affected produce seeds.
Cwollary III— Varieties.— The mixture and proportion of the reproductive principles of sev- erarindividuals of the same species have given rise to varieties. Varieties are only aberrations or departures from the type. They are of two sorts : Varieties from excess, and varieties from
deficiency. Varieties from excess are due to a superabundance of the masculine part, and still more to the mixture of the pollen of several flowers. Varieties from deficiency are due to the lack of proportion between the sexes, or the weakness of the masculine part. They are also sometimes due to a defective organization of the ovary. Varieties from excess most frequently tend to sterility. They are marked by a striking thrift and a lack of thorns. Their seeds, when they have any, reproduce the type, unless a foreign fecundation has acted upon the flower and formed a new combination.
Thus, every sterile or semi-sterile fruit is only a variety. Its seed, in the state of nature, will return to the species. It is, therefore, by means of the seed-bed that we are enabled to recognize the species to which varieties belong. Stoutness and the loss of £horns always accompany the absence of seeds. It is, therefore, at the expense of the generative parts that vegetables acquire marked development in the leaf, bud, or fruit. Nature seems to have assimilated them to animals which acquire volume and lose the hair when they are barren. Varieties from deficiency deviate from the type for reasons directly opposite to those which cause deviation in varieties from excess. The imperfection of the fecundation affects the germs which bear in their principles a defect of organization. These germs produce only wild plants, as we call them, which are degenerated individuals, whose products are badly organized, and whose seeds are poorly nourished. These seeds, which often perish, still ordinarily gene- rate feeble and languishing plants, but sometimes they give types.
It is to the accidental vigor of a branch bear- ing well-formed flowers that we owe this return to the species. Thus, varieties by deficiency are due often to climate and culture, but these influ- ences act only indirectly. They facilitate or re- tard the development of individuals, and, conse- quently, the perfection of the reproductive prin- ciples ; but every change is operated in the germ and only as the effect of fecundation.
Every variety is a monster to nature, and some varieties are so regarded by men, such as the va- rieties from deficiency. But varieties from ex- cess ordinarily form the delight of the table and .the ornament of the garden. Nature aims at only the production of seed, and when fruit bears many seeds, it is perfect in the system of Nature.
Man seeks only pleasure in Nature, and hence judges differently of vegetable productions, on account of the advantage to be derived from their use. He, therefore, prefers, in certain fruits, those varieties whose pericarp is more developed, tender, and juicy. He is thus opposed to Nature, as in the case of the apple, pear, and peach. In other fruits he prizes the cotyledons or seeds, and regards the pericarp as useless, the more so in proportion to its development ; and in this he approaches the plan of Nature, as in the almond, chestnut, the bean, and the pea.
Others still are prized for a portion of the peri- carp, and a variety is considered choice only when this part is developed at the expense of^ the pulp, as in the melon and citron. Other fruits are valued for the pulp only, as the lemon and orange. There are also vegetables in which the flower alone is esteemed, and then that va-
GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
15
riety has the preference in which this part is de- veloped at the expense of the generative parts, as in double and sterile flowers.
Others are sought only for their aroma, as the sour orange. Finally, capricious man attaches value to monsters even, which are useless to him, and seeks for ornament odd and rare forms, such as shriveled leaves, leaves developing out of pro- portion the yellow streak which borders the leaf, a tendency of the branches to descend to the soil, and other monstrosities of this nature. All these caprices form the ornament of our gardens and the delight of our tables ; but to Nature they are departures from the object she has proposed to herself. She repels them and condemns them to perish. But man has succeeded in preserving and multiplying them. The seed refusing to give germs capable of reproducing them, he has propagated the individual he possesses by divid- ing it into a thousand parts, and thus by grafts and scions preserves it without change. Thus these adulterous sons have filled our gardens, and the types have been banished to the woods.
MONSTEES.
According lo the fifth theory monsters are only individuals whose organization has undergone alteration by fecundation. If this alteration take place in the ovules the monster is in the germ, and this germ sown, produces a variety bearing only monsters. We have already analyzed this phenomenon. If this alteration take place in the ovary, the monster is in the fruit which results from it and perishes with it. This phenomenon is so extraordinary that I hesitated a long time to believe it, but the experiments which I made respecting it have convinced me of the truth of its existence.
It presents three kinds of facts. The first is the alteration of the forms of the ovary. This part acquires a partial and irregular growth, which develops the pericarp on one side, and im- presses upon it very singular forms, such as linear, depressed or curved prolongations, which often contain in their interior a pulpy principle or a unilocular pulp. This phenomenon often appears in the orange and lemon. I have some- times seen it in peaches.
The second fact is the change of nature in a part of the ovary or of the pericarp resulting from it. This exterior body sometimes bears a binding or stripe of the species witli which it has been fecundated, as the orange, whose flower has been fecundated by the pollen of the lemon. It is difficult to harmonize such phenomena with principles well understood; but a fact is a fact, and Nature is sometimes as impenetrable as mar- vellous in her operations.
The third fact is : One flower fecundated by a quantity of dust from several other flowers offers the phenomenon of a fruit containing in itself a second fruit of the same nature. This phenome- non is frequent in oranges. Rumphius says that at Amboine there are species which present many such instances, but cease to give them if trans- planted to Banda. This has always been attri- buted to fecundation, and my experience goes to confirm this opinion. The fruit which presents this appearance is often ruffled, or in a manner folded inwards ; at other times the ruffling resem- bles a second fruit which proceeds from the inte- rior of the first, but 'always ruffled in form. If
we cut these fruits we perceive a mixture of peel and cells, the one in the other, which creates confusion and announces superfetation.
These monsters rarely bear seeds. They fre- quently occur in certain species, are rare in oth- ers, and never appear in the larger part of our indigenous vegetables.
These differences are due. perhaps, to the dif- ferent dispositions of the sexual organs and their relative conformation. They are, perhaps, due to difference in climate, which may favor or in- jure them at the time of flowering, and to other circumstances which Nature conceals from the eyes and researches of man.
CHAPTER II.
THE GENUS CITRUS ARRANGED ACCORDING TO THE NEW THEORY OF VEGETABLE REPRO- DUCTION.
ART. I. — Tlte Citrus — Divisions of Botanists and
Agriculturists — Division^ adopted in this work —
Primitive species — The species of the Indies.
The Citrus is a genus whose species are greatly disposed to blend together, and whose flower shows great facility for receiving extraordinary fecundation ; it hence offers an infinite number of different races which ornament our gardens, and whose vague and indefinite names fill the catalogues.
It is the multitude of tliese beings which we propose to describe. We shall endeavor to clas- sify them according to the principles already ex- plained. We shall describe species, hybrids, and varieties, and endeavor to establish their identity. This is, perhaps, one of the most difficult portions ,of our work, first, because the botanists or agri- culturists who have described the varieties have not always done so with the exactness requisite to enable us to recognize them among so many different names ; and, secondly, because in the course of centuries several of these varieties have disappeared, from frosts or other influences, and been replaced by a quantity of new varieties which resemble them, and which, by means of some slight differences, create confusion in the application and comparison of these descrip- tions.
It is only with the aid of knowledge which I have acquired of these varieties in our gardens, where I have cultivated them for a long time passionately, and in those of several semi-tropical countries which I have visited for this pur- pose, that I venture to undertake the task of re- conciling this numerous and perplexing nomen- clature.
I will begin by examining the species.
Some authors have regarded the citron alone as the original species and the type of the other species.
Tournefort, with most botanists of the six- teenth and seventeenth centuries, has recognized in the lemon and sour orange the characteristics of types as well as in the citron, anjihas consid- ered the sweet orange as a variety*1^ the sour orange.
The Arab agriculturists have ranked Adam's apple (la pomme dAdam) among the species, which they have designated by the name of lay-
10
GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
saniou or zaiiibau-; and being acquainted with the sweet orange only, they divided the genus into the citron, lemon, sour orange, and zambau.
The Italian and French agriculturists have added to these four species the sweet orange and a multitude of varieties known by the names of limes, lumies, poncires, &c.
Linnaeus, attached to the artificial system which he had just established, placed the Cit- rus among the polyadelphias, referring to the union of the stamens in several bundles; and he ranged it in the order of icasandrias, referring to the number of organs which he supposed, in all the species, to be twenty, although we find in the lemon and citron as many as thirty or forty.
He also fixes the accidents which "determine the form of the petiole of the leaf, and not hav- ing remarked that the petiole of the citron tree is not articulated like that of the lemon, he has made of these two races a single species, distin- guished by the characteristics of linear petioles (petiolis Hnearibus.)
The winged form of the petiole has been the characteristic which has determined his second species, and as this accident distinguishes equally the sweet and sour orange, LmnEeus has re- garded the latter as the type and the former as a variety, and united them under the name of Oitrus petiolis alatis, or Citrus, with winged petioles, Finally, he has made a third species of a Japan orange, described by Ksempfer, refer- ring to the ternate leaves, and called it Citrus trifoliata.
The later editors of Linnaeus augmented the number of these species by one called Citrus de- cumana, which Linnaeus himself ranked among the varieties. They thought that its obtuse and scolloped leaf (foliis obtusis emarginatis) was a sufficient characteristic to constitute it a type, and did not observe that this peculiarity is neither general nor constant, and that in consequence it is rather a monster than a characteristic feature. They have also added the Citrus angulata or limoneUus angulosus of Rhumphius, and the Cit- rus japonica of Thumberg, whose characteristics are, without doubt, top different from those of our specimens of the Citrus family not to consti- tute distinct species.
We have followed a new method ; we have begun by seeking the species among all Eu- ropean specimens of the Citrus, and arranged around these their hybrids and varieties.
We have also presented some reflections upon the species of the Indies, of which we have given only an idea, leaving to more enlightened bot- anists the task of examining and classifying them, as we have those of Europe.
The seed-beds have been the principal means made use of in our search for species.
We have seen the citron tree of the Jews (Cit- rus medico, cedra fructu oblongo crasso eduliodora- tissimo, GALL. SYN.,) reproduced constantly from the seed. It has many seeds, the greater part of which always give citron trees having constantly the same characteristics in aspect, form, and prop- erties ; itjij therefore, a type.
All orafer citrons are sterile or nearly so, and hence are only hybrids or varieties. Such are the Chinese citron, (Citrus medico, cedra fructu maxvmo aurantiato, GALL. SYN.,) the cedrat of Florence, (Citrus meclica cedra Florentine frucfu
\ parro, GALL. SYN.,) and several others which re- | semble them.
The common lcnion(C$^'«s mcdica Union fmctu ocato, G. S.,) also contains many seeds. It is re- produced constantly from the seed, and its pecu- liarities are perpetuated in its descendants. It is, therefore, a species. It produces hybrids and va- rieties, but they are found rarely, and only among many types. They have few seeds, and these re- produce most frequently the type. Sometimes they contain no seeds, and it is always in those deviating most from the type that we remark this sterility. The poncire or cedrat lemon (Citrus 'mcdica Union fructu citrato, GALL. SYN.,) is of this number.
The sour orange also produces many seeds, which always reproduce sour orange trees. Hy- brids are met with only among a great number of types. Varieties are found more frequently, but these deviate very little from the characteristics of the type, and their seeds always reproduce it ; hence the sour orange is a species.
The sweet orange has many seeds, which al- ways reproduce sweet oranges. They give rise to varieties, and we often remark in the same sowing, orange trees of ordinary fruit and others of superior fruit, but there is no single example in which these seeds have produced a sour orange tree. The sweet orange is, therefore, a species.
When it gives monsters they have no seeds, or very few ; such are the seedless orange (auran- tium semine carens, FER.,) the red orange (auran- tium hieroclmnticum, GALL. SYN.,) and the small China orange (Citrus aurantium caule etfntctu, pumilo, GALL. SYN.)
These four species are, therefore, certainly types. They do not, perhaps, present all the exterior characteristics which the botanists have adopted to distinguish species ; but in the study of natural history it is necessary to guard against forcing nature in order to make her conform to various systems.
She is not confined to constant forms and de- terminate modification in order to distinguish vegetables. She is pleased to vary those distinc- tive signs by which she has marked these divis- sions. She has, from preference, fixed them in the fructifying parts and the form of the leaf, but has not, on this account, renounced less general peculiarities. 1 1 is sufficient that a characteristic be constant, or unalterable, or pronounced, in order to be distinctive for nature. Thus the acidity and bitterness of the pulp of the sour orange, the aroma of its peel, its leaf and flower, being qualities constantly attached to this plant, altered neither by culture nor climate, nor even by the seed, may and must be distinctive char- acteristics of this species.
These are the principles which have guided us in the classification of the species of the Citrus of Europe. We have been able to recognize only four of them ; all the others are only hybrids or varieties. They all present the mixture of these four mother-species, and their characteristics, confounded and combined in a hundred different ways, never depart from the model of these four types.
Such is evidently the nature of all the races seen in the gardens of Europe. It is only in the Indies that we meet with a great number of oth- erR whoso physiognomy assimilates them to our
OALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
17
species, without, however, manifesting exactly i their peculiar features. Such are most of the races of Amboiue, of which Rumphius'has given us the description ; such are some races of the •Cochin China and China fruit, described by Lou- veiro ; and such, finally, are some races from Ja- pan, reported by Ksempfer and Thumberg.
The most of these races not only cannot be re- garded as varieties of our Citrus family in Europe, but they cannot even be considered as species be- longing to our genus Citrus. They differ sensi- bly from them, considered either with reference to the conventional features established by artifi- cial systems, or the natural features presented by the structure of their trunk, the form of their leaves, the character of their flowers, the proper- ties and modifications of their fruits. Their physiognomy, as a whole, announces that they belong to the same natural family as the Citrus, but that they form another branch or genus of it which has its- own species, varieties, and mon- sters.
Perhaps among those which have more rela- tion to the Citrus, there may be some which unite these two analogous genera and form a transition by which nature passes from one genus to the other; perhaps also this transition is apparent in some other species deviating more from them, and approaching more to the orateva marmelos, the murraya exotica, and the limonia.
We will leave to botanists the examination of this conjecture, which demands profound scien- tific knowledge, experimental observation of those plants which we at present are acquainted with only from descriptions, and which no one probably has as yet studied in all the details of their vegetable life. We shall confine ourselves to a general view of the species arranged by bota- nists under the genus Citrus, and the varieties which belong to them.
ART. II. — Order of divisions followed 1>y Nature — First division— Second division— Characteristic features which determine them.
These principles fixed, it is easy to classify in a natural order the Citrus family of Europe. Nature, which never proceeds by leaps, but al- ways gradually and insensibly in her operations, has commenced by dividing this genus into two sections, of which one is formed by the citron and the other by the orange. She has marked these two species by several pronounced and constant characteristics, which form their physiognomy.
The citron tree has always a leaf with a linear petiole, a scion or young shoot of a violet red, (lowers partly hermaphrodite and partly dioe- cious, the corolla white within and shaded with violet red without, stamens to the number of thirty or forty, the fruit oblong, yellowish, with a tender peel, adhering to the pulp.
The orange tree, on the contrary, has constant- ly a leaf with a winged petiole, the scion of a whitish green, the flower hermaphrodite, with flu entirely white corolla, and stamens to the num- ber of twenty, the fruit round, golden, and having a peel interiorly cottony or downy, and not at all adherent to the pulp.
But this first division was not sufficiently adapt- ed to the infinite combinations with which Nature wished to enrich this beautiful genus. She has,
therefore, subdivided these two species into as many sub-species, which have also received their character from the hand of Nature, and are, con- sequently, equally invariable.
The citron has beenjfftivided into the cedrat and the lemon. The orange has been -divided into the orange and bigarade. %
The cedrat tree has been distinguished by short and stiff branches, green and oblong leaves, whose petiole is smooth and continuous with the central vein which divides them, and by its ob- long fruit, formed of a thick, tender, and aro- matic peel.
The lemon tree, on the contrary, bears long, pliant, and flexible branches, with large and yel- lowish leaves, whose petiole is raised on the sides by a kind of jutting out, and articulated at the point of its union with the disk »of the leaf; it bears fruit with a smooth, thin, and bitter peel, and an abundant pulp, full of an acid but agree- able and piquant (sharp) juice.
The sweet orange differs from the bigarade by its appearance or bearing, which is more vigor- ous, by its flower, which has less aroma, and by its fruit, whose peel, which is thin, contains a more feeble essential oil, and whose pulp is full of a sweet and agreeable juice. A less majestic bear- ing, an infinitely more odoriferous flower, and a fruit whose peel possesses a bitter and piquant aroma, mingled also with the acidity of the pulp, are the distinctive characteristics of the bigarade tree.
These four species have been the elements for forming all the races we now possess. The3r have been subdivided into various generations, which have been modified by fecundation with- out altering the characteristics of the species, and have given rise to varieties. They have been subsequently crossed among themselves in a great number of different proportions, and have given birth to hybrids which are as numerous as the gradations or variations of which these com- binations are susceptible. Nevertheless, all these different races always, by their peculiarities, an- nounce either one or several of these types, and we find everywhere either their isolated mark or the mark of the reunion of several of them.
We will commence^by giving a representation of the species.
THE CITRON TREE.
The citron tree is an arborescent plant. It does not bend like the lemon tree. It does not grow high like the orange tree. Its branches are short and stiff. Its leaves are violet at first, but afterwards green, alternate, simple, oblong, den- tate, and sprinkled with an infinite number of little points, which are so many vesicles contain- ing the aroma. The petioles are nude, and only a continuation of the central vein of the leaf. The bud is large, conical, and guarded by a soli- tary spine. It puts forth, during almost the whole year, flowers in bouquets or clusters, each borne on a pedicel resting on a peduncle, some- times axillary, but regularly terminal and multi- florous. The flowers, in part hermaphrodite and partly dioecious, are formed of a mono- cephalous five-pointed calyx, which contains a corolla whose petals, five in number, are enlarged at the base, inserted around a hypo- gynous disk, white within, and shaded -with- out with a violet red; the stamens, thirty or
18
GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
forty in number, have the same insertion as the corolla; the filaments are brought together in cylindrical form, crowded at the base and polyadelphous ; the anther is yellow, linear, and divided in the middle By a hollow ; the pistil is composed of a simple ovary, ovoid, sur- mounted by a single, fleshy style, and a simple globular stigma, the pistil covered with a viscous substance like honey. The fruit is capsular and multilocular. It is formed of two skins, of which the outside one is rough, yellowish, thin, sown with an infinite number of globular vesicles ap- pearing like little points, and full of a very aro- matic oil ; the interior skin is thick, white, tender, fleshy, and forms the most considerable part of the fruit. Under this interior skin is a mem- brane which envelops the pulpy part, and which, penetrating the interior, forms double partitions converging to an axis, where they divide the fruit into nine or ten sections. These sections are polysperrnous. They are filled with a pulpy flesh formed from a quantity of oblong vesicles full of au acid juice, and containing cartilaginous seeds in indeterminate number.
THE LEMON TREE.
The lemon is a tree, but its pliant branches show a preference for an espalier.
Its leaves are ovoid, large, dentate, of a clear green, tending to yellow. They are borne on a petiole, articulated at the point of its union with the disc of the leaf, apd guarded by two projec- tions on the sides. Its shoots while tender are of a purplish tint. Its flowers are larger than those of the orange, and a little smaller than those of the citron tree, and partly hermaphrodite and partly dioecious. The corolla has five petals, col- ored "red without and white within, set upon a green five-cleft calyx, in the midst of which in the hermaphrodite flowers rises a pistil smaller than in the citron, surmounted by a stigma cov- ered also with a viscous humor and surrounded by from thirty to forty stamens united into several bodies and " bearing a yellow anther. The fruit, almost ovoid, is nippled, or pointed, at the summit. The exterior skin is thin and of a very pale, clear yellow tint. The inte- rior skin is thin also, white and tough. The first is formed of a quantity of little vesicles containing a very penetrating aroma, which vanishes in a great degree when the fruit reaches excessive maturity. The pulp is en- closed in nine or eleven sections, which form the most considerable part of the fruit, and are composed of an infinite number of oblong ves- icles of a light yellow, containing a sharply acid juice, abundant and very agreeable. The paren- chyma or pellicle which covers these sections is so adherent to the skin or peel that it can not be separated without being torn. It is thin, trans- parent, and without bitterness.
THE ORANGE TREE.
The orange is more vigorous than the citron and lemon trees. It forms a full and majestic tree. Its leaves are oblong, pointed, slightly den- tate, and winged in the petiole, and of a very deep green, which distinguishes them at once even to the sight from those of the lemon and citron trees.
The constantly hermaphrodite flower has five petals, and is distinguished from those of the citron and lemon by its whiteness and the grate-
ful odor emanating from it. The stamens, twenty in number, are divided into several bodies, and bear an oblong anther, whose pollen is of a deep yellow.
The fruit of the orange tree is spherical, and sometimes flattened. Its peel is more or less thin, according to the kinds ; its interior part is light, stringy, and tasteless ; its exterior is thin, colored a golden yellow, which distinguishes the orange from the lemon and citron, and is com- posed of a quantity ef vesicles containing an agreeable essential oil.
The sections, nine in number, which form the larger part of the fruit, are enveloped in a trans- parent membrane, which is with much facility detached from the peel, to which it clings only by the white, cottony substance forming the in- terior skin. The pulp contained by these sec- tions is formed of a quantity of oblong vesicles of deep yellow color, full of a sweet and refresh- ing juice, and contains oblong, cartilaginous, and yellowish seeds.
THE BIGARADE TREE.
The orange tree having sour fruit, or the bigarade, does not grow so high as the sweet orange ; its leaf has the heart of the petiole more pronounced ; its flower has vastly more aroma, and is preferred for perfuming waters and essen- ces ; its fruit is somewhat rough and of a deeper reddish tint, and the vesicles contained in the exterior skin have a stronger aroma, indicating also the bitterness of the interior peel and the parenchyma which covers the sections of the fruit. Its juice is sharp, and also slightly bitter from the membrane forming the vesicles in which the juice is contained.
THE CITRON FRUIT.
The citron is eaten only as a comfit. The quantity of juice in its pulp is so small that little account is made of it ; it has the properties of lemon juice, but is less acid and has less perfume. The peel of the citron is the part most used ; the essential oil which it contains in the exterior part is in a liquid state in the prominent vesicles, which give to it the tuberosities which charac- terize it. This oil is often pressed out, and, mixed with sugar, is soluble in water, and used tor giv- ing an aromatic flavor to liquors. The interior part of the peel, or the'white, is agreeable to the taste when its aroma is corrected by sugar ; it is especially delicious when preserved, and in this form it is generally found in commerce.
THE LEMON.
The lemon peel contains also an essential oil full of aroma ; but this fruit is used only for its acid and agreeable juice, which is very abundant, and serves for seasoning animal and vegetable substances. From it is also made, with sugar and water, a drink beneficial to persons suffering from inflammatory and putrid fevers. It is the principal specific in scurvy, and the best antidote against vegetable poisons.
The lemon contains citric acid in a perfect 'state, only mixed with water, from which it can be easily separated. It furnishes to the art of dyeing a means of enlivening red colors taken from the vegetable kingdom, and especially the color of the carthamus or saffiower, which by this means becomes so brilliant in silks. It has a similar use in China and India, where the juice is also used in order to prepare metals for gild-
GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
ing, in the same manner as Europeans employ aqua fortis.
THE OKANGE.
The sweet orange is one of the most delieious and refreshing of fruits. It is antiscorbutic and very useful in bilious maladies. Its peel has an essential oil full of aroma, which at maturity loses its biting and bitter quality ; the peel may then be eaten. In the finest varieties the peel is very thin. It is thicker in others, but the white part, instead of beiug fleshy as in the citron, is always cottony, light, and tasteless. Orange juice is extremely sweet and agreeable. The sweet orange is eaten in its natural state, and this is almostf its only use.
THE BIQARADE.
The bitter orange is not eaten. Preserves are made from them, which are very agreeable. The peel is more aromatic than that of other species, and the essential oil it contains has always a bit- terness and caustic taste which distinguishes it from the sweet orange. The juice of the bigar- ade is sharp and bitter. It is used in the same manner as that of the lemon, as an agreeable sea- soning for animal and vegetable substances, and especially for fish, whose tendency to putrefaction is thus greatly diminished. But the principal of the bigarade tree is that of its flower. This is exceedingly sweet-scented, and from it are made perfumed waters and essences, which surpass in gratefulness those of the lemon, sweet orange, or citron.
This finishes the description of the four primi- tive species into which the numerous family of the Citrus is divided.
Before undertaking the description and identifi- cation of their derivatives, it is necessary to estab- lish the acceptation of several terms which have been adopted by botanists, agriculturists, and gar- deners to designate some different races whose characteristics have not been well determined. We will examine the meaning of the words lime, lamie,aud poncire.
It is difficult to determine with exactness the idea attached to each of these terms, and still more difficult to follow out all their application to various races by different writers ; but we shall not have much trouble in recognizing that all these names have only been invented in order to designate the hybrids which we meet with every day in our gardens, and which could not be called by the names already in use, be- cause these names belonged to the species and their varieties. As, however, the origin and na- ture of these fruits was little known, they were unable to employ systematically the names which they have assigned indefinitely to individuals of very different nature.
Ferraris seems to designate, under the name of lime, nippled fruits derived from the orange and the lemon, and under the name of lumie, hy- brids of large, round fruit with a yellow, thick skin, and a very sour thin pulp. But in practice he does not always make this distinction, and, for example, places among limes the lemons called sweet as well as those of an orange pulp ; and after having classed among the lumies the Ad- am's apple, under the name of lumia mlentina, and other hybrids of several forms, and having a citron peel, he describes, under the name of limes, orange-lemons, of which several resemble
and are confounded with his lamics, such as the lima dulcis, which he puts in the same class as the Citrus aurantiqtum, or cedrat of China, which he calls lima citrata scabiosa et monstruosa.
He subsequently confounds these same races of fruits with lemon-cedrats and poncires, which he regards as different species, although these terms are also considered as only synonyms represent- ing equally the same hybrid.
In the midst of this confusion, however, we find that all writers have recognized iJnder these same names of lime, lumie and poncire, the hy- brids of the Citrus family, although each one has had a separate definition for them. These are the terms appjied to hybrids in Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal.
We shall, therefore, follow this nomenclature, and in order to give to it more precision, we will designate the poncire as the hybrid of the lemon and the citron or cedrat ; the lime as the hybrid of the orange and the lemon ; and the lumie as the hybrid of the citron and the orange.
We shall subdivide these three races of hybrids into two classes.
The first comprises hybrids which have pre- served all the physiognomy of the principal spe- cies, from which they are distinguished only by very slight modifications hardly affecting any part of the plant.
The second class comprises those hybrids in which the mixture is so pronounced that they cannot be confounded with any of the varieties of the primitive species. •
We shall retain for the first class the name of the species to which they belong, accompanied by an epithet indicating the modification which distinguishes them ; such are the Chinese citron, which we will call the monstrous citron, and the cedrat of Florence, which we shall still call the citron of Florence.
The second class will preserve the names of lime, lumie, and poncire. We shall, however, be careful to arrange the different varieties under the species which predominate in the mixture, and to which they seem most to belong. This is the method I shall follow in the following de- tailed descriptions of species, varieties, and hy- brids.
CHAPTER III.
IDENTIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION.
ART. I.— The Citron Tree.
The citron tree was for several centuries a con- stant species, preserved in Europe without hy- brids or varieties. Thus Theophrastus, Virgil, Pliny, Palladius, Crescentius, &c., represent it. As soon, however, as its cultivation was extended and it was multiplied by seed, it gave varieties ; and it produced hybrids also so soon as it was placed in the same" soil with lemon and orange trees. Hence the three varieties of Mathiole and Gallo, and the more numerous ones of the Arabic agriculturists; hence also the infinite races of later writers, who have classed among the species of the citron tree the multitude of monsters which reappear every day without ever resembling each other, and which are hardly ever perpetuated.
Ferraris reports eight species of this tree, and
GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
gives plates of five, of which three arc monsters.
Comrnelyn gives four species of it, of which two are only monsters.
Volcainerius gives ten species, of which sev- eral are only monsters, and others are sub-va- rieties or varieties represented tvyicc.
The plan we shall follow simplifies this nomen- clature, and causes the most of these above-men- tioned races to disappear.
There is only one type ; but hybrids are num- berless, wm'ch it is impossible and useless to fol- low, and which must be reduced to those whose peculiarities are most remarkable.
The citron of Media, known in Liguria as the citron of the Hebrews, or the Hebrew citron, is certainly the type.
There are only three varieties deserving men- tion : the citron of Genoa, which surpasses the type in size, but is inferior to it in taste and deli- cacy ; the citron of Salo, which surpasses the type in delicacy and aroma, but is inferior to it in volume ; and the double-flowered citron, re- markable for its double or semi-double flower, and so prone to irregular fecundation as often to produce monsters.
The hybrids seem innumerable, because they present a gradation of shades of difference in their phjr8iogrioiny, which is as varied as the combinations from which they result ; but when accustomed to seeing them, one easily perceives that there is a determinate number of mixtures, to which all may be referred.
I will begin by dividing them into two classes — hybrids and semi-hybrids. I understand by hy- brids those in which the mixture has sensibly altered the natural physiognomy of the species, and by semi-hybrids those in which this mixture is so" slight as to be determined only with great care. I will place in this article only the last class, and discuss the first class under the articles concerning the respective species which predom- inate in the mixture.
The semi-hybrids of the citron tree are only three : the citron of Florence, the citron of China, or the orange-citron, and the sweet citron. All the other citrons with which the Hesperides of Cornmelyn are filled are only sub-varieties dif- fering only by insensible peculiarities, which ap- pear and re-appear successively, or else isolated monsters, which are only fruits of which every tree produces some annually in the midst of or- dinary fruit, but which are not perpetuated by their seed. Among the first, the sub-varieties, are the citron of Corfu, whose fruit is so small and ordinary that it is called in the country the cedro mazza-cani. The cedrat of Holland, the ce- drat bergamotte, the cedrat oviform, the cedrat of Garda^the cedrat musciato and the dorato, names given by Volcamerius, are only lemon-cit- rons, whose family is so numerous and varied that I might easily describe twenty varieties of them now growing in my garden, produced from seed, and which I regard as unworthy to be perpetu- ated by the graft, because they possess no char- acteristic rendering them extraordinary.
*The species with monstrous fruits completes the list of the Hesperides.
At the present time I know of but very few
*Up to this point Prof. Wilcox had translated this work at the time of his death. The translation has been com- pleted by Mrs. C. A. Cowgill. of Tallahassee. Fla.
among the citrQii trees which form monstrous varieties. The lemon and the orange present plants, of which the fruit is striped, starred, &c., but the citron produces no other than fruit which is tuberculous, a form peculiar to this species. The fruits shaped like a hand, or crumpled around the nipple ; those which enclose within themselves another fruit with its rind, or only a multitude of cells crossed and confounded one with another, all appear upon ordinary trees only in the midst of other fruits ; and, far from owing their form to the nature of the plant which bears them, they are the result of an extraordinary and irregular fertilization, which has acted upon the thin skin (pericarp) of the individual fruit.
Thus it becomes necessary to place in the class of monstrosities the five varieties spoken of in the Hesperides by Volcamerius, on pages 41, 45, 65, 116, 117.
These extraordinary fruits appear more fre- quently among certain varieties, yet but a few of these monsters are found, in the midst of a great number of fruits whose forms are unaltered.
VARIETIES — NO. I.
Citrus medica cedra fructu oblongo, cras^o, eduli, odora- tissimo. Citronier des Juif*. (Cedrat.)
Cedro degli Ebrei, vnlgo. (Pitima.) Malnni citreum maximum Salodianum : Cedro grosso bondolotto. (Vole.") Ceclrato ordinario. (Ib.)
Citreum vulgare. (Tournef.) Limonia cedra fructu maximo. conico, verrucoso, sapore, et odore insigni. (L. B. Calvel.)
Citrus medica : cedro : cedrato. (Targ. Inet. Bot.)
Citrus medica cedra. (Desfont, Tab. de FEcole de Bot.)
The cedrat, properly speaking, or citron of Media, is a tree of medium height, with a root greatly branched or ramified, yellow outside, whitish within.
The general appearance of the tree is irregular and scattering. The trunk is of a greyish green, striped with white. The wood is hard, and branches tough, short, and well grown. The buds are large, prominent, and furnished with a single thorn, short and thick. The shoots, or scions, violet at their budding, change finally to green. The leaf is long, regularly pointed, and almost as large near the extremities as in the middle ; it is of a beautiful green, bitter to the taste, and odorous. The flowers are in clusters — cup-shaped, large and full — haying five white petals shaded on the outer side with purple, and thirty or forty stamens ; the anther oblong, and clear yellow ; the pis til, large and long, rests upon the ovary. Some of the flowers, lacking this part, fall off. The flower has a feeble odor, and yields very little essence.
The fruit is large and oblong, carrying some- times the pistil upon its point. The rind is yel- lowish, thin, glossy, a little uneven, and contains delicious aroma. The inner skin is thick, tender, aromatic, rather sweet, and may be eaten with sugar, or made into conserves. This skin ad- heres very closely to the pulp, which is thin, com- posed of an infinity of whitish vesicles, contain- ing a slightly acid, yet somewhat insipid juice, and enclosing a great number of oblong seeds covered by a reddish skin, and formed of a whit- ish and bitter kernel. The citron tree of Media is grown in Liguria only from slips ; these root very easily. It is sometimes grafted upon the bigarade (sour orange).
It bears but little fruit, and fears extremely the
GALLESIO'ti TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
31
cold, it blossoms almost continually, and cbiclly iu "winter. The fruit is sold in autumn and in winter for conserves, which are delicious. It is bought in summer by the Jews, who use it in August for their Feast of Tabernacles.
This tree is cultivated largely at San Renio, San Steffano, and Taggia (Department of Mari- time Alps), and there is a line tree in the Jarclin des Plantes, Paris.
VARIETIES — NO. II.
citrus medica cedra fructu maximo Ceiiucnsi.
Citronnier a gros fruit.
Cedrone.
Maluni citrum C.i'iiuciisc vulgaiv. ( Vole, t
Citruni Geuueiisc magui increment! . (For. llesp. i
The citron of Genoa differs but little from the dlrou of the Jews, except in its fruit, which is extremely developed, and of which the flesh is tough and less delicate. This variety is cultivated for Its beauty, rather than its use to the confec- tioner, at Tazzia, St. Remo, and at Mcnton.
VARIETIES— NO. III.
Citrus inedica ccdra frnctu parvo Salodiauo. Citronier de Salo : Petit cedrat : Ccdrino : Ctdratello. Citnun JSalodianum parvuin, bonitate i)rimum. (Fer. Hesp.) Ccdrato di Garda. (Vole., part 2.)
The small citron of Salo is a very line fruit, sought after for the aroma of the outer and for the delicacy of the inner skin. It originally ap- peared at Salo. on the Lake of Garda, where its culture is very extensive.
It is also cultivated at Nervi, at Pegi, and at Final, where it is called cedriuo.
It differs from the citron of Florence only in the leaf, which, in the latter, resembles that of the lemon, while that of Salo has an entirely cit- ron leaf ; and in the form of the fruit, which is a little more ovate. Some pretend that this is in- ferior in tiistc and perfume to the citron of Flor- ence.
VARIETIES— NO. IV.
Citrus medica ccdra flore scmi-plciio. ( 'itronnier a neur double. Cedro a fior doppio.
Malum eitreiuii ilore plcno, et fruelu proIi!Vn>: Cairo di iior c frutto doppio. (Vole.)
The double-flowered citron is a variety due to a superabundance of fructification, modifying the germ in its formation.
It is improperly called a double flower, as it j is seldom that these flowers are truly full and without stamens. They are usually but semi- double, and often yield monsters, having inside a second fruit.
We shall have occasion to observe that this phenomenon is very frequent in the varieties having semi-double flowers.
HYBRIDS— NO. V.
Citrus medica ccdra frnctu monstruoso aurautialo, ror- tice crat^o nmcronato, medulla exL'ita. seminibus curcnte.
Cedrat monstreux, ou cedrat de la Chine.
Citrus- inedica tubcrosa: I'oncire. (T)csfonf.)
Lima cttrnta monstttiosa sire scabios-i. < (•Yr.'i Lima Humana. (Miller.)
The large orange citron is a plant having short and stiff branches, llaltrned at tlie axil of the leaf.
These branches have many knots or joints
closely placed, bearing large buds, which 'often
develop into many shoots. The leaves, based
upon a large nnd ecoop-simpod petiole, are fleshy
4
and of a deep green color; they are ovate in shape, without points, and are often quilled at their edges like the lip of a vase. The flowers arc in clusters, their corollas being red on the outside.
Its fruit is of the size of the largest citron, being often seventy centimetres (nearly twenty-eight inches) in circumference. Ordinarily they are nearly round, somewhat pointed at the apex, where the rind forms itself into a fold, and pene- trates to the middle of the inner skin, and even to the pulp.
The outer skin, or rind, is of a pale orange color and very uneven, being covered with large bunches.
The inner skin, which forms the body of the fruit, is white, coarse, and leathery. Its pulp is thin and acid, and never contains seed.
This citron tree is multiplied by graft, and also grows very easily from layers, but is seldom, cul- tivated in Liguria, except by amateurs and nur- serymen. A plant may be seen in the Garden of the Museum of Natural History, Paris.
HYBRIDS — NO. VI.
Citrus medica cedra aurantiata, folia oblonga, petiolo undo, flore candidq, fructu medio sub-rotundo, cortice crispo, crasso, exterius croeeo, intns albo, satisque tenero et in cibatu gratissimo: medulla colore anranti, jucundre, dulci.
Cedrat a fruit doux.
Cedrato dolee.
Maluni citreum dulci medulla. (E'er. Ilesp.)
The sweeltfruited citron is a genuine luinie, uniting many of the characteristics of the citron to those of the orange. Its leaf is citron, its flower orange. Its fruit has the form of the cit- ron, and the color of the orange, having a thick yet delicate skin which may be eaten with pleas- ure like that of the citron, and a juice which, modified by the influence of the orange, has a sweet and very agreeable taste.
This plant often bears monsters, enclosing within themselves a second fruit about the size of a walnut, and covered with a golden skin like the other fruits. This phenomenon is due to ex- traordinary fertilization, and occurs more fre- quently among hybrids than in the ordinary va- rieties ; most often in varieties having semi- double flowers.
HYBRIDS — NO. VII.
Citrup medica ccdra limoni folia Florentinum, fructu parvo. ad basim lato, in papilla desinente, odoratissimo, cortice flavo, intus albo tenero, in cibatu gratissimo; me- dulla acida.
Cedrat de Florence: petit poncire.
Cedratello di Firenzc.
Limon citratus Petnv sanetso. (Fer. Ilesp.)
Citrum Floreutinum odoratissimum. (Mich. Cat. Hoft. Flor.)
Malum citreum Florentinum. (Vole.)
Citrus medica Florentine : citrouierdc Florence. (Desf., Tab. de 1'Ecole Bot.)
The citron of Florence has been placed by Ferraris among the lemon-cedrats, and has, iu truth, characteristics proving a mixture of citron with lemon.
Its general appearance is that of the citron tree, though growing only to a shrub, and its tough branches can scarcely be made to submit to the espalier (trellis).
But the leaf is as large as the leuioo, and simi- lar to it in form and color. The leaf is remarka- ble because of the yellowish spots upon the clear green, peculiar to this species.
&ALLESICT8 TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY
Its flower has a smaller corolla than that of ' the ordinary lemon and citron, and is shaded out- I side by a brighter red. Its fruit, of the size of an i ordinary lemon, is covered with warts or tuber- \ cities; it is flattened on the end next the stalk, i and pointed at the other end. The rind is thin, of a clear yellow, and full of a delicious aroma. The inner-skin is thick, white, and very delicate, having a pleasant taste, and may be made into ' delicious confections. The pulp, enclosed in nine very thin sections, is greenish and acid. This variety, which appears to be a hybrid of the lemon, is highly esteemed. It will not endure cold, and is cultivated but little in Liguria, though freely distributed through Tuscany. I have never seen it multiplied but by grafting.
AHT. II. — Of the Lemon Tree.
Citrus medica limon florc polyandrio, eoepe agynio, co- rolla intus alba, exterius rubea, folio in summa teneritate violaceo, petiolo articulate, fructu flavo, obovato, cortici tenui, medulla ampla, grate acida.
The limonier (or lemon tree) is a species rich in varieties, and still richer in hybrids. The type is an oblong fruit, of which the rind is glossy and yellowish ; thin, and full of a caustic aroma ; the inner skin, nearly useless, is white, leathery, and very adherent to the peUcvle or thin skin which covers the sections. Its pulp is a yellow- ish white, abundant, and encloses a quantity of j acid juice, agreeable and aromatic. It is this' which makes the value of the fruit, It being use- ful in cookery and iu the making of drinks.
This type is most often reproduced from seed, though it is very frequently modified by fertili- zation, and the result is an innumerable crowd of varieties, which are mingled and confounded with the hybrids of the citron and the orange. In proportion as the skin thickens, the Iem7>n removes itself from its type and approaches the citron. I do not, however, establish upon this fact the principle that all lemons whose fruit lias fleshy skin must be hybrids, for this pecu- liarity may reach a certain point independently of the influence of the citron ; and there are lemons whose skin is thicker than the type, and yet they have not the slightest indication of the citron. These are varieties due to accidents of fecundation. The Lemon tree attaches itself also to the bigar- ade and sweet orange trees by a very great num- ber of hybrids, which form the numerous class of limes. On this side, however, the line of divis- ion is more marked, and it is difficult to confound the mixed species with the varieties.
We will commence by a description of the type, choosing afterwards those varieties sufficiently marked to show their difference with their model. We will then speak of the hybrids which attach themselves to the citron tree, called poncires, and finally of those attached to the orange tree, called lumies.
To reduce them to their natural order we must place in the centre the type or model, which leans, on the one side, towards the citron, on the other, towards the orange. In passing, we take up, first, all varieties which may be remarkable ; afterwards, the hybrids, which, like a chain , tie all these races together.
Turning towards the citron tree I find a large number of lemon trees Whoso fruit has thick,
uneven skin, nearly always oblong, and differing among themselves"only in size. Of these I sec but three varieties: 'First, the lemon, of semi- double flower, whose fruit is regularly indiffer- ent ; second, the lemon, of sour juice ; and third, the lemon of sweet juice. Their sub-varieties being innumerable, I pass them by in silence. Passing on from the varieties I come to ihe hybrids of the citron.
I recognize but two races among them, of which each has sub- varieties, distinguished only by the size of fruit, and by insignificant changes of form. The first of these hybrids is the lemon-citron, with oblong, tuberculous fruit, called poncirc, a fruit ordinaire. The second is the lemon-citron, having egg-shaped, smooth- skinned fruit, called pondre, a fruit fin. The most remarkable variety of this is the Pomme dc Paradis (Paradise-apple).
Starting again from the original type I meet varieties which improve upon the principal spe- cies by the delicacy and odor of the skin, and by the abundance and aroma of the juice. They all have fruit nearly round. The first is the limonier a fruit Jin, or lustrato, of Home. The second is the limonier liyurien, or bugnetta. The third is the limonier a petit fruit, or balotio, of Spain.
I come finally to the hybrids of the orange, which are so numerous that it is impossible to follow them into all their modifications. I shall, therefore, divide them into two classes, hybrids of the bigarade, and hybrids of the sweet orange. At the head of the first I place the bergamot lime, and lime of Naples. I put at the head of the second the sweet lime, or the orange-colored lemon of sweet juice. All other races of this nature are but modifications of these.
Thus is shown the entire ramifications of the limonier, or lemon tree. Having closely exam- ined the crowd of varieties spoken of b}r Fer- raris and Yolcamerius, and by many other wri- ters, I find them all in those I have named; therefore I think it useless to make isolated de- scriptions, as they would be but a repetition, under different names, of the same objects, diver- sified sometimes by slight accidents unworthy of note.
VAKIET1ES — .NO. VIII.
Citrus medica limon frtu-tu ovatu, cni>^>, H ^mtr- nri<l<>.
Limonier de Genrs.
Lirnone Gennvesc.
Limon Ligurise ceriascus. ( Kn . )
Limon vnlgarie. (Tournef. Hist. K«J. lin-b.t
Mains limonia acida. (G. B. Pin.)
Limonia mains. (.1. Bauh.)
Limon vulgarls: Witte limocn. (Comirietyn. llos)>.
Limon vnlgaris: Limon vol^aiv. (Yok-.i Citrus medica ucida: Citronicr ai^rc. (De-font. Tab. <]•• 1'Ecolc de Bot.'i
The lemon of Genoa is a vigorous tree, which will also extend itself en, espalier (on a trellis), and bears an abundance of fruit. Its trunk, branches, leaf, and flower are like other lemons. It has no thorns, and blossoms continuously from spring till fall. The fruit, usually egg- shaped, has a skin a little thick— sometimes smooth, sometimes uneven— and an abundance of sharp, acid juice. It is very generally culti- vated upon the coast of Liguria, from Spez/ia to Hyeres. It is the fruit of commerce by reason of its thick skin protecting it in its transit. It is multiplied by graft, but may be raised from seed.
GALLKSIO'S TRKATISF,
TII.K CITRIC FAMILY.
These trees (from seed), however, \vill nearly always have thorns.
VARIETIES— NO. ]\.
Citrus medim Union fractu ovato, eortico gtebro, temii,
mrdnlhi :iddis>ima.
Limonicr a fruit ftn : lu>tnif.
Limone lino: lustra to.
Union acris: ]\hilns limonia minor ;U'ida. (II. I'. I'MI. Tmmu'f. lust. ]{<•!. llt-rl),)
The lemon of delicate fruit is the favorite among lemons. Its tree resembles the ordinary lemon, but its fruit, which is ovoid and large, has a remarkably smooth, glossy skin, so thin that one can scarcely distinguish the white part. Its pulp is very delicate, enclosing a large quan- tity of acid, agreeable juice, full of a delicious aroma. It is asserted that this fruit, coming from Rome, where it is known by the name of Instrato, bears a liner perfume than when culti- vated elsewhere. At Liguria there are many va- rieties of it, called St. Remo, Bugnetta, and Span- ish Balotiu. The last has a very small fruit, having all the peculiarities of the Instrato. The balotin seems to be a product of the lustrato and lime of Naples— a lime a trifle smaller, and surpassingly rich in delicacy and fragrance. This balotin is entirely different* from that which is cultivated under this name at the (iarden of Plants, Paris.
The former seems to be a lemon with round fruit, di tiering from a lustrato only in size of fruit, while the one at Paris appears to be a lemon -citron or poncire.
VARIETIES — NO. X.
Citrus medica limon medulla, aoido cnrento.
Limonier a fruit cloux.
Limone dolce.
Union <lulci medulla. (Tournel1. )
Mains limonia major dulci*. tC. E. Pin, i
Mains limonis minor dulcis. (Tb.)
Li in 011 doux. (Miller.)
Limons doux. (Olivier de Sen1. )
Limon dulci medulla : Zoete limoen van Ferrartus. (Commelyn Hesp. Belg.)
Limon dulcis vulgaris : Ital., Limon dolce ordinario. (Vole.) Limon Lusitanus, dulci medulla : Limon da Port- ugal dolce. (Ib.)
Limon dulci medulla vulgaris : Limon dulci medulla Olysipponensis. (Ferr. Hesp.) Lima dulcis : Ital., Lima dolce : Limetta Hispanica dulcis. (Vole.)
Citrus medica limon : Lime douce. (Desfont. TEcole de Bot.)
The lemon of sweet fruit is known almost everywhere under the name of sweet lime (lima dulci*). Its peculiar juice prevents its being classed as a lemon. Some have given it a place among those neuter fruits whose origin is un- known, but which, when they approach the lemon, are called limes. I shall not combat this opinion, neither can I adopt it ; for this lemon bears no trace of the orange, in leaf, flower, or fruit. Its juice has not, it is true, the acidity of the lemon, but it has not the sweetness of the or- ange, being insipid rather than sweet. This may be owing to an imperfection in the organs that renders them incapable of elaborating the sap, which nourishes it and should produce citric acid. In this case the fruit is a monster, rather than a hybrid, and this monstrosity being pecu- liar to the plant and common to all its fruit, forms thus a true variety, which I arn forced to place in the list of lemons. I shall not enlarge upon this, but if one sees a lemon of which the juice is sweetish and the pulp extremely white, that is the sweet lime. It is divided into many
varieties in nowise distinguished the one from
the other, save by the si/e, the shape, and the
delicacy of the fruit. The most common bears a lemon middling
round, often wrinkled at the point, with a thick ; skin, and a white and sweetish pulp. There is
a fine plant at Versailles which they call sweet- j lime ; it is also found all over Liguria, where i they cultivate many sub-varieties, of which the
most common bears a fruit with elongated point, I and joined in croups of three or four upon one i stalk.
VARIETIES— NO. XT.
Citrus limon llore semi-plono. Limonier a tteur semi-double. Limon a flor seuii-doppio. Limonier a fleur double. (Miller Diet.)
The double-flowered lemon is a tree whose flowers have many petals, but are not entirely sterile. One cannot give a description of its fruit, as it is influenced and changed by plants near it, and strangely modified in form of fruit. It has no seeds, and is very rare.
HYBRIDS— NO. XII.
Citrus medica limon fructu citrato, oblongo, cortice rn- goso, crassoet eduli.
Poncire d'Espagne : Limon cedrat.
Limone-cedrato.
Ponciles. (Olivier de Sen-.)
Poncira, quasi poina cerea. (Salinas, ad Solln.)
Limon Sponginus. (Ferr.)
Poncires, quasi poma citri. (G. Bauh, Tlieat. Bot.)
Limon citratus : Limon cedrato. (Vole.)
Limon citratus : Mala limonia citrata. (Tournef.)
Citrus medica Balotina : Citronier Balotin. (Desfont. Rcole de Bot.)
The lemon-citron with tuberculous fruit is a poncire, having the appearance of a lemon tree, of which the fruits, nearly always oblong, have an uneven skin, thick and edible.
They are, however, less delicate than the lemon-citrons with glossy skin, but are much cul- tivated in Liguria.
Its varieties are innumerable; among them we can place the limon stnatus amalphitanus, the limon rosolmns, and others, spoken of by Ferra- ris. Also the Umonvum- citratum of Volcamerius, and many others.
I think we may also place in this series the variety cultivated' in the Garden of Plants at Paris, under the name of Balotin. It has the same appearance and traits, and if the descrip- tion of its fruit given me by the gardeners is ex- act it belongs to the poncires.
HYBRIDS— NO. XIII.
Citrus medica limon fractu citrato, ovato, cortice glabro, crasso, cibatu gratissimo, pulpa fere nulla acidula, vulgo Pomum Paradisi.
Poncire di San Remo, or pomme de Paradis.
Limone cedrato fino : porno di Paradiso.
Pomum Paradisi. (Ferr.)
Limon citratus : limon cedrato. (Vole.)
The lemon-citron, with smooth skin, is the tree commonly known as poncire. It has the appearance of a lemon tree ; its fruit, egg-shaped, has the glossy rind of the lemon, while its inner skin, thick, like that of the citron, is of a dazzling whiteness and an exquisite delicacy. It may be eaten raw with sugar, or as a conserve. In Li- guria, where the people are gourmands with this fruit, it is in every garden. There are trees bear- ing fruit larger than the largest citrons. The favorite variety is called Paradise apple. It is a poncire much larger than a lemon, and with skin
GALLEiSIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
so thick that it has scarcely any pulp. I shall ; not give the description of all the varieties | spoken of by Ferraris and Volcamerius. They all resemble" this one, and arc marked by the : same traits.
The poncires are always seedless. I have \ never yet found one in them.
HYBRIDS — NO. XIV.
Citrus medica limon aurantiata fruetu ovato, croceo. me- dulla dulcissima.
Lime sucree.
Limone aranciato : lima dolcissima.
Limon saccbaratus sive dulris.-hnus : limon zuccherin dolce. (Vole.)
The sweet lime, or lemon with orange pulp, is a hybrid which has preserved all the traits of the lemon in the leaf and outside of fruit, while the pulp is sweet like the orange.
This variety is nearly the same as the limon tiaccliaratum coniferum, of VOLC., and the limon liwitanie augustalis dulci medulla, of the same writer. In Liguria a great number of these hy- brids are cultivated, but in passing from one gar- den to another one cannot but observe that by slight changes they have been modified infinitely.
HYBRIDS — NO. XV.
Citrus medica limon aurantiata fructu parvo, suavissime odorato.vulgo, Bergamotto.
Lime Bergamotte.
Limone Bergamotto.
Limon Bergamotta, aliis auvantium Bergamotta. (Vole.)
Citrus medica Bergamium : Grander Bergamotte. (Desf ., Tab. d'Ecole de Bot 3
The bergamot is a plant growing to very little height, and preferring the open air to the espalier.
Its branches are long and pliant. The leaves, often a little quilled, are based upon a long pe- tiole, often winged like that of the orange, and resemble those of the bitter orange in form and color. Its flower is white, and has twenty stamens, as in the orange. Its fruit is small — sometimes with a little nipple or mamelow at the point, and often in the shape of a pear. It yellows at ma- turity, and takes the figure and colo'r of the lemon.
Its skin, glossy and thin, contains in the vesi- cles with which it is filled, an essential oil, of a sweet and sharp odor, which makes the value of this variety ; its pulp, sharply sour and bitter, is of no use.
In these characteristics it is easy to recognize a hybrid of the lemon and orange. One finds the first in the fruit ; the second, in the leaves and flowers.
But the bergamot improves upon these two species by the sweetness of its perfume, which is delicious, and of which the choicest essences are made. Writers upon agriculture have been in doubt as to the origin of this odor, it not being found in the lemon or orange ; and some have ad- vanced the theory that the variety was the pro- duct of a lemon graft upon a bergamot pear, with the fruit of which, however, the odor of this agrume has no connection. But we are now convinced that, with the same principles differ- ently combined, Nature diversifies greatly her products, and, consequently, it is very probable that the combination of the odorous principles of the lemon with those of the orange may give a result still more exquisite than either alone. I have noted this phenomenon in the most of the mixtures of the genus Citrus.
The citron (A ^Naples, for instance, has cer- tainly an aroma more exquisite than that of either lemon or orange ; and the lime of Florence is a poncire surpassing in odor the common cit- rons. The same may be remarked with regard to the Paradise apple, of which the skin sur- passes in abundance and delicacy that of even the typo of the citrons, or of the citron of the Jews.
HYBRIDS — NO. X.VI.
Citrus medica limon aurantiata fructu pusillo, glpboso, cortice glabro, tenui, odorato, medulla aeida. gratis-inm.
Lime de Naples a petit fruit.
Limonccllo di Napoli.
Limon pusillus calaber. (Ferr.)
Limon pusillns calaber: rulnbrNo limone. K'ommelvn. Hesp. Bel-.)
Limon calaber: limon calabrese, (Vole.)
The lime of Naples is a small lemon, which takes after the orange, of which it is a hybrid. It docs not attain a great height, and, unlike the lemon, its slight, yellowish branches will not submit to be trained en espalier.
Its small and deeply-colored leaves have the winged petiole ; the thorn which grows at their axil is so early and so invariable, that it is with great difficulty suitable buds for grafting can be detached. TheJlower is small and entirely white. The fruit— smallest of European lemons—is round, having the pistil at its extremity, and a yellowish, smooth, and very thin skin, which is odorous. Its pulp is abundant; its juice acid and agreeable, because of its delicacy and aroma. This is one of the most highly esteemed lemons.
It has no seeds, but is multiplied by a peculiar kind of grafting, on account of the thorn render- ing it difficult to procure a suitable bud.
Volcamerius describes two varieties of it ; one very much like this. The first — that he calls bal- linus Ilispanicus, ballotin di Spagna, and of which the leaf is narrow and flat ; the fruit yellow, round, and small ; the pulp green ; and juice plentiful, acid, and pleasant — is but a variety of lustrato.
But the second, that he calls limon irritator appetentiiv; limon aguzza appetite, is surely a hy- brid of the bigarade, a true lime, in which the traits of the two species are well based and closely united.
The flower is small and white; the fruit, about the size of a walnut, is round, and carries the pistil upon its point. It is covered by a red and very thin skin, smelling of musk. The juice is sour, but pleasant.
ART. III. — Of the Biyarade Orange.
Citrus aurantinm Indicum, flore icosandno, corolla alba, folio petiolo alato, fruetu globoso, aureo, medulla acri et amara.
Bigaradier; Bigarade.
Arancio forte : Arancia forte.
Narendj (orange). (Avicen.)
Narendj (orange). (Abd-Allatif., in Egyptian and Ara- bian traditions.)
Orenges : Poma citrina acidi sen pontici saporis. <Vi- triac, in Oriential Hist.)
Araugias. (Hug. Falc.,116fl.)
Acripomum : vulgo Arangia. (Nicols., 1069.)
Arangi : Airange : Orange. (Gloss, of the Roman lau- ige by Roquefort.) lelarancia. (Calvan., 1738.)
Aranza. (Ib.)
Citranguli sive Cetroni. (1472.)
Citruli. (At Savona, 1468.)
Citroni. (Giust. Hist, of Genoa.)
Oranges, (Jonan, in .voyage of Chas. IXth to Jerusalem.
(JALLESIO'S TKEAT1SK ON THE UlTHUS FAMILY.
Granger: Granger cornu, <»r Disarm. (Oliver d<- Serr.) !
Medici. (Merut)
Anrea mains : Mala arantia. (Bauhin.)
Citrus Narendi. (ForskaU
Citrus aurantium : Arancio forte. iTar-.i
Citrus aurantium : Citrus pctiolis alati*. (.Lin.) «
The bigarade presents a ramification of very j many true varieties and few sub-varieties. It , would seem that this species, more constant in j the reproduction, changes from it only to diver- j sify it in a very marked manner. It will, there- fore, be easier to give a description of its deriva- j tives, even to the hybrids.
The type is known under the name of bigarade, auranlium- xulyare medulla acn. Its varieties are six in number.
First. The type.
Second. The bigarade of double flower.
Third. The bigarade with willow leaf.
Fourth. The Rich spoil.
Fifth. The little Chinese.
Sixth. The Chinese with myrtle leaf.
The hybrids number seven.
The two first are the result of the mixture of the bigarade with the orange ; the third and j fourth are the product of the citron impregnated j by the bigarade ; the fifth and sixth result from the orange modified by the lemon ; the seventh is a singular variety, in which is found united the three species, citron, orange, and bigarade. We begin by describing the type of the species.
VARIETIES — NO. XVII.
Citrus aurantium Indicum. vulsraro fructu aeido.
Bigaradier: Bigarade.
Arancio forte: Araneia forte.
Anrantium. vnlgare medulla acri . ( Kcv. i
Aurantium vulgare fractu acido.
Aranzo silvestre. (Vole.)
Gemeene of Zuure oranje appel. i Cow j
Malus aurautia major. (Baun.)
Aurantia mala. (Cam.)
Granger sauvage or sauvagcon, (Tonrnef.)
Citrus narendi malech (bitter orange.) (For. »
Anrea malus fructu acido. (plus.)
Arancio salvatico : Arancio da premerc.
Citrus aurantium petiolis alatis. (Lin. )
The bigaradier is a species which grows to a tree of round and pretty form. The leaf, thia and lanceolated, has the petiole furnished with two wings, which are more pronounced than in the sweet orange. But nothing so much distin- guishes it from that as its flower, which is, in the bigarade. more sweet and more abundant in per- fume. In fact, it is only for its flower that the tree is cultivated in Paris, in the cold provinces, and in a part of the southern districts, where they distil from the flowers a sweet and delicious perfume. At Grasse, at St Remo, and at Nice, they cultivate it solely for this.
It is cultivated for its fruit in Tuscany and in Romania, where it is used like lemons for sea- soning vegetables and fish. This is the only use to be made of this fruit, as its skin encloses in its vesicles a caustic aroma of insupportable bitterness; and its juice is both bitter and acid.
The gardeners in Paris speak of a number of sub-varieties of the bigarade, which are but little noticed in the south. But these gardeners agree so little in the names that they give to the trees, as well as in their characteristics, or the acci- dents which mark them, that it is difficult to de- cide upon their nature. They have generally in view, in their classification, the more or less great abundance of flowers borne by these varieties, and
1 have observed that this dillereuce in tha flow- ering is more apparent than real, depending upon the relative nearness of the flower-buds. The blossoming thus seeming to be more or less abundant, according to the intervals between the buds.
The names given are not always suited to the nature of the tree ; for instance, they call one the bigarade with grey flower, of which the flower opening very quickly does not show the anthers as yellow as in the ordinary bigarade. They give the name crowned bigarade to another whose fruit \ has often a small nipple at its point. They call one Adam's apple, of which the leaf is a little less lanceolated, and the buds very close together and no thorn. Finally, they name one horned bigarade, a common bigarade which sometimes bears monsters having the shape of a horn. All these varieties differ so little as to be scarcely worth the trouble of describing.
The bigarade is usually the tree upon which is grafted the other species of agrumi. Some- times it is grafted upon itself, in order to produce a smaller tree suitable for vases.
In Liguria it is called margaritino'or orange of St. Marguerite.
VA1UETIES— NO. XVIII.
Citrus nurantium Indicum flore semi-pleno, fructu stepe, fcetifero, medulla acida.
Bigaradier a flenv double et semi-double, a fruit souvent monstrous.
Arancio forto a fior doppio e eemi-doppio. e a frutto spesso fetiforo.
Aurantium flore dupllce. (Perr., p. 387.)
Aurantium flore pleno.
Aranzo con fior doppio. (Vole., p. 301.)
Aranzo di fior e scorza doppio. (.Vole.)
Granger a fleur double. (Millar.)
This variety has improperly been called double flowered. It is very seldom that these flowers are full of petals ; usually they are but semi-double, and yield very often monstrous fruit, enclosing within themselves a second fruit. We have al- ready observed that this phenomenon is very fre- quent in these monstrous varieties.
VARIETIES— NO. XIX.
Citrus aurantium Indicum salicifolium. Granger a feuille de saule, or Tqpquoise. Arancio a fog- lia di salice, or Arancio Turco. Aurantium angusto salicis folio dictum. (Boer.)
The Turkish orange is but a bigarade, whose leaves, lanceolated and pointed, are very straight and long like those of the willow. Otherwise it has all the traits of the bigarade, both in flower and fruit ; the latter is sharp and bitter, and has ilio form and color of the bigarade.
This tree is not cultivated in Ligaria, except by collectors of varieties, and by the seedsmen of Nervi, who multiply it by graft for their trade in plants. A specimen of these trees may be seen in the Garden of Plants at Paris.
VARIETIES—NO. XX.
Citrus aurantium Indicum crispofolimn raultiflorum fructu parvo, amaro et acido. Bouquetier or Riche depouille. Arancio a mazzetto. Aurantium crispo-folio. (Per., p. 387.) Aurantium crispo-folio. (Touraef.) Aranzo a foglia rizza. (Vole.) Granger a feuilles frisees. (Millar.) Citrua aurantium multiflorum. Granger riche depouille. (Desfont.j
The orange with curled leaf grows as a shrub ; its boughs are short, straight, and bushy; its
GALLESIO'S TREATISE OX THE CITKUS FAMILY.
buds or shoots are very close together, bearing' a (quilled ovate leaf which covers the stem on "all sides, and gives to the tree the rounded and point- ed form of a cone. The flowers come out of these shoots in great numbers, appearing to cover the bough on all sides, thus forming a very large and beautiful bouquet. The fruit is a trifle "larger than the small Chinese orange, which it closely resembles in taste and smell. It is a bigarade of small fruit, cultivated in Ligaria among collectors and seedsmen. There is a specimen of it in the Garden of Plants in Paris, and I have observed one at the Tuilleries which surpasses in size and beauty all I have seen of this race in the south.
VARIETIES— NO. XXI.
Citmtt nnrantium Indicum caul»M-t fnirtu pnimlo. coiiice it medulla amara, succo acido.
Granger nain : Petit Chinois.
Nanino da China : Chinotto: "Xapolino.
Aurantium Sinensc pumilum : (vole, i
Aranzo nano garbo.
Pomiii di Daraa.
Anrantium Goamnn pumilum : Aurantium Sincnse : Mains aurantia humilis : Oranjc-bopm met de Kle,ine vrught anders naautje. (Coin.)
The dwarf orange is a most desirable variety for ornamenting houses and gardens, being a shrub, and dwarfed in all its parts. The stem, the boughs, the leaf, the flower, and the fruit are all small. In vases it attains to the size of a rose bush, and in the open air it grows only to the height of about seven feet.
Its branches have the appearance of nosegays ; this is owing to the proximity of the buds, and to the leaf and flower alternating.
They have no thorns, and bear a very odorous flower. The fruit, sour and bitter, is about the size of a small apricot, and is excellent for con- serving.
The dwarf orange is cultivated at Morviedro, in the Kingdom of Valencia, where the skin is an article of trade, the cut and dried peel being used as seasoning of food. It is also largely cul- tivated in Ligufia, principally at Savona, from whence in early days the Genoese manufacturers of confits were furnished with this fruit.
VARIETIES— NO. XXII.
Citrus aurantium Indicum caule et fructu purailo, myrti- folium.
Granger nain a f cutties de inyrte. Nanino da China a f oglia di mirto. Aurantium myrteis f oliis Sinense. (Ferr . )
The myrtle-leaved dwarf orange is a sub- variety unknown in Europe at the middle of the seventeenth century. Ferraris reports it as a species peculiar to China. Comraelyn and Yol- camerius make no mention of it. It is now cul- tivated in Tuscany and Liguria by the amateurs, but solely for completing their collections, and also by seedsmen for their trade in plants.
There is a tree in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, and another at Malmaison. This orange has all the traits of the little Chinese orange, the one difference being in the shape of the leaf, which is more pointed in this, and might at first glance bo taken for the myrtle.
' HYBRIDS— NO. XXIIJ.
Citrus aurantium Indicurn medulla duloarida. conicc crasso et ainaro.
Bigaradier a fruit doux.
Arancio forte a medolla dolce : in Liguria Margaritino dolce.
Aiiruutium vulture fructu diilcacidn. (Vole.) Aurantium vulgare : (sapore : medio. (Fcr. i OraiiL'i' participant dc I'ai'jTc ct dti doux. (Oliv. dc SIT.. p. 703.
fThc sweet-fruited bigarade is a hybrid of the orange and the bigarade, preserving the traits of the latter in its rind, which is thick, uneven, and bitter ; while the pulp, enclosed in a skin equally bitter, is, notwithstanding, sweetish.
It is cultivated in Liguria for ornament, and is found only among amateurs. The seedsmen do not multiply it, as it is not much sought after. It is, perhaps, one of the hybrids longest known.
HYBRIDS— NO. XXIV.
Citrus aurantium Indicum fructu magno. corticc era SHU sub-dulci, medulla acida. Bigaradier a ecorce douce.
Arancio forte a frutto jjrosi-o e scor/a mangiabile, Aurantium dulci cortici. (For., p. 433..) Mains aurantia cortice eduli. (Bauh.)
The bigarade of edible skin of Ferraris seem.s to be a hybrid of the sweet orange. Neither Commelyn, Volcamerius, or Millar make men- tion of this fruit. That of which Clusius speaks has sweet juice. I do not know where the va- riety with sour juice is cultivated. Perhaps it is a lost variety, which can, however, reproduce it- self if one sows the seed of sweet oranges which have grown in the midst of bigarades. This is my reason for giving it a place in this catalogue.
HYBRIDS — NO. XXV.
Citrus aiirantium Indicum citratum fructu magno, cor- tice aureo, crasso, amaricante, medulla acida ct amara.
Lumie orangee.
Lumia aranciata.
Aurantium citratum. (Ferr., p. 423.)
Aurantium maximum : Arancio della gran sor tc. (Vole . , p. 183.)
The oranged-lumie, or the citroned-orauge, is a hybrid partaking of the orange, the citron, and the lemon. Its leaf, deep-colored, large, and curled, approaches in form that of the Adam's apple; the flower, shaded with red, belongs to the lemon ; the fruit, very large, round, and flat- tened, is very much like that of the orange. Its skin is uneven and bunchy like that of the citron, the color being a tint between that of the citron and the orange, and detaches itself readily from the sections, which are also very easily separated from each other; the pulp, whitish and acid, resembles that of the lemon.
This description is of one in my possession, and which appears to me to be a sub-variety of Ad- am's apple. It differs by some accidents from those spoken of by Ferraris and Volcamerius, which also differ from each ether ; but it is nec- essary to say that these hybrids preserve them selves intact only when multiplied by the graft ; those which come from seed are always changed by the different proportions of their combination ; thus one meets very rarely the same varieties. But, by following the principles that we have suggested, it is easy to determine their traits, and by them to place the fruit among the lumies, the limes, or the poncires. Each person can do it for himself, and connect them, without difficulty, to their analagous classes.
HYBRIDS— NO. XXVI.
Citrus aurantium Indicnm fructu maximo, cimuo, vulgo pomum Adami.
Lumie d'Espagne: pomme d'Adam: at Parin, pompoleon, Porno d'Adamo: Adamo.
The greater number of botanists have con-
GALLE*IO'S TREATISE OX THE CITRUS FAMILY.
founded the Adam's apple with the pompplmoeu or pampelmous, and have joined the two under j the name of Citrus decuman tun.
Sloane, in his work on Jamaica, gives us a rig- , ure and description which is entirely suited to the genuine Adam's apple, afterwards adding that there exists a variety having the color and flesh of the orange. He characterizes in like manner and connects the two species in his Latin Synonyms. I have preserved in this article only ! what belongs to the Adam's apple, leaving for ] the article upon the Pampelmous, that which is > peculiar to it. Rumphius, like Sloane, confounds j them in his herbarium, amboincnsc, and these ; writers have been imitated by Linnanis and the ; botanists who have followed him.
Adam's apple is one of the hybrids earliest known. We find a description of it in the His- ! tory of Jerusalem, by Jaques deVitry, and in the < greater part of the works by Arabian authors, who knew it under the names of laysamou or ~< unban.
Marco Polo found it in Persia in 1270. It was known as Adamo by the ancient Italian writers upon agriculture, such as Gallo and others, and by the Spaniard, Herrera, under the names of toronjo or samboas. Mathioli calls it lomm ; Fer- raris calls it lamia valentina, a name also given it by Volcamerius.
This fruit is known in Liguria under the dif- i'erent names ofpo/nod'Adanw, oi pompoleon, and of dccumano. At Versailles it is called pvmpoleon ; also by the gardeners of Paris.
Adam's apple is reported under the name of Citrus aurantinm maximum, in the Table of the Botanical School, belonging to the Museum of Natural History at Paris, where are cultivated several fine and vigorous trees.
It appears to be a lumie, or a hybrid of orange and citron. (I have placed this among the luniies, because it shows traits of them ; but I own that I have never tested it by the seed-bed, as I have done with all other races which give seed. I pro- pose to try it at once, and shall not be surprised if the result shows, in this plant, a fifth species of agrume. I have already many reasons for supposing so.) The tree resembles the Chinese citron. Its branches short, often flattened, bear large leaves, which are sometimes lanceolated, sometimes notched at their edges (crenated), some- times quilled. They are of a very deep green, and have two very prominent wings to the pe- tiole. The flower, arranged in large clusters, is very large and fleshy, like'that of the citron, and entirely white like that of the orange, having thirty or forty stamens. The fruit is round, and four times larger than the common orange. Its rind, smooth as an orange, is green at the com- mencement, and lit maturity is a pale yellow. It is thin, and marked in places by slight clefts, as if it had been bitten. To this peculiarity it owes its name of Adam's apple. Under this skin, which is insupportably bitter, one finds a second, like the citrons, thick, white, leathery, and bitter. This encloses a pulp divided into eleven very small sections, which contain an insipid, slightly acid- ulated juice. The seeds arc covered by a reddish pellicle, and are formed by two whitish cotyle- dons.
This variety is cultivated in Liguria only l»v amateurs and seedsmen, and is multiplied i>y
grafting upon the bigarade. At Salo it is grown from seed, but is used only as a subject upon which to graft the orange.
There are many plants of it at Versailles, at the Jardin des Plantes, aud in the gardens of Paris.
The fruit is good for nothing, and is sought for its beauty only, as it is neither edible when raw, nor agreeable'for confits.
HYBRIDS — NO. XXVII.
Citrus aurantium Indicum folio petiolo alalo, &uppe in -umma teneritate violaceo ; flore hinc albo, iiide extcriu - rubente, fractal violaceo, medulla acida.
Bigaradier a fruit violet.
Arancio forte a frutto violetto,
Citrus aurantiura violaceum : Granger violet. (Desf out , , Tab. de 1'Ec. dc J3ot., p. 138.
The violet-fruited Bigarade is a singular va- riety, and very little propagated. It is not spoken of by Ferraris or Volcamerius, neither is it in the works of botanists who immediately fol- lowed or preceded them. We find it described only by a few modern writers.
1 have seen the fruit only in a painting owned by M. Michel, (editor of the "Treatise upon Trees,") who obtained it from the heirs of the celebrated Duhamel ; and the plant in the or- angery of the Museum of Natural History, Paris.
This, which is a flue plant, has the appearance of the ordinary bigarade, haying the same leaf. One would not notice anything remarkable, un- less that the top is a little more bushy.
I should have classed it among the varieties of the bigarade, had not the spring growth revealed to me a phenomenon, which convinced me that it was but a hybrid.
Its shoots are of two kinds ; the one are whitish as those of the orange, the others are of a very deep violet color, as those of the lemon. This violet color characterizes also a part of its (low- ers, which grow upon the same branches with those entirely white. Its fruit is likewise shaded with violet in the same way in which the red orange is shaded with bloo"d color. I do not know the nature of its pulp. I am told that it ia yellow and sharp, as in the bigarade.
It is easy to conceive that this variety owes its origin to the influence of the pollen of the lemon tree upon the seed from which it has come.
It is one of the most singular results of impreg- nation.
It is desirable that this hybrid be multiplied, on account of the beauty of both fruit and llower.
CilniN ;im,.jnimn Indicum frudii stellate.
Bigaradie* ••> fruit Huilr.
Arancio inrlarosa.
Aiirantimu stclliitinn <•( ro-rmn. (Frr.. \>. :','.<•'.. >
Aranzi stellati. <V<ilr.. part . ;.'. p. iso. i
Citron meUoroaa. iCalvd, u. I-.M
The starred orange is a fruit whose rind pre- sents ribs a little raised, running from the pedun- cle or stem, and ending in a small mamelon or nipple, which crowns them.
These fruits are known in Liguria by the name of metafo&t, because of an odor of rose which some pretend to find in them. This plant is small, and the brunches thin and pliable; the leaf is oblong and lanceolate, with winged petiole; tho fruit is small and flnltonod. Its rind, divided
28
GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
into many raised ribs, has the color of a lemon, and a sweet odor slightly resembling that of the bergamot. The pulp is white, and juice acid, en- closing many seeds. This variety seems to be- long to the class of hybrids. It takes after the orange in leaf and form of fruit, and after the lemon in color and acidity of juice. Its odor, very sweet, is apparently the result of the com- bination of the odorous principles of these two species.
HYBRIDS — NO. XXIX.
Citrus anrantium Indicum limo-citratum, folio ct fructu mixto.
Bigaradier limo-citre a fruit melange, on la Bizarreric.
Bizzaria : Arancio di bizzaria.
Mala limonia-citrata-aurantia, vulgo la Bizzaria. (Pe- trus Nato. Florentiae, 1674.)
Orange hermaphrodite : (Et. Calwl.)
Bizaria : Cedrati della bizaria. (Vole., t. 2, p. I'iL)
The mixed-fruit bigarade, or the bizarrerie, is, perhaps, the most pronounced, and the most sin- gular of hybrids.
It was discovered at Florence in 1644 by a gar- dener who had obtained the plant from seed, and not dreaming of the phenomenon which lay hidden in it, he had condemned it, according to usage, to be grafted. Happily, after some years, the graft perished, and the forgotten tree, already adult, sent forth wild branches which produced these marvellous fruits. The gardener, surprised, multiplied the new variety by the graft, and made it quite profitable to himself. He making a mys- tery of its origin, everybody thought that the won- der was owing to the industry of the gardener, who had mingled by the graft the buds of these three species. B«t the singularity of the phenom- enon attracted the attention of philosophers, and a physician succeeded in obtaining from the gar- dener the avowal of the true origin of this tree.
To Pierre Nato, a doctor of Florence, we are indebted for this anecdote. He published at this time a very learned dissertation upon this hybrid, of which he gave the history and a very minute description. I have many times compared it with the specimen of the tree which I own, and also with those at Genoa, in the garden of M. Durazzo, and have found that they corresponded in every particular with the description.
The bizarrerie is a bigarade, bearing at one and the same time bigarades, lemons, citrons of Florence, and mixed fruits.
The tree looks like a bigarade. Its leaves are shaped sometimes like those of the orange, and often like those of the citron, sometimes uniting the two. There are striped, there are long, there are quilled ones. Most of them have the winged petiole, like the orange leaf. The flowers bloom in spring and in autumn, having, like the leaves, divers forms. Some have petals, white inside, while the outside is shaded with red, and set themselves as citrons. Others, nearly white, with corolla much larger and more pronounced, produce mixed fruit, while still others have a, perfectly white corolla, producing nothing but bigarades. Some have no pistil, and drop off.
The fruit follows the caprice of the rest of the tree. One sees sometimes a bigarade in form of a lemon; others are mingled Icinon and orange, at times round, sometimes having a nip- ple at the summit. Others have skin of an orange and pulp of a citron. These trees bear also cit- rons of runny forms, of which somr nnitr tho cit-
ron and the orange, and, finally, there are fruits of which the outside and inside show four parts crossed, of which two are citron and two arc orange, while by the side of these are oranges perfectly formed, without the least mixture. It is necessary to say that the orange is always a sour fruit, and that the citron is the citron of Florence.
The bizarrerie was at tirst multiplied by means of the graft. It has been remarked that the buds, of which it was difficult to distinguish the nature, developed often only simple oranges ©r citrons.
There is another caprice of this tree still more singular — that of a citron coming from a bud which grew at the .axil of an orange leaf, and conversely the orange from a bud of which the leaf is citron. This phenomenon deceived so often the gardeners, who obtained from their graft a simple orange or citron, that recourse was had to layers, and only thus can this beautiful tree, with all its caprices, be multipled.
It is cultivated only among amateurs, aud is common in Tuscany; but I have seen it in Genoa only in the garden of M. Durazzo.
ART. IV.— Of the Sweet-fruited Omnyc.
Citrus aurautium Sinense flore icosaudrio, corolla alba, folio petiolo alato, fructu globoso aureo, medulla dulci.
SYNONYMS OF SWEET Ot'.ANtij:.
Granger a fruit doux; Orange douce. Arancio domestico; Arancia dolce. Aranci; Citroni; (Matiol.) Aranzi. (Giustin. Hist, of Genoa.) Melangplo: Melarancia. (Font.) Naranzi. (Mang.)
Narendj hcelu. (Forskal Flor. './Egypt. Arab.) Auranticum succo dulci. (Salinj Aurea malus fructu dulci. Aurantium fructu dulci. (Vole.) Aurantium vulgare medulla dulci . (Ferr. ) Arancio dolcc ; Araucio di Portogallo; Araudo di Malta; Melarancio; Arancia da mangiarc. (Targ.) Citrus aurantium. (Lira)
The orange of sweet fruit presents a large num- ber of well-marked varieties, and but few sub- varieties. Among the varieties are two which bear the characteristics of the type. First is the common sweet orange, or Portugal; second is the China orange.
It is useless to endeavor to ascertain whether Nature created originally the first, of which the fruit has a little thicker "skin, or whether it is a variety of the second ; therefore, we will take one for type, and this will be the aurantmni vul- gare ; and we will place the aurantium sinensc at the head of varieties, of which there are eight.
First. The type, or Portugal orange.
Second. The China orange.
Third. The red-fruited orange.
Fourth. The dwarf, sweet-fruited orange.
Fifth. The olive-shaped orange.
Sixth. The double-flowered orange.
Seventh. The sweet orange, with edible skin.
Eighth. The pornpelmous.
The hybrids are very numerous. We have put two among the bigarades, as that species dominates in their characters. Two others have been ranked among citrons, and three among lemons.
We shall give to the list oi' oranges but three hybrids, in which the traits of the oratige arc conspicuous :
First. Is the sour lime, with orange flowers.
GALLESIO'S TREATISE OX THE CITRUS FAMILY.
Second. The variegated lime, or orange with white fruit.
Third. The striped lime, or Turkish orange, with variegated leaves.
I have seen many sub-varieties which are con- nected to these hybrids, but 1 consider it useless to describe all these sub-divisions, whose addi- tional characteristics furnish nothing new.
Any person adopting the principles of my theory could class them for himself on occasion, and connect them to the variety to which they belong.
Neither have I thought it niy duty to place in this arrangement a great number of other singu- lar races, of which one fincjs the names in mod- ern works, without their characteristics being there determined. They do not exist in the gar- dens of Italy and Provence, nor in those of Spain, where 1 have sought for them in vain. I have conic to believe them but imaginary varieties, or else species of India, not known in Europe. Some botanists have also founded species upon the presence or absence of the thorn ((JU.i'ns inermis).
I have already remarked that this part, so nat- ural to the orange, is sometimes lacking in indi- viduals produced by an extraordinary fecunda- tion.
This phenomenon, analogous to that of the scarcity of hair, which distinguishes sterile be- ings in the animal kingdom, "forms one of the traits accompanying often the choicest varieties ; but it does not of itself constitute a variety.
It is because of these reflections that the thorn- less orange has not been placed in this table.
VARIETIES — ]SO. XXX.
ciiru.* anrantiumSinense vulgare fnictti globoso, corticc cra.sfo, medulla dulci, vulgo Portugal.
Unmoor a fruit clonx or do Portugal:
Araucio dolcc : Portogallo.
Aurantium vulgare medulla dulci.
Au rant him vulgare fructu dulci : Arun/.o dolcc. (Vole., p. IS?'.)
Aimuitium Oiygiponenee ; Appd sina of Ljsbense. Oranje appel. <J. Commelyn.)
Araucio di I'ortogallo.
Citrus aurantiunf OlysiponeiiM' : uranircr dc Portugal.
The orange of Portugal, or common sweet or- ange, is a tree growing to a great height when raised from seed. Its leaf is green, having a winged petiole, its shoots are whitish, its flowers entirely white and very odorous, though not equal in perfume to those of the foigaracle.
Its fruit, ordinarily round, is sometimes flat- tened, sometimes a little oblong. The rind, less than an eighth of an inch in thickness, is of a reddish yellow, and full of aroma ; the inner skin is a sallow white, spongy and light. The sections, nine to eleven in number, contain a sweet juice, very refreshing and agreeable ; its seeds are white and oblong, germinating very easily and reproducing usually the species with little change. There is a variety with no thorns ; it is the race cultivated mostly by grafting, and is seen in all countries where tins method of propa- gation is followed. In places where the orango is grown from seed, it is ran- !<> find it deprived of thorns.
VAIlIKTIKs— MO. XXXI.
Citrus aurnmium Siiu-inc t'rurtu globo«o. .•orii.-e triuii^ •nrno, lucido, glnbro, modnlla «UMvij-iui!i. > hi Chine.
ArancJ9 lino dclla China. Aurantium Olvsiponense MVO Sinni'-c. Aurantium Olyatponenao : Appel Sinn of oraujo appel.
Aurantium binciiK: : Aran/.o da Sinn. I'oma da Sinn. (.Vole., p. 193.)
The China orange is a variety excelling all others in the perfection of its fruit, of which the juice is the sweetest, the most abundant, and the most perfumed. The skin is always smooth, glossy, and so thin that one can scarce detach it from the pulp. This is characteristic of this va- riety.
The orange of China grows from seed, as does that of Portugal, and I have in my garden many individuals of it which have grown from seeds of ordinary orange. It has, commonly, a thorn by the side of the bud, but there are those from seed which lack this part.
Rumphius reports under tho name of aurait Hunt xitiensc, or, lemon manistyi/u'., a species of sweet orange, at Auiboyua, which seems to be the same as this. He says that that^tree grows higher and more rounded at top than the sour orange, a difference which also distinguishes them among us ; that its leaf, furnished with a thorn, is long and winged ; that its fruit, round and large, is of a blackish-green color, and its juice is sweet and vinous.
He adds that there is a second variety with fruit smaller and less sweet, and a third, of which the tree grows extremely high, and has flowers and fruit larger than ordinary oranges.
An examination of their nature would be nec- essary in order to decide whether they belong to our European varieties.
VARIETIES — XO. XXXII.
Citrus aurautiumllicrocliunticum fructii sanguined. Granger a fruit rouge. Araucio sangukmo.
Aurantium Philippimuu fructu medio, medulla dulci put1-- purea. (Fcr., p. 4&K)
Orange rouge dc Portugal : Orange grenade. Orange do Malte. CSouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat.)
The red-fruited orange is a singular variety. Its appearance, its leaf, its tlower, are all exactly like the common orange. Its fruit alone is dis- tinguished by a color of blood, which develops itself gradually, and like flakes. When the fruit begins to ripen it is like other oranges ; little by little spots of blood-color appear in its pulp ; as it advances to maturity these enlarge, becoming deeper, and finally embrace all the pulp and spread to the skin, which is, however, but rarely covered by the peculiar color ; yet this sometimes occurs, if oranges are left upon the trees after the month of May.
This orange is multiplied only by grafts, having few seeds, and those of little value. This is a proof that it is a monster ; if it were the type of a species it would yield more seed and reproduce it- self by seed. Its branches are without thorns, its fruit is sweet, but less so than the China oranges, and it has thicker skin.
U is cultivated largely in Malta and in Prov- ence. In Liguria it is found chiefly among ama- teurs and seedsmen.
I would here remark that the greater number of botanists, in describing the India oranges, speak often of varieties which are distinguished by a c.inow pulp : Medulla vtnosn, (Rumph.) Cniu jmuw rinositate, fib.) Medulla 'rf/ii>M sapor iv, (K^ mph.) It very probable that thoy hate intended
GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
to express by the word citwya (wine-like) tlie blood-color which distinguishes our red orange. If this be so, our orange is of Indian origin evi- dently, and may well be a hybrid of the Citrus au- rantium vutyare, and some one of the species of India.
VARIETIES— NO. XXX 111.
Citrus aurantium Siuen.su puniilusu fnictu dtilci. Granger naiu a fruit doux. Arancio nano dolce. Aranzo nano dolce. (Vole.) Aurantium huniile pimiilum l'"lii •••,-atii?, lloribu^. bus. (Millar.)
The sweet-fruited dwarf orange was still, at the middle of the seventeenth century, confined to China. Ferraris says that it was not culti- vated at the Phillipines, and that the Chinese car- ried large quantities to Manilla. It is to be sup- posed that since then it has been naturali/ed in Europe. I have found it in the Hesperides of Volcamerius, and it appears that it is reported by Millar in his dictionary, where he gives two va- rieties of dwarf orange, only one of which is called a sour fruit.
It is unknown in Liguria and Provence.
VAKIETIES — NO. XXXIV.
Citrus aurantium Sinense fructii oliviforme. dulci me- dulla et cortice.
Granger a fruit oliviforme, a ccorcc et juy doux. Arancio a scorza dolce oliviforme. Aurantium Sinense fructu oliva1, etc.
The dwarf, olive-shaped orange is still peculiar to China. Ferraris says of it, that it was un- known in his time, except in that country, and I do not know that it has been naturalized in Eu- rope since then. I have not found it in any bo- tanical work. Its fruit is shaped like, and no larger than, a Spanish olive; the juice is very sugary, and the skin sweet.
VARIETIES— NO. XXXV.
Citrus aurantium Sinense florc scmiplcno, fructu wpe fcetifero, medulla dulci.
Granger a fleur double et semi-double, souvcnt portant un fruit dans 1' autre, a jus doux.
Arancio a flor doppio.
Aurantium flore pleno. (Vole.)
Granger a fleur double. (Calvel.)
The double-flowered orange is distinguished only by a multiplicity of petals, increasing the size of the flower at the expense of the sexual parts, which are lacking.
I have never seen one of entirely double flow- ers. The one I own has semi-double.
I have before remarked that this variety often gives fruit which encloses a second within itself, and that this is frequent in all these monstrous varieties and in hybrids.
VARIETIES — NO. XXXVI.
Citrus aurantium Sinense fructu dulci, cortiei cduli.
Granger a fruit doux et a ecorce douce.
Aurantinm Lusitanicum pulpa, cum cortiei manducanda t-t dulci. (Vole.)
Aurantium Philippinum sapore dulci, cortice ilavoeduli. (Fer.)
Mains aurantia cortiei eduli. (Spanish.) Naranja caxel. (Cms.)
Aurantium dulci cortiei: Oranje appel met Zocte Schil. (Commelyn.)
The orange of edible skin is unknown in Li- guria. It came, originally, from the Phillipines, and I have seen it at Seville. The fruit is sweet, and its skin has, at maturity, less of piquance than that of our oranges.
I have observed, however, that wo also have Varieties with thick skin, which acquiiv n cer-
tain sweetness when the fruit remain:.-; ou the trees until August. The orange of edible (skin does not merit cultivation, except for completim1. collections.
VA1UETIEH— ISO. XXX VII. Citrus aurantium decuuiaiium fructu omnium maxiiuo.
medulla dulci. Grander I'ompelmotis. Arancio massiino.
PampelmuB. (Meister.i Kin. (XI Linn.) Mains aurantia ulriiisque Jiulia- fructu omnium maxiino
el suavissimo, JJeli^is oricntalibus Pompc-hnns.
\ irjfiiiicnsis nostratibus ab invrntoris nomine, qui ex
India orient, ad oras Americanus primus transtulit. Shaddock. (Pluken. Almag.. p. SJiMM (Sloanc Voy. to Jamaica, p. -1J, tab. 12.) Limo decuman us; I'ompelmoes. (Kumph.) Aurautium ludicum maximum, vuk;o 'Pompelmoc;-.
(Vole.)
Aurantium fructu maxiino India orient. (U.^rrli.) Called Chadock, or la TetecP Enfant, or 1'amnelmoii^r.
(Millar Diet.)
The Citrus dec tin tana has been often con- founded with the pom tt. 11 1 Adami, both varie- ties being of an extraordinary size, consequently the name dccumana or decumanus, which signi- fies ten times greater (derived from dccem), has been applied indiscriminately to both. They present, however, traits so different that it is necessary to put the first among varieties, the second among hybrids.
The aurantium decumanum is the same as the Umo decumanus of Rumphius, and the mains au- rantia fructu omnium maxiino et suanssimo of Sloaiie, and is a veritable orange tree, bearing extraordinarily large fruit, yet having all the characteristics of the orange.
In India this variety gives a numerous grada- tion of sub-varieties, described principally by Rumphius in his "herbarium ambainense, and of which some are perhaps hybrids crossed with bigarades, citrons, and lemons.
This writer describes some having red and sweet fruit; others with fruit sour and skin edible; still others with insipid fruit and bitter skin.
Sloane confounds also this orange with the Adam's apple, and after having reported it r,s the malus aurantia fructu rotundo maxima pal- lescente humanum caput excedente of many bota- nists, he calls it the mains aurantia utrmxquc India', fructu omnium ma,nmo et suavissimo of Pluken, which is the true pompelmous.
Liumeus, who wrote after these, united them
under the same name, and appeared to indicate
the Adam's apple in the malus aurantia fructu
' ma.rimo of ISloane, and the pom-
peluious in that of Meist.
All this clearly proves the existence of a sweet orange, extraordinarily large, whose hybrids and varieties arc so numerous that they cause con- fusion in names.
This orange is not connected with the aaran- tium maximum of Ferraris, which appears to be a hybrid of two oranges, and which has traits pe- culiarly its own.
I do not know whether this tree is cultivated in Europe. I have many times visited gardens in Italy and Spain, where they prctcndcifto have it, but have always found il was but the Adam's apple. I have, however, seen one of its fruits brought from America, and preserved in spirits of wine, at the Museum of the Botanical (fardcn, Paris. Its si/e is truly extraordinary. I ha,V(> never scon an A.damV :ipplc approaching it in
JALLKSIO'S TKKATisi-; ox TIIK rmu'h FAMILY.
volume, Its outer skin is smooth, and of the color of the orungr, wliiHi il exactly resembles in form.
I do not know the nature of its inner skin and pulp, but the descriptions of llumplmis ami oth- ers teach us that there exist several varieties, some having sour and some sweet fruit. 1 have a fancy that the fruit at the Museum belongs to these last ; for the sour fruit is said to be a pale yellow, the color of the Pomme d' Adam — very far removed from the beautiful, golden fruit at the Museum.
Millar says that this orange was carried from India by a Captain Shaddock.
There is a certainly respecting the origin of the Adam's apple, though the history of the pam- pelmous is obscure. We know thart the first, resembling the pampelmous in size, and at- tached to it by many varieties, has been culti- vated in Europe for more than 500 years. It is possible that the English isles received it from Asia, but it is certain that the Spaniards, \yho ac- climated it upon the continent, brought it from Spain, where it was cultivated from the time of the Arabs.
HYBRIDS— NO. XXXVIII.
films aurantium Sinenso limoniformc folio petiolo alato, fractu flavo oblongo papilla careutp, cortiec crasso, medulla amara.
Lime a fleur d1 orange.
Aranzo a frutto limonifonn, vuliro Limia.
Aurantium limonis eftigie.
Aran/o limonato. (Vole.)
The lemon-shaped orange is a true lime. It is known, however, by the name of limia. The fruit has the shape of a lemon, and juice of a bi- garacle ; the leaves and flowers are also like the latter. It is a hybrid of these two species. They cultivate it but little in Liguria. I have a specimen which I keep to complete my collec- tion.
The juice may be used like that of the lemon.
HYBRIDS — NO. XXXIX.
< 'iiriis auravitium Sinense folio et fructu variey;aio. Orange,!1 a fruit blanc : Granger panache. Arancio bianco.
Anrantium striis aurois dletinctmn : Avan/o liamaio. (Vole., p. 195.)
i Jon to orange appcl. (Oommel.) Auraniium yirgatum. (For.) Orani^ev Suisso, or Itcga. Orange! a t'cuille ct fruit tranche (U: blanc. (liucycl.)
The orange w7ith variegated fruit is a hybrid of the lemon. ^Its leaf is edged with a yellowish white border, which is due to the mixture of this "species. Its fruit, before maturity, is whitish, striped by some greenish lines, which become yellow as the fruit ripens ; while the white ground changes to orange-color. Its pulp is sweetish and has little perfume.
This variety is cultivated in Liguria only by collectors and seedsmen. It is very ornamental in gardens, but grows slowly, and gives but little fruit. The seedsmen of Nervi carry it to Paris, where I have seen sonic very good roots.
VARIETIES— NO. XL.
Citrus aurrmtitimTnrcicum folio augusto m.icnlato, frnc- ;ii oblongo, cutrallmlastriisvariata vireiitibus, ovanucntos in matiiritate, corliei crus.so, medulla amara.
The striped orange is a sub-variety of the Turk- ish orange, with willow leaver, and has a similar appearance,
Its leaf is a little shorter and .straight, and is a little more irregularly edged, with a whitish yel- low border.
The fruit is yellowish, and striped with many greenish bands which cut it in its length. The pulp is bitter and juice insipid. I consider it a hybrid of the lemon, for it appears to have received from it the yellow with which it is striped.
It is cultivated in Liguria by amateurs and seedsmen.
AKT. V. — Of Monstrous Fruits.
No genus of plants is so much disposed to yield monsters as the Citrus. These are of two kinds, monstrous races and monstrous fruits.
We have seen that monstrous races are due only to an extraordinary fertilization modifying within the ovary the germs that give them birth.
We have observed that the monstrous fruits appeared also to be produced by the action of a forced fertilization, which caused a modification in the forms of the ovary.
The first fact appears carried to the last point of evidence. It establishes the influence of the pollen upon the organization of germs, without, however, destroying the pre-existence of these embryos in the ovary.
The second fact is not so well established, but the consequences of it are much more important. So that whoever succeeds in confirming it by ex- act and repeated experiments will have fixed a principle of vegetable physiology now uncertain ; and which has been judged until the present time, by a system of analogy, with the animal kingdom. He will have determined the measure of co-operation which the male principle has in reproduction.
The fact of monstrous races can be reconciled with the pre-existence of the germ in the ovary; for this germ, receiving life but by the agency of the fertilizing part, may, by this operation, be al- tered in the principles of its organization, and give but vegetable mules.
But the fact of monstrous fruits would appear to destroy the theory of this pre-existence. Here the pollen changes the form and nature of the ovary, and multiplies the embryos in this envel- ope in a singular manner, such as the aurantium fn'.tifcnan, the cortiiculatum, the digitatum, and the orange that I have obtained with a lemon border.
The (t i( r< t ntin nt.fatifemm presents a super-fceta- tion, an imperfect development of many germs enclosed one within another, or united under the envelope of an exterior germ. These germs— did they exist in this ovary, or have they been formed there by the pollen which has fertilized it ? This is the problem which remains to be solved.
On the one hand I observe that these mon- strous developments have place, very often, in flowers of which the fertilization has been forced by a superabundance and mixture of pollen. On the other I sec that this phenomenon is very fre- quent in the monstrous races, such as plants with double flowers, and appears to show modifica- tions in the germ analogous to those which pro- duce the change of sexual parts into petals.
These two observations may be the base of
C4ALLESICTS TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
two conjectures, which it will not be impossible to reconcile ; but niy sixth experiment would appear to show results having a wider base, and in contradiction to the received system. In this experiment (spokun oi' in nn early part of this work) I have obtained a change in the nature of the ovary oi' an orange (lower by means of the forced and multiplied action of the pollen of a lemon. This result seemed to indicate thai the masculine element did something more than giv- ing motion to the embryo, and the vitality neces- sary to its development. It would teach also that these principles acted together by their mingling or combination in forming the fruit which resulted from the experiment in question. J dare not enter upon the discussion of this deli- cate problem. 1 limit myself for the present to ttn account of observations made by myself in this matter, and I desire that physiologists better qualified would examine them, following the ex- periments which I have but begun, with the pa- tience, care, and exactness that they seem to de- mand.
AB.T. VI. — Of t]t£ Agrumi of India — Observations upon IJitfie Plant* — Their deneription and syno- nyms.
The description which we are about to write is doubtless sufficient for cultivators, but will be considered imperfect for botanists.
The Citrus of Europe is, perhaps, the single, isolated genus of which all the species are known to us ; but, for some time, it has been confounded with analogous genera belonging, without doubt, to the same family with ours^ yet, in my opinion, forming special branches of it ; it it is therefore necessary to take cognizance of all those individuals.
India produces a great number of plants bear- ing close analogy to our Agrurni, chiefly in respect to the form and acidity of their fruit. Their characteristics vary to infinity, extending gradu- ally to species which belong, without doubt, to very different genera. Yet the likeness which they have preserved to our agrmni, appears to have formed, chiefly among the natives, a point of comparison, and they have added, nearly everywhere, to their particular and dis- tinctive names the generic names of lemcm or naregam. Thus they call at Amboyna (one of the Moluccas) the bilacus taurinus of Rurnphius, lemon goda; as at Malabar, one knows under the names of isjeroa-katou-naregarn, otkatou-naregain, and of malnaregam, three plants called by Euro- peans limon, and classed by Linnaeus in the genus Imwnia. All these species, however, form gen- era approaching our European species, and which might, perhaps, be united in the same fam- ily under the common name of Agrumi.
In general they resemble ours in the activity of uninterrupted vegetation, which shows at all times flowers and fruit in the midst of foliage al- ways green ; in a sharp aroma spread over all the parts of the plant ; in the whiteness of the flower, which is odorous, and in the nature of the fruit, which is always a round berry (a berry among botanists is " a succulent, pulpy pericarp, con- taining naked seeds. The orange and lemon are berries with a thick coat." Lincoln's Bot), hav-
in •, ii yellowish, aromatic skin, and containing a certain number of sections, and a juice some- times sweet, sometimes bitter, and nearly always acidulated. But these plants usually grow only to the size of shrubs ; their branches are crooked, knotty, and often mutilated; their leaves are fre- quently divided into two by the wings of the pe- tiole, and are, at times, discolored ; their thorns, sometimes double, often lacking, are frequently longer on the old branches than on the young, and arrange themselves, nearly always, in some peculiar way. Their flowers, now of four, no-w of five petals, are sometimes axillary and soli- tary, and very often terminals; and, in place of bouquets, like our orange blossoms, they show themselves in bunches like the olive. We know very little of their fructifying parts. Rumphius rarely describes them. The fruit is a berry, but this berry is now round, now oblong, at times angulate ; it is often covered by tubercles of a fixed form, and disposed with a certain regular ity. Its color, though at times green, usually re sembles that of the lemon or orange ; ancl its pulp, enclosed in numerous sections, is now swoel and vinous — now disagreeable and glutinous.
Finally, their traits, taken as a whole, announce decidedly that they do not belong, for the most part, to the genus Citrus.
There are among them, doubtless, several not far removed from, and having traits of, our hy- brids, but there are also many presenting traits which place them nearer to some species of cnt- tcm, to the limonui, and other plants of India.
One may see in the Citrus trifoliata, in the limon angukrtux, and in the limonellus madurensis, much to connect them with the bilacus thaurinw of Rumphius, which, from its likeness to tho lemon, is called at Amboyua lemon gala.
These appear to be links by which nature passes gradually from one genus to another, and forming what a great botanist has aptly called families par encJiainemenl.
We have not thought it possible to dispense with giving an idea of all these species. Beginning with those which seem to belong to our agrumi, and which might be varieties of them, we pass on to those decidedly removed by their traits, and shall finally say a word concerning species which touch them in analogous genera. We will desig- nate them by the general name of af/r >'////'.
NO. T.
Acrmncn nobilis Chincn^c.
Citrus nobilis. (Lour. Fl. Coc. Sp., 3.) A Canixsanh, E. Tsem can : Citrus inermis, ramis (ascendentibus, petiolis strict!*, fructn tubercnloso, sub-compresso, (t. 2, p. !!>»).)
The CUrm nobilit, rare in China, but abundant in Cochin China, is a tree of medium size, dis- tinguishing itself particularly by the upward growth of its branches, which are thornless. Its leaves, scattering, lanceolated, quite sound and lustrous, are of a dark green, and have a strong- odor. They have linear petioles. The flowers, arranged in terminal bunches, are white, having five petals ancl a very pleasant perfume. The fruit is a round berry, a little compressed ; it usually has nine sections, red inside as well as out. The skin is thick, juicy, sweet, and covered by unequal tubercles (warts.)
This is twice as large as the Chinese orange, and is the most agreeable of all.
<*ALLf>ln> 1'KEATIM, uN 1111, ClTRtfS PAMIL1
NO. II.
Acruiuen Margarita.
Citrus Margarita: elm I>M ;i *'li;oi iri: rih-u- rauima ben dentibus, acnleatis, petiolis linciiribus: baeejs :> loenl.iri- bus, oblomris. (Lour. l-'l. Corli. t. •„'. p. lii'.i.t
The Ci(r>i.i$ //'f/y/wvV" resembles a little the Citru* j((poni<:<t, but it differs in many traits, which make it another species. It is a shrub whose branches are straight and thorny ; its leaves, lanceolate and scattered, are based upon linear petioles; its odoriferous Dowers having five white petals are joined in small numbers upon peduncles scattered along the branches.
Its fruit (small, oblong, and of a red-yellow) contains but five sections under a very thin skin ; the pulp is sweet and agreeable.
It comes from China, above all from the neigh- borhood of Canton, and is never found in Cochin- China.
The Citrus of Thumberg, on the contrary, has a winged petiole, and the fruit has thick skin, containing nine cells.
NO. III.
A minion Amboinicum caule an^uloso. folio maximo, petiolo alato, floro majyno, fniclu spherieo, oompirsso, foveolis notato, cortice croceo, medulla adluerente. SIKTO viscoso et acidulo.
Agrume rouge d'Amboine.
Aiirnntia acida, vnliro Lemoeu Tlan. limn. Ciirns fusca. (Lour. Fl. Coo, Sp. «i.--a (.'ay Baonjj; Chi xac H clii ken.
The red agrume of Amboyna, as well as other varieties of this island, and of Japan, offers char- acteristics which merit notice. We will copy what Rumphius says of it in his herbarium of Amboyna.
The sour-fruited orange is a tree growing at Amboyna to a very great height. Its stem is angulous and as if furrowed ; its winged leaf is nearly as large as that of the pumpelmoes, and has a very strong odor ; the thorn is long and sharp; the flower, large and white, having five petals.
The fruit, round and a little flattened, is marked by many small spots, and docs not take its color entirely until its full maturity. The skin ad- heres to the pulp, and the sections adhere among themselves as in the lemons. The pulp is full of a gelatinous and acidulated juice. This spppios resembles the Citrus fusca of Louroiro, of which it is perhaps but a variety.
NO. IV.
Ac m men Winense fnictii ex viridi niLfricanli. medulla subdnlci.
.A grume do la Chine.
Agrume Chinese.
Aurantium Sinense : Lemon manis Tsjina. <Kumpli. Herb. Amb., part 3, cap. 41.)
The iiurantiurn zinense which Jtiunphius ^nv in the islands of Amboyna and Band a, appeals not to differ from our orange.
It forms a fine tree, which grows larger than the sour orange ; its straight branches give to it a head, rounded and high ; the leaf, long, smooth, with a twisted petiole, has a lateral thorn. The fruit, large and round, has a skin of a blackish green color, which does not adhere at all to the pulp ; its juice is a little vinous and sweetish.
Rumphius observes that there is also a species of it whose fruit is smaller and much sweeter ; and three others, of which the first makes a very large tree, and bears a large, sweet fruit ; the second produces a fruit covered by tubercles, and of which the pulp is scarcely sweetish ; and
Ilir third, a low i>lirub, gives a si null t'ruit, \\ ho • skin is very thin mid agreeable. The lirst, that he calls (inrcihtiiiin ccw'uwttttti-t faiiiOH mcmix l>< x'Htr, appears to belong to our oranges. The sec- ond, called at. lianda h-nnnt //v/r/v///, seems to approach the l< ///"// /•< ////•/>,,-. //x. of which we •-hull speak farther on.
The third, which he calls <i.ii.r«ii.linnt- i»inul<ni< i,ni<hi I't.iixc nnil<i(i't ic.inmi. x/inxxi, and lemon coltc, seems related to
NO. V.
Aerumen Ainhoinicum eaule J'rutieo>o. folio p<»tiol<p linear!, flore, axillari.
Agrume d'Amboine.
Agrnine d'Amboina.
^lalum eitrium: Lemon HI-HI: Limo mammosus. etc. (Humph.)
The lemnn xi.txxu otters many varieties differing a little in size and form of fruit, and these all appear to be related to the citron, but they differ from it in the (lowers, which are axillary, and which grow beside the thorn, often singly, some- times to the number of two or three, but never on a common peduncle. Its fruit is oblong, and forms a kind of cone : the uneven skin yellowish and insipid, encloses a whitish and acidulated pith.
Rumphius says that the citron tree, or llnn> liHiuuiiosux, is not indigenous at Amboyua or at Banda ; that he has never seen it grow to the size of a tree, but rather to a bush, and that 5 1 grows no taller in India.
He also remarks that wild lemons are found in Java, where they are thought to be indigenous, and which are called lemon Java ; also, that all these Indian oranges have peculiar traits, mak- ing them differ from European Citrus.
This remark is strengthened by his descrip- tions, always telling us of new beings that we cannot associate with our Citrus.
Aerumen Amboinicum folio maculato. petiolo alato, flore lacemoso ei terminal!, frnctu Uavo minatissiino. medulla aeidissima, Amboinis Anrarius dicto.
Ajjnime d'Amboine a fenilles panachees.
Agrivmc a folio machiate.
Limonelluw Anrarins: Lemon Maa>.
The Uffl0nell'U8'a'urariu8 has the physiognomy of a lemon mixed with orange, but it has, also, peculiar traits.
Its stem is tall, its leaf, deeply colored and va- riegated, is upon a petiole, whose wings are very nearly as large as the leaf.
The fruit, the size of a musket-ball, is round, ni a m done (nippled), yellowish, and is formed of a skin so thin that it seems rather a pellicle than a skin, and which has not the lemon aroma ; the pulp is full of an acid juice.
The flowers are very small and terminal, grow- ing at the end of the boughs, in bunches, like the olive.
I know nothing of the number, position, or peculiarities of the sexual system. Rumphius, to whom we are indebted for this description, says nothing of them.
This fruit is called at Amboyna nnr«riin<t be- cause goldsmiths use its juice for cleansing their work.
NO. VII.
Aerumen hulk-inn [olio maximo alato, floro minimo. quartripctalo albo. tnberonlis obsito, medulla gn acldissitna.
Agrume verdatre d'Amboine a fruit tubercul-ux.
.,1
; <>\ J'HE C1TIU h FAMILY.
Airnune verdant ro.
Limonveiitricoi-uis. Malakv ICIUOH 1'iirnil, alii* Lrimm Papua, sen Limo crispus, ex forma erisponmi criniujn • Popoeneium, alii* Lemon lay Ayam. TcruatcnsibtiB. (Rumph. Herb. Amb., c. ;;;.>
The greenish agrumc, called by Rumphius : Union -rentricosus, has characteristics peculiarly its own, making it to differ essentially from our ; agrumi. Its leaf seems as though cut in the mid- ; die, it has so large a wing. Its flower, extremely | small, has but four petals, and grows only at the very end of the bough, in form of a bunch of grapes.
The fruit is nearly green, just a little shaded with yellow ; its skfn, which is odorous, is cov- ered at regular intervals by small buttons, all of j one shape and size. Its pulp is granulous, green, and very sour. There is nothing said of its sexual system. We may connect to this species the Umon tuberosus, the lemon curamus, the lemon ayrestis or papeda, the limo ferus or swanr/i, that Rumphius found at Amboyna, and which have very nearly the same characteristics.
NO. VIII.
Acrumen Japonicnm canle angulato. flore axillari. fructu minutissimo, pnlpa dulci et eduli.
Agrume nain du Japon.
Agrume nano del Giapone.
Citrus Japonica. (Windeln. in Spec. Plant.)
Citrus petiolis alatis, foliis acutis, canle fruticoso. (.Thumb. Jap., 292.)
Kin kan. (Ksempf. Amcen., 801.)
The dwarf agrume of Japan has been consid- ered by Windelnow as a species of Citrus, but the description of it by Thurnberg in his Flora Ja- ponica, presents traits making it to differ from European oranges.
The most marked and at the same time most singular points of difference, are the angulous stem and axillary flowers. These traits would seem to place it near the lemons of Amboyna which so closely resemble the limonia and the bilacus. Thumberg also says that the Citrus ja- ponica, which, in the parts of fructification, offers the same traits as the European Citrus, differs notwithstanding, in its shrub-like form which it always takes, in the smallness of its fruit, and in many other ways. He adds that it can scarcely be ranked in the class of oranges, its flowers be- ing axillary, solitary, or binate, and never in bou- quets ; that it is like the lemon in axillary thorns, yet differs from it by the winged petiole, and by the fruit, which has the shape and color of an or- ange.
The Citrus japonica is, perhaps, the same as the aurantium pumilum madurense, or the lemon twassi, and lemon colte, that Rumphius calls species^ limonum fructu dulci omnium minima cortice lenui
nee amaro.
It has also some likeness
to the Citrus margarita of Loureiro.
It would be necessary, however, to examine them in Nature, in order to see all their affinities.
VARIETIES NO. IX.
Acrumen Indicnm maduren?, caulo pumilo et annulate, fructu minimo, cortice tcnuissimo, medulla acida.
Agrume orange de Madure a tige angulcuse.
Agnune aranciato di Madura.
Limonellus Madurensis: Lemon Madura. (Rumph.)
Citrus Madurensis; a k n knit B k n; knit xu; Citrus inermis ramis diffunis, angulatis, petiolis linearibns, fructu globoso levi. (Lour. Fl. Coch. t. 2, p. 467.)
The agrume of Madura is an extraordinary bush, appearing to hold to the Cftnis and the bilacus. Perhaps it is one of the links attaching
these two genera, or il may be a product of their mingling. The stem is not more than two feet high; the branches, having no thorn, are augu- lous, crowded, and striped ; the simple and soli- tary leaf is but an inch in length. Its fruit is a slightly flattened spheroid, always green, and the size of a bullet. It is covered by a thin skin, like a pellicle.
This trait it has in common with many other species, especially the l-imoneUus aurarim. En- closed within this skin are numerous sections, containing an aromatic, sourish pulp, and one seed, always small and always solitaiy.
Rumphius says nothing of its organs of repro- duction.
Loureiro, who gives a description of it under the name of Cttnta madurensis, or Citrus inermix, ramis diffusis, anyulatis, ywtiolis linearibus, fructu globoso Iwvi, says its flowers are white, five-pe- talled, small, and odorous, and united in small number iipon one peduncle or footstalk. lie says nothing of the number or position of its sta- mens ; but as he places this in the genus (Mrtis, we may presume that it is also of the class Poly adelphia, order Icosandria.
VARIETIES — NO. X.
Acrumen Indicumcaule spinoso, pumilo, ramis in aruleo. deBinentibus, folio alato, flore axillari. *olitario. albo et odoroso, fructu minimo acutissime papillato, cortice flavo tcnnissinio, odore jucundo, carne alba suceosa et, grate acida.
Agrume Nipi^.
Limonellus : Lemon Nipi^. (Riimph.)
The agrume nipis appears to represent both the orange and the lemon, yet differs by many traits wholly its own.
Its stem is very small, its branches end in a sharp point like a thorn, its leaf is winged. The flowers, axillary and solitary, are entirely white and odorous. The fruit, yellowish like a lemon, has the size and shape of an apricot, but is termi- nated by a nipple very much elongated, and sin- gularly pointed ; its skin, which is very thin, has a pleasant odor, and covers a white pulp full of acid juice.
John Burman, in his Thesaurus Zeylawicus, re- gards the Umon nipis as the same plant as the limonia mains sylvestris zcykmica fructu pumilo, of Ceylon. lie writes as synonymous the mains aurantia fructu limonis pusillo acidissimo, of Sloane, and the catu-isieru nareyam of Malabar, of lleede ; which is the limonia acidissima of Lin- nams.
Nicholas Burman, in the Flora indica (which he arranged according to the system of Linnspus), in connecting to the citron lemon the limonia innlm tyheslris zeylanica, of the Thesaurus zeylan- icus of' Burman, regards it also as one with the lemons of Amboyna, of Rumphius, (Umonellus cum varietatibus. Ru MPII .)
It is easy to see by examining the descriptions and figures of these plants that they differ too much among themselves to be considered a sin- gle species. They really have some analogy con - necting them, but even these likenesses cannot make them rank in the same genus.
NO. XI.
Acrumen Ambohiicnm fructu au!.'-ulo«<». spina biua stipu- lari.
Agrmne anguleax
Agrume anguloso.
Citrus angulata: Citrus petiolis nudis, foliis ovatis acu- tis, fractibus angnioBis. ^Wiidenow.)
TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
35
Limonc'lUift aiiL'uluMi.r, inalaicr.
Lemon utaii Basagi. (Rump.)
The angulous agruuic is still farther removed from the European Citrus, and appears to con- ned this genus with the lititoma by the bila<'»s taurinus of Rumphius.
Its stem is not larger than one's arm; its branches are crooked and knotty; the leaf, rest- ing upon a simple petiole, grows between two thorns, which form a sharp angle ut the point where the bud appears, and the next leaf grows solitary by the side of the bud, with no trace of a thorn ; this arrangement, in the old branches, alternates in such a way as to make a leaf with- out thorn succeed a leaf with two thorns, even to the last shoot, while the young and new branches bear solitary leaves, the double thorn developing only in old age, as already spoken of. The flowers are solitary and white, resembling those of the Union nipis, but are smaller, and have five petals. We know nothing of its fertilizing organs.
The fruit is very small, and sometimes four, at times five-angled, and flattened upon the sides ; of a greenish color while young, but occa- sionally growing yellow at maturity. A very thin skin encloses sections full of a glutinous juice, with odor like the Union nipis, but not edible. It contains four or five seeds.
Rumphius adds that this bush, found lately in the marshy woods of Mangee (India), near the sea, is almost, unknown to the natives, and that it grows in the salt water which covers the soil at high tide.
It is easy to see the connection between the limondlus anyulosus and the bilacus taurinus.
VARIETIES— NO. XII.
Acrumcu Japouicuni foliis tcrnatis, fructu tctrico, pulpa
Monogyuia, under the name of tri[>lm •••>•.* auran- tiola.
This discord, which docs not escape his obser- vation, leads him to think either that botanists preceding him have not closely observed, or that their Citrus trifoliata is a plant of dit ferent species from that which he is describing. I should think, with regard to the first opinion, that if Kaempfer's description were less detailed, one might supppose this author had not carefully j observed this flower, to which, in his time, very little importance was attached ; but the descrip- tion is so precise, and agrees so well with the accompanying drawing, that we must believe his Citrus trifoliata, a dillercnt species from the fri- phasia aurantioia of Loureiro.
This belongs, doubtless, in the artificial system of Linnams, to a different class, but in the natural system it ought to be connected to the same fam- ily, and should make a link of the great chain forming the family of Agrumi.
It is to be desired that individuals of all these species should be brought to Europe, for it is only by a thorough and careful examination of their characteristics that one can judge of their proper places in the natural system.
It is pretended that the Cttt-us trifoliata has al- ready been cultivated in the orangery of the Bo- tanical Garden at Paris, but one must believe it has also perished there, for 1 have sought for it in vain. They have shown me only a lii/ionia trifoliata, which, as it has never blossomed, can- not be thoroughly known. We must then wail until enlightened botanists can observe them in their native countries with more attention.
dit Japon a fcuilles tenices. A.ijrumc Giaponico. Citrus foliis ternatis. (Linn.) Citrus trifolia : Grander a fcuilles tcrnccs. (De&fyiit.)
The Citrus trifoliata was the first to take a place among our Agrumi. Linmt'us regarded it as a species of the Citrus, and named it in lusty/sterna Plantarum, citrus foliis ternatis.
Three authors have given us its description. Kaempfer first, then Thumberg, and finally Lou- reiro.
Kaempfer paints it as a fruit whose branches are twisted, and leaves ternate (like clover). The {lowers, resembling those of the medlar tree, are axillary, solitary, and formed of five oval petals, terminated by a sort of guard like a long finger- nail, and enclosing twenty or twenty-five sta- mens, with free filaments surrounding a short and globulous pistil, which changes into a fruit look- ing like an orange, yet containing, within seven sections, a glutinous and disagreeable pulp.
Thumberg's description accords -with that by Kaempfer, but he says nothing of the number and position ol' stamens. It appear?, ho\yever, that he supposed them to be the same as in the Citrus trifoliate of Kaempfer, seeing that he ranges this that he describes in the class Polya- delphia, order Icosandria.
Loureiro reports as Citrus trif<>li«ttt,u. plant re- sembling that of Kaempfer and Thumberg in many traits, yet of which the llower is totally different, and he, in consequence, makes il a sop arato s^enu^, which lie classes. in Iho IVntandria
CHAPTER IV.
I11STOHY OF THE CITRUS.
AKT. 1.— Studies upon the citron tree— Indigenous in Media — Naturalized in Palestine, Greece, and — Date of its transmigration.
Centuries roll on before man gathers upon one soil the many plants scattered over the surface of the globe. He can for a long time content himself with the productions which Nature may have given abundantly in his own country ; but, as civilization extends his needs, his knowledge and connections, he lays all climates under con- tribution to enrich his native soil, of which he multiplies the resources and means by a laborious industry.
It is thus that we see the fruits of Asia grow- ing beside those of Europe and of Africa, and new trees, taken from distant regions, succeed to plants less useful. The citron, lemon, and orange trees are the last among exotic produc- tions which have contributed to the embellish- ment of our gardens. Placed by Nature in va- rious climates, they have become known to Eu- ropeans at dillercnt epochs, and as the result of very dissimilar events.
It seems that the citron first appeared. Indige- nous in Media, it was soon propagated in many parts of Persia, where the. Hebrews and the (Jrceks could easily learn of il. It is not possi- ble, however, to fix. the precise date when these two nations began ils cultivation, nor by what stops this nilliin- prm-lnlcd in i
88
GALLESIO'S TREAflSE OJs" THE CITRUS FAMILY.
countries. As soon as the Hebrews were estab- lished in the Laud of Promise, they began to have intercourse with the Assyrians and Per- sians, and it is reasonable to suppose that they would be the first to know of this beautiful plant, and to naturali/e it in the fertile valleys of Pales- tine.
It is, however, astonishing that in all the .Bible one meets not a single passage where this tree is mentioned.
I have thought, sometimes, witb a crowd of iuterpreters and commentators upon this book, that the tree /atdar, whose fruit the Hebrews carried at their Feast of Tabernacles, was no other than the citron tree.
That which gives probability to this opinion is the custom always maintained among the Jews, of presenting themselves in the synagogue on the day of tabernacles with a citron in hand. This usage, existing still to-day among them, and to which they attach great importance, dates, with- out doubt, from an epoch very remote, since there is mention of it in the Jewish antiquities of Joscphus; and Samaritan medals have been found expressing on one side the loir lave of the Jews, and upon the reverse of which one sees citrous fastened to a palm tree.
All these data, however, do not prove that the tree Jtadar is the citron — it is necessary to ex- amine the words in Leviticus and those of Jose- phns to discover what gave rise to this opinion. 4i You shall take," said Moses to his people, " Yon shall take, on the first day, fruits of the tree 1m- dar, of palm branches, boughs of the thickest trees, and willows that cross the length of rapid waters, and rejoice before the Lord your God." (Levit, c. 23, 40.)
If this custom had not been consecrated since so many centuries in the religious rites of the Jews, no person could have supposed that Moses wished to speak of the citron under the name of kadar. This word, very far from being the proper name of a thing, signifies, according to the Sev- enty, only the fruit of the finest tree, and, accord- ing to our Latin version, fructus Ur/ni upeciost.
Now, according to the acceptation given to this word, hadar, the command of Moses enjoined upon the people only a choice of the fruit of the iinest tree, without determining the species to be preferred. They were masters of the choice, and there is little doubt that as soon as they knew the citron they would substitute it for the tree of which they had made use until then.
The precept was generic— it would always re- fer to the most beautiful tree of which they had knowledge ; and the citron was, without doubt, for a long time, and is, perhaps, still the finest tree known.
The words of Josephus come to the help of my argument. This historian does not say that the law directed the Hebrews to carry in the Feast of Tabernacles fruits of the citron tree ; he only says that the law prescribed to offer burnt- offerhigs, and to render to God thanksgivings, by carrying in their hands myrtle and willow, with palm boughs to which Persian apples had been fastened. (l\mtmen dt: Perse.)
This expression shows that the apples had been i attached to the palm tree by a sort of voluntary ' usage, and not in consequence of the precept. J The citron tree, thun, w;i5', p.tili unknown in
Palestine in the time of Moses. At that period the Asiatics were not sufficiently civilized to • think of transporting the plants of one country to another; neither their wants nor their habits , of luxury had, as yet, made close ties between j nations. But it is surprising that the Jews did not know of this tree after the Babylonish cap- tivity ; and we are still more astonished to find that they knew nothing of it at the commence- ment of the Christian era.
The [Seventy, who translated the Scriptures into Greek two hundred and sixty-six years after the return of the Hebrews to Palestine, rendered the word kadar by the same paraphrase used in the Latin version — " the fruit of the finest tree." And the gospel, which contains so many allusions to the palm, the fig, and many other trees, says not a word of the citron.
This tree, however, was already known to the i Greeks and Romans. Theophrastus gives a very truthful and exact description of it. This philos-_5 opher wrote after the death of Alexander, whose conquests had greatly extended the knowledge of the Greeks concerning the region of Asia, sit- uated this side the Indus, where this plant was indigenous. These are his words on the matter :
"All the country situated east and south of us produces peculiar plants and animals. Thus one sees in Media and Persia, among many other pro- ductions, the tree called Persian or Median apple. This tree has a leaf as large as and resembling the pour-pier : it has thorns like those of the pear tree and hawthorn, but which are more slender, pointed, and stubborn. Its fruit is not edible, but it has an exquisite odor, as also have the leaves, which are used as a protection from moths in clothing. A decoction of the pulp of this fruit is thought to be an antidote to poison, and will also sweeten the breath.
" They sow the seeds in the spring in furrows carefully prepared, and water it for four or five days after.
" When the small plant has gotten a little strength, it is transplanted, always in the spring, into a moist and mellow soil, not too light.
" The citron bears fruit continuously ; while some fruit is falling with ripeness other fruit is but just starting, and still other approaching matur- ity. Fruit is given only by the flowers which have in the middle a sort of straight spindle ; those which do not have this fall off, producing nothing. They seed it also, as the palm, in per- forated earthen vases. This tree, as we have said , is common in Persia and in Media."
Virgil is the first among Latin writers to speak of the citron, not, however, calling it by this name, but, like Theophrastus, giving it the appel- lation of Median apple.
He says it is a large tree resembling the laurel, whose leaves arc odoriferous and never fall, whose flower sets easily, and whose precious fruit, though its juice is sour and bitter, serves among the Medes as a cure for poison, and is also used to correct a fetid breath, and as a relief to asthmatic old men.
Pliny begins to give it several names ; he calls ( it malus medica, malm a*»yria, and citruA. He says its leaf, which carries a thorn at its side, and is of an excellent odor, is used by the Medes to perfume clothes ; that its branches arc alwrays rovorod witli fruit: ^omo proon, others s
GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
developed, others quite ripe ; but that no one cats
I it, and that it is only used to protect clothing from moths. He says the Parthians eat the seed for perfuming the mouth, and adds, it is the only plant boasted of in Media ; and vain attempts had been made to transport it thence to Italy. This ^description, which appears as if drawn from Tkeophrastus, would imply that the citron was, at that point of time, but a foreign production / known only by name ; but many other passages \ from Pliny teach us that this fruit had been car- <ried from Persia to Rome, where it served in ! medicine, chiefly as an antidote to poison, and was in common use as a perfume for apparel, and protection from moths.
This naturalist reports that they found in the tomb of King Numa books of papyrus, which were uninjured, though entombed for five hun- dred and thirty-five years, and that the preserva- tion was attributed to the virtue of the citron. / Such was, the use of this fruit among the Ro- I mans for two centuries, and it was not until the isJtime of Plutarch that they began to use it as food. ^We know not whether it was eaten raw, or made into confections with honey, \vhich was so greatly \used among the Romans.
Neither Plutarch, Atheneus, or Apicius in- struct us upon this point. The first two tell us that it was regarded as delicious food, but are si- lent respecting the manner of eating it; and A.picius, who devotes a chapter to it, in his Treatise on Cooking, contents himself by telling us in very few words the method of conserving it, without saying whether it was eaten, although he gives in another chapter a recipe for making a roseate wine with its leaves.
All these writers speak of it always as an ex- otic fruit, and not until a long time after was it naturalized in Italy.
We do not know whether the rigor of our cli- mate, which, in olden time, was colder than now, retarded the naturalization of this beautiful tree, or whether we should attribute the delay to the difficulty of transporting it so far, in the centuries when communication was so difficult and the useful arts so little cultivated.
The first of these conjectures would seem the least likely, but finds in history more foundation than the second. Communication was, indeed, more difficult in those days, when navigation, then in its infancy, lacked the mariner's com- pass, and the manners and prejudices of the more isolated peoples raised barriers among themselves that civili/alion and philosophy have since overthrown. But we also know'that the luxurious demands of ih<- world's conquerors had penetrated to the most remote regions, and that nothing was spared which could augment the delights of the effeminate Ciusars. > Pliny tells us that attempts had been made to S transport the citron in earthern vases, perforated I to give air to the roots. This attempt, which the L length of the voyage may have defeated, would have been more successful if, instead of plants, they had carried well-ripened fruit, of which they might have sowed the seeds. But we can- not suppose that the Romans, excelling as they did in agriculture, were ignorant or neglectful (if-it had been practicable) of a means so simple and natural for placing in their gardens a fruit so precious. There must, then, have been a 0
greater obstacle to surmount, and this doubtless was the climate.
It would be easy to demonstrate by convincing arguments that many European countries have experienced in the revolution of centuries marked alterations in the temperature of their climate. The cultivation of the earth, the cutting of trees, and drying of marshes, would produce, naturally, this effect, but it is not necessary to recur to these physical discussions in order to establish a fact of which history gives us certain proof.
Virgil, in his Georgics, says that in his time it was necessary to cover the sheep in the Roman field in order to prevent their perishing in winter.
Pliny, the younger, in describing a field which he owned in Tuscany, said that the cold was so severe there that they could not cultivate the olive, the myrtle, or other delicnte trees.
Horace asserts that the streets of Rome were full of ice and snow, and that in rigorous win- ters the rivers, and even the rapid waters, were covered by ice.
Juvenal pictures-for us the superstitious female breaking the ice to make the ablutions (a reli- gious ceremony).
Strabo reports that the vine made little growth in the parts of France bordering on the ocean ; and that if it grew at all in such places it never bore fruit.
Finally, a vast number of passages to be found in old writings prove to us in an incontestable mannner that the climate of Italy and France was, in those long past times, much colder than it is now. This was surely the obstacle which hindered the ancients from acclimating in Europe the citron, whose fruit was perfectly well known to the Romans, and was to them an article of luxury.
But its cultivation would extend into Asia Minor. The citron tree, originally from Media, where the warm, damp climate favored its con- tinual vegetation, was already cultivated in Per- sia in the time of Theophrastus, and could have ; been easily propagated in other provinces of this Empire.
Herodotus records that Nebuchadnezzar caused the famous gardens of Babylon to be constructed in compliment to his wife, w?ho was accustomed to the delightful climate of Media. Nothing could be more natural than that upon this occa- sion the citron be carried to Babylon, whence it could be spread in the neighboring provinces. At the time of Dioscorides it was, without doubt, acclimated in Cilicia. This physician speaks of it in a way to make us think it was naturalized in the district where he lived. He calls it Pomme dc, Media or cedrouit'lex, and says that the Latin.* named it citron.
Once cultivated in Cilicia, llic citron would, naturally, soon be in Palestine, which at that i point touched Persia, and had so many relations / with that vast country.
We have already said that as soon as the He- brews knew of the tree, they devoted it to their Feast of Tabernacles, in which their law ordered them to carry the fruit of the finest tree ; and we see by the Samaritan medals, reported by Otius, that this usage was very ancient.
Although it could not have been cultivated in Palestine at that time, it is to he believed that the Hebrews hastened to naturali/e in their own
GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
land a tree which they had consecrated to a reli- .gious use. The climate of Palestine would assist immensely in this attempt, and, doubtless, at the time of Josephus, they had already succeeded.
This historian speaks of the citron under the name of Persian-apple ; but this name, connected with its origin, was the one received among the Greeks for designating the citron? and was always used by them even alter it had been naturalized in our country.
Besides, Josephus uses in another place the name of Citrus (kitriou), and in a manner to prove that it was a production of the country. He tells us in book 18, that the Jews being in revolt against their king, Alexander, threw citron in his face whilst he was at the foot of the altar celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles; and, although he had said before, ia speaking of the tree, that it was the custom in this so- lemnity to fasten the Persian-apples .to palm branches, he says here, that they were accus- tomed to carry boughs of the citron. How shall we explain this abundance of citrons, shown by the little account made of them in using them as missiles, and by their carrying branches of the tree, unless we admit that it was accliaiated in their country V Otherwise, would they not have been content with simple citrous, as the Jews are who now inhabit the coufnries farther north ?
Nothing could be easier than to make it pass from Palestine to the Grecian isles, and thence to Sicily and Sardinia, where it really is so well acclimated as to seem indigenous.
Most writers who have spoken of the naturali- zation of the citron in Italy have attributed it to Palladius. Clusius, Bauhinus, Ferraris, and some other partisans of this opinion, base it upon the testimony of that author ; but Palladius, far from taking to himself this glory, speaks in such a manner of the citron as to make us think that this plant was already not only acclimated in Sardinia and Naples, but also in the north, where it could not live without the help of artificial shelters and coverings.
This agricultural luxury, unknown to the an- cients, and for the origin of which, perhaps, we are indebted to the culture of the citron, proves that the plant had been a long time in Italy, where its culture had spread very much ; it was in Sicily and in Naples, and, according to Palla- dius, it bore flowers and fruit all the year, as in Assyria.
See how this writer expresses himself:
" OF THE CITRON.
" In the month of March one can propagate the citron in several ways — by seed, by drugeon (root suckers), by rejeton (also suckers or shoots), and by bouture (cutting). It loves a light earth, a warm climate, and continual humidity. If one wishes to sow its seed it should be done in this way : Spade the earth to a depth of two feet, mixing in ashes, then form small squares so the water may run upon the sides in furrows ; in these squares open with the hands a hole of four inches, and place three seeds with their points touching below. After covering, water them every day ; they will come up sooner if moistened with tepid water. As soon as the sprouts appear It is necessary to carefully remove the neighbor- ing weeds. Finally, at the third year, the young tree should be transplanted to its place. If one
desires to put in a drayeon, it must not be buried deeper than one and a hall foot, so that it will not decay. It is more easy to plant a boutitre, which should be of the size of the knife-handle, a foot and a half long, and sunooth on all sides, with knots and thorns cut off, but without mak- ing the slightest cut upon the point of the bud, which forms the hope of the future sprout. The more industrious people daub the extremities of the cutting to be planted, with compost, or cover it with sea-weed. Sometimes they wrap it in soft clay, and prepared in this way they put the cutting into well-tilled ground.
•' The rejeton (a sucker) may be more slen- der and not so long/ It is to be buried in a simi- lar manner as tire bouture, except the rejeton must stand ont of the ground eight inches in place of being covered entirely, as the bouture. As to space there is not much required. The citron tree ought not to touch any other plant ; it likes particularly warm and moist places, and near the sea, where it has an abundance of water.
" But if one would force it to grow in a cold climate, it is necessary to carefully put it in a spot well sheltered by mud- walls, or in a south- ern exposure, and in winter it must be covered with a roof of straw ; when summer returns it could safely be put in the air.
•" The rejeton, as well as the bouture, should be planted, in autumn in warm countries; in cold sections, on the contrary, they plant in July and August, and water it daily.
"I have, myself, succeeded in thus making them prosper, to the point of giving fruit of ex- traordinary size. Some think it is advantageous to sow gourds around citrons, and that their vines" when burned form an ashes useful to this tree.
" The citron likes frequent tilling ; it is the means of getting the largest fruit ; they should be but rarely trimmed, unless it be to remove dead boughs.
" They graft the citron in April in warm dis- tricts, and in May in colder latitudes, placing the graft, not upon the bark, but opening the stem or trunk near the ground.
" Some say the citron may be grafted upon the pear and mulberry trees, but one should care- fully cover these grafted plants with a little bas- ket or a flower- pot.
" Martial assures us that in Assyria this tree is always covered with fruit. I have observed the same in my possessions of Sardinia and Naples, as in those provinces the climate is very soft, and soil moist. The citrons there produce perpetually.
" To the ripe fruit succeeds the green, and to these the flowers. Indeed, Nature seems to have endowed these trees with a continual revolution of fruitfulness.
" One can, they say, make the fruit sweet, sour as they are, by macerating for three days their seed in honey-water, or in the milk of a ewe, which is thought to be better.
" Some cultivators, in February, make at the foot of the trunk of the tree an oblique hole, open at the lower end, from which the sap is al- lowed to run until the fruit is formed ; it is then closed with earth. They pretend that by this process the fruit becomes sweet.
" Citrous may be kept all the year on the tree, and still better in closed vases. When they are
GALLESIOVS TREATISE OX THK CITRUS FAMILY.
to be plucked for preserving they should be | taken from the tree, with hough and leaf, in a night when there is no moon, and placed sepa- rately, the one from the other, so they do not touch. Some persons put each one into a vase by itself, seal the vases with plaster, and leave them iii a dark place ; others save; them in saw- dust from cedar wood, or in such straw as is u~ed to thatch the trees in winter." *~ Progress thus marked could not but be the re- j .suit of a long course of years; therefore we must ' date the introduction of the citron tree into Italy from a period more than a century before Palla- dius.
Historians are not agreed upon the time in which Palladiua flourished.
The monks of St. Maur, in the history of French literature, insist that the writer of the book bearing the name Palladius was a son of Esuperantius, prefect of the Gauls, a native of Poictiers, of whom Rutilius speaks in his Itiner- ary, and who lived in the fifth century. Others have attributed the book to a Palladius who wrote in the reign of Tiberius. I at first thought that the opinion of the learned Benedictines should be set aside, because the writer upon the citron taught us that he himself had possessions in Na- ples and Sardinia ; but, after a little reflection, I see that it is easy to reconcile their opinion with this fact.
The Roman conquests had made of the world but a single family ; it was then not impossible for an inhabitant of "Poictiers to have domains in Sardinia and Naples. Moreover, I have ob- served that Palladius often speaks of Apulia, who wrote, according to Vossius, about the year 218, under the Emperor Macrinus ; he would, then, be posterior to this philosopher. This fact might place our agricultural writer iu the third century of the Christian era, but as his name does not occur in any writings of that time, and as his Latin savors of the decay of taste, I readily believe that he is the Palladius of Poictiers who lived in the fifth century, according to the authors of the literary history of France.
In adopting this conjecture, otherwise well founded, we shall fix the transmigration of the } citron into Italy between the third and fourth century of our era. But many other proofs con- firm me in this opinion.
Florcntinus, a Greek writer on agriculture of the third century, speaks of the citron as a tree .cultivated not only in warm districts, but also in climates where it needed shelter.
In his tenth book he expresses himself thus of the citron : " The citron-tree should be planted near walls so as to be protected on the north. In winter it is necessary to cover it with mounds of straw and the vines of gourds. Rich persons who live in magnificence and luxury plant the citron under porticos open to the south, based upon walls, and they water it abundantly. In summer they open the portico so that the sun can penetrate it to enliven and warm these plants. They cover them at the approach of winter."
The citron, then, was already in Greece at the time of Florentinus, an ornament in the pleasure- gardens of the great. Why should it not have been in Rome and in Naples, where the riches and effeminacy of the court and princes had concentrated splendor and extravagance ; also in
Sardinia and in Sicily where the mildness of the climate was so favorable to its culture? The re- lations of these countries — neighbors and united under one government — were then so intimate and so multiplied that it was not possible for the citron, already valued at Rome, to be cultivated in the gardens of Greece, and not in the delight- ful fields of Sicily, of the Campngna of Rome, and of Tusculum.
We must think it probable, then, that this ^ plant, already in Asia Minor and Palestine at the y time of Dioscorides and Josephus. passed into f Italy about the third century, and that in the time of Palladiua it was grown not only in parts of Italy, whose climate would allow it to grow in the open air, but also in districts less warm, where the luxury and magnificence of Roman grandees built country houses, embellished by art, at great expense.
I would not dare to assert that the citron was j at this time cultivated in Liguria and Provence, j These districts, which owe so little to nature and ; so much to industry, had not begun to flourish until after the barbaric invasions.
Maritime commerce created the greater num- ber of the small cities, ornamenting since many centuries the steep rocks of Liguria ; they date, for the most part, after the eighth century, and their agriculture, which resulted from their com- mercial success, did not begin to prosper until the ninth century of our era.
Liguria was in her greatest vigor at the tenth century, but she was so small at the time of which we have been speaking that we cannot believe an exotic plant was cultivated there which would denote a certain degree of civilization not to be found in Liguria at that time.
The culture of this tree made backward steps in the part of Italy where the climate had not 1 permitted it to become naturalized. /
The barbarians, who effaced all traces of lux- ury in overturning the delightful houses of the rich Romans, would destroy this vegetable wher- i ever it exacted care and expense for its existence, ' but it might still prosper in the isles of the Archi- pelago, in Sicily, iu Sardinia, and iu a large part of the Kingdom of Naples, countries remaining under the dominion of the Greeks, and where political catastrophes had not power to exercise their ravages upon its culture, it being there no longer a tree of luxury, but a naturalized plant, existing by the cares of Nature.
It was, then, from these countries that the Ligu- \ rians took the citron in the ninth or tenth ceutu- \ ries, since at that time they covered the Mediter- I ranean with their vessels and began to contend / with the Venetians for the commerce of the East. /
In 1003 we find the citron much cultivated at Salerno, from whence a prince of the country sent it as a gift to some Norman lords who had delivered him from the Saracens. And we know that Liguria, which has always had commercial relations with the coast of Naples, has, for many centuries, provided the Jews of Italy, France, and Germany with citrons.
The Riviera di Salo, since so celebrated for this culture, had not begun to know of the citron until several centuries after. Still later, it was extended to Mentone and Hyeres, and not until the fifteenth century has if been grown iu the colder parts of Europe.
GALLESKVS TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
A JIT. 11. — Investigation concerning Lcnwn ami '
Oranye Trees— i nl. no trii to the Ancients— Im- \
l»'<>i>e>'ly confounded tcitli the Apple, of Hespcri-
d<>* — Accliiittitcd rci-cnthj lit .\j'ri<-<t — Opiniom
concernin</ tlt< ir Ori</in.
When the lemon ami orange trees were ; brought into Europe, the citron had been natu- ral i/ed several centuries, but as this event oc- \ curred in times of ignorance and barbarism, it has remained buried in the shade which covers ' the history of that period.
When the study of science and of literature began to revive and to diffuse light in Europe, these two species of plants were no longer new ; they had become so multiplied that no traces of (their transmigration remained. Because of this, niost writers have confounded their history with that of the citron, and have thought thai, they, like the citron, had been known in Italy since the first centuries of the Roman empire.
The fable of the Hesperides has helped to confirm this error. The. golden color of the or- ange, and even its name, have aided this confu- sion of the fruits in the mind, which was also very congenial to the taste for the marvellous reigning at that period. Thus has this fruit been accepted by all the world as the golden apple of the daughter of Atlas.
In vain have linguists said that the GreeK word translated apple could as well be rendered flock, and that the fable refers to the sheep with golden fleece carried off by Hercules. In vain has it also been said that the golden apples of the poets might be coins, which, by their color, assisted this allegory ; the most celebrated crit- ics have persisted in believing them to be or- anges.
The Hesperides were placed by some geogra- phers in an African island, thought to be no other than the Fortunate isles (Canaries), now covered by a great quantity of oranges ; and by others, upon the west coast of Africa, whose warm climate is specially suited to the culture of this tree ; all this gave rise to the belief that, in their voyages on this coast, the Egyptians and Greeks^ having found orange groves, had from this invented the fable of Hercules and the enchanted gardens of the Hesperides.
It is easy to show the folly of this opinion. The fable speaks of Hercules stealing golden apples in this wonderful garden, yet makes no mention of a tree as delicious for shade as it is agreeable by the perfume of its flowers.
Ovid said its branches and leaves were of gold ; and it is easy to be convinced by the man- ner in which Homer and Hesiod speak, that this tree owed its existence to the imagination of poets who had invented golden apples but to embellish and brighten their picture by the idea of the precious metal. The Hesperides, say some, were upon the west coast of Africa. They were, perhaps, upon the sea-coast of the Cape de Verd islands, or else in the Canaries, which were known to the ancients under the name of Fortunate isles. Now, in these places, which certainly have been visited by Anonus, and per- haps by other voyagers before and since him, not only is the orange not indigenous, but it was not found except where it had been carried by Europeans. If we examine the description made by Anoous, in his Periplus, of
the coasts he had visited, and that which Scyllias wrote of the gardens of the Hesperides, we shall find no mention in either of this tree, although Scyllias has described exactly all that he found. The Hesperides, according to Strabon, were in an island of Libyiu (Georg, 3d bk., p. 84), and Scyllias describes the garden (in Periplo, p. 46). Is it to be presumed that these writers had seen it and wen/ not impressed by the sight, as were travellers who preceded them? I have noticed the same silence among the first voyagers who, under Prince Henry, of Portugal, discovered all this const. I have attentively read the narra- tions of Alvise da Caclamosto, the history of Bar- ros, the voyage of Vasco de Gama, and many others, and have not found a passage which could refer to the orange this side the Cape of Good Hope.
Notwithstanding, these travellers have not for- gotten to speak of those they saw in Ethiopia, or country of Pretre Jean. They remark at Madeira the tree, which they call cedre, also the lotus, al- ready mentioned by Scyllias. They tell us the shores of the Cape de Verd and neighboring isles are pleasantly ornamented by trees always green, which they do not describe, but which we know were not oranges.
I have thought for a moment that the orange was originally in the Canaries, when Louis da Cadamo'sto, in his voyage in Guinea, written in 1463, speaks in a seemingly truthful manner of this tree being well known in those islands ; but I have remarked that not a word is said of it in the history of the discovery and conquest of the Canaries, written in 1402 by M. Jean de Bethen- court, in which, however, he speaks of palms and other trees. Consequently, I believe that from Spain and Portugal the orange passed into these islands, where, in sixty years, it had cer- tainly multiplied and become known.
Leon, the African, who wrote at the end of the fifteenth century the description of the inte- rior of this country, even to beyond Mount At- las, where now there are so many oranges among the palm trees, found none, except in the Kingdom of Cano (ancient Canopus, near Egypt), and we know that this district must have had for a long time commercial relations with the Arabs, who had already introduced the orange tree into Egypt and upon the coasts of the Mediterranean.
We should, then, conclude that to the Arabs Western Africa is indebted for this plant, which would thrive there as well as at Madeira and the Canaries, where it had been cultivated since 1463. Before this era it was known only at Morocco, where the Arabs had carried it, and its culture extended scarcely beyond that country, which had been for a long* time acquainted with Eu- rope.
If. in Homer's time, there had been oranges upon this coast, they must have multiplied infi- nitely, and would not have escaped the observa- tion of our navigators, who would have placed the fact in their narrations ; but it was reserved for Europe to enrich with this tree those happy climates where the ancients had placed the fort- unate isles and the delightful gardens of the daughters of Atlas.
I will not pause to combat the opinion adopted by some writers that the ancients knew the or- ange under the generic name of citru-s, or mala
<;A1,LKSIO'S TKKAT1SK ON TIIK ('ITEM'S FAMILY.
I!
medica. It is impossible to apply to it the de- scriptions made of this tree by Theophrastus, Virgil, Pliny, and the most part of those who have copied them ; and if this opinion has some seeming foundation, in regard to the lemon, it is entirely inadmissible for the orange. The more judicious writers have seen the falsity of it, but have imagined another hypothesis no better founded. I
It was an old prejudice, generally received among cultivators, that in grafting successfully one species upon another, either new species were obtained, or extraordinary fruit, which resembled at the same time two species. They attribute to this operation, which they consider very difficult of success, the varieties produced by fertilization, and of which they did not know the origin.
This opinion was also adopted by the Arabs. Abd-Allatif tells us that in Egypt it was believed " that the banana tree came originally from the mingling of the colocasie and the stone of the date, and to produce this composite vegetable it is necessary to bury a date-stone in the interior of a colocasie, and thus to plant it."
Prosper Alpin reports the same opinion in another manner, and instructs us concerning the belief that was held in this country relative to the sycamore (Jicus sycomoriis. L.), which was regarded as the product of a graft of fig tree up- on the mulberry. He said that some pretend that the banana (m>.isa paradisiaca. L.) was the product of a graft of sugar-cane upon the colo- casie (arum colocama. L.). See the translation of Abd-Allatif, by M. de .Sacy, pp. 28 and 105.
This prejudice or opinion applies chiefly to sterile varieties of plants, and the cultivated ba- nana is of this number; it is a genuine monster, due to fecundation, and in which the fruit is improved at the expense of the seed. We know that its type exists in India, and there multiplies by seed. It is not cultivated in gardens, because its fruit is not as good as that of the sterile variety.
The old writers are full of methods relative to these operations, and of ridiculous recipes to sweeten fruits of a disagreeable taste, or " to change their color. Some have applied these fancies to the orange, and many authors have thought that this tree owed its origin to the cit- ron grafted upon the pomegranate or the mul- berry, and that the sweetness of these fruits was but the effect of careful culture received in our gardens.
I might report a great number of passages proving how much this opinion was believed. I will, however, limit myself to the following :
Bauhin, in his " Theatre de Botanique," after having said that to obtain the dwarf orange one must graft it upon the citron tree, adds that the orange, unknown to the ancients, is but the product of an extraordinary graft. Salmasius, in his notes to Solinus, says the same thing. It is also the opinion of Nicolas Monardes, cited by Clusius, who insists that the orange is the pro- duct of a graft of citron entered upon the pome- granate.
This opinion still exists in the mind of many cultivators with respect to the red-fruited orange and the bizarrerie, and all plants which offer singular varieties. One has but to read the notes to the Italian translation of the " Elements
of Agriculture," by Miti'Tinclm-, vol. 2, p. 201, to be convinced of this.
\Ve have already, in the early part of this book, shown how this opinion is without foundation, it is based upon no well known fact, and a thou- sand experiences unite to disprove it. However, ignorance of the true cause of these varieties and extraordinary productions, has credited it, and with the necessity for assigning a cause for a phenomenon recognized as really existing, this system was received even by physicians and nat- uralists.
These principles have also been applied to the lemon, which some have thought was the result of culture and extraordinary grafts. I have al- ready demonstrated that this plant cannot owe its existence to fecundation, since it has features peculiar to itself, which are constantly reproduced by seed, and which make it known as a mother species. There only remains for me to prove that it was not known to the ancients, either under the generic name of mala medica, or any other i appellation.
The Persian apples described by Theophrastus and Pliny bear all the characteristics which be- i long to the citron, and we do not see that any old I writer has observed that there existed two kinds. | This could not have escaped Palladius, Florenti- | nus, Conslantiue, Galen, or Dioscorides, who, I either as writers on agriculture, or as physicians, ought to have appreciated the difference bet ween i the lemon and citron, in their relation toagricul- : t lire, 'ns well as to medicine. Therefore their : silence should be considered, in good criticism, as not only a negative proof, but as positive data ; i while the exclusive mention they have made of I the properties of this species of fruit, without i presenting any of those which could belong to I the lemon, suffices to give to our conjecture the ! character of certainty.
Pliny's Natural History speaks of two plants I seeming to the casual glance to have points of resemblance with the citrus— one is the ritre of | Africa, the other the tliyam.
The following occurs as a foot-note in the original :
Among the writers who have spoken of the tables of citre (citrea 4?ttAM,Petrt>nL)of which the i ancients made so great account, some have | thought that they were of the wood of the cit- I ron, others, of the juniper, the arbor-vita, the savin, the acacia, or the almug of Scripture. (1st Kings, 10, 12.)
But nothing else than the identity of name and exorbitant price of these tables among ih<> Romans could have given rise to these two opin- ions, equally unfounded.
It is very true that the word ctirua has been indifferently employed by the Latins, to desig- nate the African citre., (dint* fybira, Varron ; citrus fittantica. Martial ; and the citron tree of Media, citrus medica.)
We have of this many examples, not admit- ing of doubt; nevertheless, it appears that this name belonged originally to the eilre of Africa, and was given to the citron long after as a syn- onym of apple of Media. All the writers of the Augustan era have applied it only to the dire of Africa. We see thi«Tin Horace, 'Martial, Petro- nius and Lucan.
GALLES10\S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
Pliny is, perhaps, the first to use citrus as a synonym of pomme de medie, but he gives it also to the citre atlantiqiie, and it is because of an error in some translations we see arbor cedri. The more exact editions have arbor citri.
It is difficult to determine what has caused this confusion. It is not to be attributed to any similarity between the plants, when the descrip- tions left us by the ancients prove that they were really two very different species.
We have already seen what Theophrastus, Virgil and Pliny have said of the citron. I will now examine what Pliny says of the citre atlan- ti<iuc\ " The citre," he says, (book 13,) " is a tree resembling the wild female Cyprus in leaf, in color, and in general appearance." The Cyprus, among botanists, has not trees male and trees female; it is a monoscian plan!, carrying the two sexes upon one foot, but there is a variety known among cultivators as the female tree, having spreading branches. It seems the an- cients called this cypres male. They designate under the name of cypres femellc, the ordinary Cyprus, regarded by us as the type of the spe- cies, and in our countries, called male Cyprus.
Millar says that the Cyprus with spreading branches is a peculiar species ; but all accustomed to cultivate it, consider it as a variety, and I can affirm that I have seen this spreading Cyprus grow among pyramidal Cyprus, in seed-beds, where the seed had been gathered from Cyprus, very close and smooth.
This is one of the facts which have driven me to search for the cause of these aberrations to be seen among all plants. But, whatever may be said of this variety, it is always certain that the citre of Africa resembles the Cyprus, and that it has a pyramidal form, very smooth, which dis- tinguishes it from juniper and arbor-vitre.
We must then ascertain if there exists a spe- cies of Cyprus whose wood is beautiful enough to make these precious tables, costing, as Pliny says, one million four hundred sesterces ($56,- 000.)
On reflecting upon the description of this fur- niture by the Latin naturalist, it appears to me that its beauty depended not so much upon the natural quality of the tree, as upon accidents which accompany, nearly always, the part of its wood of which they were made.
Pliny says the tables were made of the roots, or the knots of the trees, and adds that they were esteemed because of the veins of different colors, or of irregular and capricious waves with which they were mottled, and which gave them a re- semblance to the skin of a tiger, or panther, or even to the tail of the peacock.
Now these waves and veins are in the roots of most of these trees, and chiefly in protuberances or exostoses, produced perhaps by a derange- ment in the course of the sap. We see it in all the species in our southern climate, and princi- pally in the stump or the roots of the olive, the walnut, the box-tree, and in knots and bunches of woods most sought by the cabinet-maker. It would be nothing strange if these precious tables were made of the ordinary cypress, which, grown in Africa, has perhaps more color.
We can believe that at this period, Mt. Atlas was still covered with those old trees which date from the creation, and whose roots have ac-
quired in the long course of centuries, remarka- ble peculiarities due to old age.
The forests of Madeira and of America offer like examples; they have furnished, and still supply, trees of immense size and rare beauty. But they vanish with time, and their description will be for our posterity an object of admiration, astonishment and doubt.
Pliny says Mount Ancorarius, which had been so famous for its trees, offered none in his time.
Perhaps the Cyprus of Mount Ancorarius is of the same species as that foifnd in Southern America, known as vypres chart ve, (cupresms di*- ticlta, L.)
This tree (Dupraz' History of Louisana) grows to a great size, and has protuberances or exosto- ses, which, at intervals, cross the roots, and grow above the surface of the ground, like boun- dary posts. This coincides with what Pliny said of the African citre, in speaking of Nomio's table, which was nearly four feet in diameter.
However this maybe, it is certain that tho African citre has nothing in common with our citron ; this tree furnishes no wood much de- sired by cabinet- workers ; we never see it in the work-shops of Europe, where it does not attain sufficient size to make planks, and where the wood of it could only be had after frost had killed the tree, in which case it would scarcely be fit for working. j
The few we know have qualities making them as precious as the tables of the ancients. And we think that though the citron tree may be more abundant in Media, yet its wood is by na- ture the same as ours.
The orange tree has not enough trunk to be serviceable as wood. It owes to its branches, which spread themselves, its resemblance to the walnut ; when despoiled of these, it presents very little wood fit for use. According to Herrera the orange and lemon of Spain have but little wood. The orange is sometimes used for delicate inlaid work ; it is very beautiful and durable.
Perhaps they also use the wood in India, but in Europe 1 think furniture has never been made of it. I have worked some small pieces, and find that it receives polish, and that its clear yel- low color is pretty, but it is not remarkably so.
But the citre presents no other likeness than its name, which has a singular identity with that of the citron ; and the thyam, whose name has no sort of connection with either citron or lemon, shows only some equivocal features which might arrest attention, but, on examination, have noth- ing in common with the lemon. Pliny, who is the only one to speak of the tfiyam, made a vague description of it, yet explicit enough to distin- guish it from the lemon. He says : " The plant was sought by one, and rejected with horror by another, because of its odor and its bitterness, and some use it as an ornament to houses." PLINY, bk. 13, c. 16.
These characteristics do not belong to the lemon. It is, in truth, very proper to adorn houses, either on the outside, disposed against a trellis, or within, placed in vases for decorating apartments ; but surely no person ever rejected with horror the lemon for its odor, which is most sweet, or for the bitterness of the skin, which is corrected by an aroma so agreeable, and which
GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
43
never atfects the pulp, the principal part of this fruit. These two peculiarities would seem suffi- cient proof that the thyam of Pliny is not the lemon.
LlL—Searc/t for the Malice Country of the Lemon and Orange Trees— Originally from India — Passage into Arabia, Syria and Egypt — Brought to Europe by the Crusaders— Etymol- ogies of their Names— Progress ' of their Culture —Origin of Orangeries.
The orange and lemon trees were unknown to the Romans, therefore they could only have been indigenous in a country where this great people | had never penetrated. We all know the vast ' extent of this Empire, yet commercial relations extend themselves always far beyond political bounds. If these trees had been cultivated in places open to the traffic of the Romans, their fruits would have become at once the delight of the tables of Rome, given up to luxury. They could not then have been cultivated at this pe- riod, except in the remote parts of India, beyond the Ganges.
The north of Europe and of Asia, it is true, were equally unknown to the Romans, but their climates were not at all suited to these plants.
The interior and west coasts of Africa, al- though in great part deserts and destitute of the moisture necessary to the orange, enclosed, nev- ertheless, fertile districts where it might have thriven. But the state of culture of the tree at the present time in that country, and the historic facts proving to -us that it was not naturalized there till long after, make us certain that it was entirely unknown there as well as in Europe.
It is true, that at the time of the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, the Portuguese found many citrous and bigarades upon the eastern coast of Africa, and "in the part of Ethiopia where Romans had never penetrated ; but they found these trees only in gardens, and in a state of domesticity, and we do rot know but that the Arabs, who had cultivated them in Egypt, in Syria, and in Barbary, had penetrated into these countries in the first years of their conquests.
There remains, then, for us, only to seek the native country of the orange in Southern Asia— that, is to say, in those vast countries known un- der the general name of East Indies. But these regions were in part known to the Romans, who, since the discovery of the monsoons made by llippalus, carried their maritime commerce as far as Muziro (Massera; an island off the southeast coast of Arabia, Trans.} by way of the Red Sea, the navigation of which employed a great number of vessels, and whose commerce, according to Pliny, should have been valued at fifty million sester- ces ($2,000,000, T.) per annum. "Their fleets had penetrated even to Portum (Hebenitarnm, which appears to have been the present Ceylon; and, although these voyages cost them five years of fatigue and danger, nevertheless, the thirst for gold and the luxury of Rome had multiplied to the last degree the vessels engaged in this trade. \Ve must believe, then, that' the lemon and orange did not exist in all that part of the coun- try this side the Indus, and perhaps uA even in all the part lying between that river and the Ganges; otherwise, these fruits would have been
extolled by the Roman merchants— where the citron was so much valued ; and we should find at least some mention made of them in narra- tives and voyages descended to us from those ajicient times.
fc If we consult the description of the coasts of India from the river Indus to the Euphrates, which we have in the voyage of Nearchus, one of Alexander's captains ; that of the Troglodytes, and coasts of the Indian Sea, by Arianus; the voyage of lambolus, reported by Diodorns of Sicily, where he gives a description of an isle of the Indian Sea, unknown before him, where he had been thrown by a storm ; or, iinallv, the Indian voyage by Pliny, we find not the least indication of either orange, or even citron ; yet Nearchus carefully notes the plants found in his course, and speaks of palms, myrtles and vines ; of wheat ; and generally of all the trees of Asia, except the olive.* Arianus enlarges upon the vegetable productions of those districts, giving the description of those found in public roads', lambolus saw, in the unknown island, which appears to have been Sumatra, a grain that we recognize as maize ; which has been introduced into Europe since the passage round the Cape of Good Hope. •
We must, then, admit that the lemon and orange-trees could not have orignated but in the regions beyond the Ganges, and that, in early centuries of the empires of the Ciesars, they had ' not yet been brought from those climates where they were indigenous. They increased perhaps still without culture in the midst of woods, the hand of man not having yet appropriated them as ornaments for his garden. But this event could not long be delayed. The beauty of the tree, and the facility with which it reproduced itself, would naturally- extend the culture to ad- joining provinces; and the European, quick to seize the productions of all the rest of the globe, would not fail to enrich himself from these re- gions.
Facts prove that this result has been reached, but we know not the date of this passage, or the circumstances favoring it.f We will now make this the object of our researches.
The Romans at the time of Pliny had extend- ed their commerce on the side of India, as far as it was ever carried during the empire ; the pow- er of Rome, instead of increasing, onlv became weaker from this period; and the fall of the western portion was accompanied in Europe by the decay of letters, arts, agriculture, and com- merce.
In this general overturn, the Greeks preserved, it is true, with a taste for arts and luxury, some relations with India, but trade with those coun- tries had never taken other course than by way of the Red Sea, and this was closed from the seventh century by the Arabian invasion of
* Of all the trees of Asia. This is UK expression of the text : it is clear In- means of the Asia known at that time.
; It is surprisinir that, so little effort, has been made to learn the history of the o ran ire. while so nianv less agree- able lives have'heen sou-lit out. Sprenirel. even. who has labored so much for bis learned work on the Hisiorv of Botany \Ill<f<>it<t /,'* i In rhiiriu . Ainstelodaini. 1SOV). is si'leui upon all concerning this plant. lie has. however, drawn from nearly all the writers who have furnished mo the data thrown together in this hook : and he shows a profound acquaintance with authors who can throw li^ht upon thi~ ^ubject.
GALLESIO'S TREATISE OX THE CITRUS FAMILY.
Egypt, which soon followed the invasion of Arabia by the Barbarians of the West (Ethio- pians, T.).
The commerce of these rich lauds must then have taken a much longer and more dangerous route. The traders were obliged, after going down the^ndus, to reascend that stream, and by the Bactria (Balkh) to roach the Oxus— and finally, by the last, pass into the Caspian Sea, from whence they went into the Black Sea by the river Don.
But this long and dangerous voyage was never undertaken by the traders of Constantinople: they would not have been able to traverse with safety such an extent of country, partly a desert, and in part inhabited by wandering tribes, most of them nations with whom they were nearly always at war, and who were destined, in the end, to swallow the Greek Empire.
They therefore limitedUheinselves to receiving upon the borders of the Caspian sea, the mer- chandise of India, brought to them by interme- diate people.
One can scarcely realize that in such a state of affairs the orange tree could pass into Europe, for this beautiful partjof the world had never been in so general disorder or had so little inter- course with India. Her luxury and commerce were nearly annihilated, and the Arabians, whom the new religion of Mahomet rendered fanatics and conquerors, menaced, on one side the tot- tering empire of the Greeks, and on the other threatened to plunge into barbarism the West, just beginning to be civilized. Yet it was pre- cisely at this point of time, and by the conquer- ing spirit of this people, that the great changes were prepared which should revive and extend farther than ever before the commercial relations of Europe with Asia, and of Asia herself with the more distant regions of her own continent.
The Arabs, placed in a country which binds together three grand divisions of the globe, have extended their conquests into Asia and Africa, much farther than any people before them. Masters of the Red sea and Mediterranean, they had invaded all the African coast this side of At- las, and penetrated beyond to the region of the Troglodytes (Ethiopians living in caves— Trans.), the ancient limit of the Roman establishments on the east coast of this Continent ; they had made settlements there, and according to the testimony of a historian of the country, cited by Barros, they had populated in the fourth century of the He- gira (A. D. 944), the towns of Brava, Mombas, and Quiloa, whence they extended themselves to Sofalo, Melinda, and to the islands of Bemba, Zanzibar, Monfra, Comoro, and St. Laurent. On the side of Asia they had carried their con- quests, in the third century of the Hegira, to the extremities of the Relnahar.and towards the middle of the fourth century, under the Seluci- da3, they had established a colony at Kashgar, the usual route of caravans to Toorkistan or to China, and which, according to Albufeda (a geographer and historian, of Damascus, Tram.), is situated in long. 87 deg. (7o dog., 57 min.— j Trans.), consequently they had penetrated very far into Asia.
Never had there been in Asia <tn empire so vast, and never had the commerce of nations so near Europe been pushed as far into India.
A position thus advantageous and favorable to the commercial spirit and love of luxury which succeeded, among the Arabs, the fury of con- • quest, would naturally cause them to learn of and to appropriate many exotic p*lants peculiar to the regions they had conquered, or to the ad- joining countries.
Fond of medicine and agriculture, in which they have specially excelled, and of the pleas- ures of the open country, in which they have al- ways delighted, they continued to profit with eagerness from the advantages offered by their settlements and the hot climates which they in- habited.
Indeed, it is to them that we owe the knowl- edge of many plants, perfumes, and Oriental aro- matics, such as musk, nutmegs, mace and cloves.
It was the Arabs who naturalized in Spain, Sardinia, and Sicily the cotton-tree of Africa, and the sugar-cane of India ; and in their mediciifts we for the first time hear of the chemical change known as distillation, which appears to have originated in the desire to steal from nature the perfumes of flowers and aroma of fruits.
It is, then, not surprising that we are indebted to them for the acclimatization of the orange, and lemon-trees, in Syria, Africa, and some Eu- ropean islands.
It is certain that the orange was known to their physicians from the commencement of the fourth century of the Hegira. The Damascene has given, in his Antidotary, the recipe for mak- ing oil, with oranges, and their seeds (oleum dc citranrj-ula, et oleum dc- citrnngulorum seminibus. Mat. Silv., f. 58), and Avicenna* who died in 428 of the Hegira (1050), has added the juice of the bigarade to his syrup of alkedere, " et sued ace- tositatis citri (otrodj), et succi acetositatis citranguli (narendj)."
These two Arabians seem to have first em- ployed it in medicine. I have examined with care the authors of this nation who preceded these, and find in no other the least hint relating to these species. Mesue, even, who speaks ot the citron, says not a word of orange or lemon.-'
1 have observed, on the contrary, that Avi- cenna, in giving his recipe for making syrup of alkedere, in which he puts juice of the bigarade, announces it as a composition of his own in veil - tion.j-
This circumstance would indicate that this fruit had been known but a short time in Persia ; but it suffices that it was cultivated there to prove that it might, at once, pass into Irak (prob- ably Irak-Arabee, in Asiatic Turkey, comprising Bagdad, Tran*.), and into Syria. These countries, which joined, were also connected by political ties, which facilitate communication, and their inhabitants were more civilized then than before or since.
A passage by Massoudi, reported by the learned M. de Sacy in the notes to his translation of Abd-Allatif, a writer of the twelfth century of our era, seems to confirm our ideas upon this
* Moue, who was of .Syria, appear* to bo. the first to men- tion confects of citron, but he «xys nothing of the lemon or orange. Sylvius, who commented on him, observer that these confections were more efficacious than those of oranges (amnciwwiD. irhicli are, Jtoicew, much used.
•\- Avicenna, bk. .">. page <2M> •Edition of Von ice, by Val- urisiimi. 15ti4.
UALLKSIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
4r,
subject, and to determine the (Lite of this event. ' It accords with all the data just given, and with \ historic facts that we have collected. He ex- ; presses himself thus : "The round citron (otrodj ) modawar) was brought from India since thtxycar j three hundred of the Hegira. It was first sowed ! in Oman, (part of Arabia, Trans.,) from thence I carried to Irak, (part of Old Persia, Trans.} and i Syria, becoming very common in the houses of Tarsus and other frontier cities of Syria, at An- j tioch, upon the coasts of Syria, in Palestine and j in Egypt. One knew it not before, but it lost j much of the sweet odor and fine color which it had in India, because it had not the same climate, soil, and all that which is peculiar to that coun- try."
The lemon appeared perhaps a little later in these different countries, for we see no mention of it either in the Damascene or in Avicenna, j but its description meets our eye in all the works of Arabian writers of the twelfth century ; espe- cially in Ebn-Beitar, who has given to it'an arti- cle in his dictionary of simple remedies. The Latin translation of this article was published in Paris in 1702 by Andres Baluuense. The Impe- rial library contains several manuscripts of this dictionary.
I had thought to have found proof that the lemon was known by the Arabs in the ninth century ; having seen in a history of India and China, dated 238 of the Hegira (A. D. 860, T.\ of which a French translation was printed in Paris in 1718, the writers had spoken of the lemon as a fruit found in China. But M. de Sacy, who ex- amined the original, ascertained that the word limon was inserted by the translator; in the Ara- bian text one finds only that of at/'odj, which sig- nifies merely citron. Therefore this history,* far from proving that the Arabs knew the lemon- tree at this period, proves quite the contrary.
It was not until the tenth century of our era that this warlike people enriched with these trees the garden of Oman (in southeastern Arabia, TV.), whence they were propagated in Palestine and Egypt. From these countries they passed into Barbary and Spain; perhaps, also, into Sicily.
Leon of Ostia tells us that in 1002 a prince of Salerna presented citrine apples (poma citrina) to the Norman princes who had rescued him from the Saracens.f
The expression, poma citrina, used by this au- thor, appears to me to designate fruit like the citron rather than the citron itself, then known under the name of citri, or of mala medica. It is thus that we should recognize the orange in the citron rond spoken of by Massoudi in a passage al- ready quoted.
This conjecture accorded with known events and data. The Arabs invaded Sicily about the beginning of the ninth century (828 ); the orange was taken from India to Arabia after the year 300 of the Hegira — that is to say, early in the ninth century of our era ; the citrine apples of Leon d'Ostia date from 1,002, and were regarded as objects rare and precious enough to be offered
*The original of this history is in tho Imperial librnry. >[. Laugjles, a learned orientalist, is preparing; anew t ran <- lation to be printed at the Imperial pre**.
»• Li-o Ostiensis. bk. 2. c. 38. A. D. 1002.
as gifts to princes. Thus we have between its introduction into Arabia and propagation in Sicily an interval of nearly a century. In order to conform to the expression of Massoudi, let us, suppose that the orange tree was brought from Arabia some thirty .or forty years later — say about 330 of the Hegira ; if we allow fifty years for its propagation in Palestine, Egypt and Bar- briry, and finally twenty years for its naturaliza- tion in Sicily, we fill precisely the interval be- tween one epocji and the other.
A passage in the History of Sicily, by Nicolas Specialis, written in the fourteenth century, gives still more probability to this opinion.
This writer, in recounting the devastation by the army of the Duke of Calabria in 1383, in the vicinity'of Palermo, says that it did not spare even the trees of sour apples (pommes acides,) called by the people arangi, which had adorned since old times the royal palace of Otibba. (Nicolas Specialis, bk 7, c. 17.)
The name (Jubba, given to this royal pleasure- house, seems to refer to the time of the Arab rule; it is probably derived from the Arabic word cobbah, meaning vault or arch. Perhaps some grand dome upon this country-house gave the place its name.
These data, however, do not appear to me sufficiently strong to combat the authority of a very reliable historian, who says expressly that the lemon and the orange trees were not known in Italy or France, or in other parts of Christian Europe, in the eleventh century.
Such are the words of Jacques de Vitry, in speaking of Syrian trees, in his History of Jeru- salem. The testimony of this bishop, who ought to have known these countries, would appear to have more weight than simple conjectures based upon reasonings from analogy.
Whatever be the authority of this historian, compared with the presumptions advanced by us with regard to Sicily, it will always be decis- ive respecting Lake Garcia and the coasts of Li- guria and Provence.
There is not a doubt that in these last named countries the lemon and orange were unknown, not only in the tenth but even in the eleventh century.
But an extraordinary event, destined to change the face of Europe, was to open anew to the peo- ple of the West the entrance to Syria and Pales- tine.
This was also the time when the Crusades, which began at the close of the eleventh century (1,096, Tr.\ reawakened among Europeans the spirit of commerce and a taste for arts and lux- ury.
The Crusaders entered Asia Minor as con- querors, and thence spread themselves as traders into all parts of Asia. They were not mere soldiers, but brave men drawn from their fami- lies by religious enthusiasm, and who, in conse- quence, would hold fast to their country and their homes.
They could not see without coveting these charming trees which embellished the vicinity of Jerusalem, with whose exquisite fruits Nature has favored the climates of Asia.
It was, indeed, at this time that Europe en- riched its orchards by many of these trees, and that the French princes carried into their conn-
46
GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
try the damson, the St. Catharine (a pear, Tr.}, the apricot, from Alexandria, and oilier species . indigenous to those regions.
Sicilians, Genoese, and Provincials transported to Salermo, St. Remo, and Hyeres the lemon and orange trees. Hear what a historian of the \ thirteenth century says to us on this subject ; he hud been in Palestine with the Crusaders, and his word should have great weight.
Jacques de Vitry expressed himself thus : " Be- sides many trees cultivated in Italy, Genoa, France, and other parts of Europe, we find here (in Palestine) species peculiar to the country, and of which some are sterile and others bear fruit. Here are trees bearing very beautiful apples— the color of the citron — upon which is distinctly seen the mark of a man's tooth. This has given them the common name of pomine d'Adam (Adam's apple) ; others produce sour fruit, of a disagreeable taste (ponticf), which are called limons. Their juice is used for seasoning food, because it is cool, pricks the palate, and provokes appetite.
" We also see cedars of Lebanon, very fine and tall, but sterile. There is a species of cedar called cedre maritime, whose plant is small but productive, giving very fine fruits — as large as a man's head. Some call them citrons or pommes citrines. These fruits are formed of a triple sub- stance, and have three differing tastes. The first is warm, the second is temperate, the last is cold.
" Some say that this is the fruit of which God j commanded, in Leviticus : ' Take you the first day of the year tJie fruit of the finest tree?
" We see in this country another species of cit- rine apples, borne by small trees, and of which j the cool part is less, and of a disagreeable and acid taste ; these the natives call orenges"
Behold, then, the Adam's apple, the lenio^, the citron, and the bigarade found in Palestine by the Crusaders, and regarded as new trees foreign to Europe.
This passage does not accord, as far as the cit- ron is concerned, with what Palladius says. He tells us that this plant was, in his time, cultivated in Sardinia and in Sicily. But we see, by Jacques de Vitry, that the citron of Palestine was distin- guished by the extraordinary size of its fruit, equal to a man's head, and it must be that this last was a variety unknown to Europe.
It is, indeed, only since this epoch that \ve find in European historians and writers upon agricul- ture any mention of these trees.
Doubtless the Arabians had already naturalized them in Africa and Spain, where the" temperature favored so much their growth.
Doubtless Liguria is the part of Italy where the culture of the Agrumi has made most progress. We have certain testimony to this in the work of a doctor of medicine of Mantua, writing near the middle of the thirteenth century. He says :
" The lemon is one of the species of citrine apples, which are four in number. First, citron ; secondly, orange (citrangulum), of which we have spoken belore ; thirdly, the lemon ; fourthly, the fruit vulgarly called lima. These four spe- cies are very well known, principally in Liguria. The lemon is a handsome fruit, of fine odor ; its form is more oblong than that of the orange, and, like the orange, it is full of a sharp, acid juice,
very proper for seasoning meats. They make of • its ilowtTS odoriferous waters, fit for the use of the luxurious."
" The trees of these four species are very sim- ilar, and all are, thorned. The leaves of the cit ron and lime are larger and less deeply colored than those of the orange or lemon. The lemon is composed of four different substances, as well as the citron, lime, and orange. It has an outer skin, not as deep in color as that of the orange, but which has more of the white; it is hot and biting, thus it shows its bitter taste. The second skin, or pith, between the outer skin and the juice, is white, cold, and difficult to digest. The third substance is its juice, which is sharp, and of a strong acid, which will expel worms, and is . very cold. The fourth is the seed, which, like that of the orange, is warm, dry, and bitier." (See Mat. Silv., Pandcctn Ncdicimc, fol. 125.)
This testimony of Silvaticus is strengthened by all the authors who have written upon the citrus; there is not one but is convinced that these trees were for a long time very rare in Italy and in France, and that Liguria alone ha* traded in them since they were first known there.
Sicily and the kingdom of Naples cultivated, perhaps before the Ligurians, the citron and orange trees, but in spite of the advantage of climate, it was only as objects of curiosity, lim- ited to some delightful spots.
This fact is established by the manner in which most writers of the twelfth century express them- selves on this subject. Hugo Falcandus, who wrote of the exploits of the Normans in Sicily, from 1145 to 1169, saw there lumies and <?ran£W«, and points them out as singular plants, whose culture was still very rare. (Hugo Falcandus. See Muratori, Herum Italicarum Scriptores.}
Ebn-Al-Awam, an Arabian writer upon agri culture at Seville, near the end of the twelfth century, and whose work, translated into Span- ish, was published at Madrid in 1802, speaks as if the culture were very much extended in Spain.
Abd-Allatif, who was cotemporary with the last named author, expresses, himself in like manner, and describes also a number of varieties cultivated in his time in Egypt ; a circumstance showing that these trees had greatly multiplied.
Their progress was slower in Italy and France. It appears that the lemon tree, brought first into these parts as a variety of citron, was for a long time designated by European writers under the generic name of citrus, although in Italy and the south of France the people had known it from the beginning under the proper name of limon ; a name which has come down to us without sub- mitting to any change.
In fact, we find it in botanical works called citrus limon, or mala limonia, and sometimes cit- rus medica. The last was indefinitely used to designate lemon, citron, and orange, and very often the genus citr-us*
* It is not until the middle of the sixteenth century that we begin to find in Latin authors the differing species of cilnts under different names ; but one sees that this no- menclature was not well settled in the language of the learned.
Judocp Hondio, in his Nora Italics Hodiernce Descriptio, printed in 1626, says the plain of St. Kemo was covered with citreis, mtdicis, and limonibm. He begins to give the lemon its own name, and to distinguish it from citron :
GALLE^IO'S TREATISE OX THE CITRUS FAMILY.
The orange appeared in Italy under the name of orengea, which the people modified according to the pronunciations of the different sections, into arangio, naranzo, aranza, aranzo, citrone, cc- trangolo, melarancio, melaiigolo, arancio. One meets successively all these names in works of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, such as those of Hugo Falcandus, Nicolas Spe- cial is, Blondus Flavius, Sir Brunetto Latini, Ciriffo Calvaueo, Bencivenni, Bocaccio, Giustini- ani, Leandro Albert!, and several others.
The Provencals also received this tree under the name of orenges, and have changed it from time to time in different provinces, into arangi, nirange, orcnge, and finally orange. (See Glossary of the Roman Lauguage/by Roquefort.)
During several centuries the Latin authors found themselves embarassed in designating this fruit, which had no name in that language. The iirst who spoke of it used a phrase indicating its I characteristics, accompanying it writh the popu- lar name of arangi, latinized into orenges, arnn- \ </MX, arantium.
Thus, Jacques de Vilry, who calls the oranges />vi/ia cilrina, adds, " The Arabs call them vrenges" And Nicolas Special is designated them as pommes aigres (acripoiuorant, arboreb), ob- serving that the people call them arangias, These have been followed by Blondus Flavius and many others.
Matheus Silvaticus first gave to the orange the name of citrangulum* and this denomination seems to have been followed for a long time by physicians and translators of Arabic works, who have very generally adopted it for rendering the Arab word, na/rincy.
Thus, citranguluui was received for more Hum a century in the language of science ; finally, lit- tle by little, were adopted the vulgar, Latinized names in use among other writers, such us au- thors of chronicles, etc. ; and they have written
hut what is this he calls nmlv-i ? Evidently it must be the orange,
Alberti, in his voyage to Italy 111,1528, uses the Italian names of o.ntttfi, <•<•<! ri, rnn<m'i, etc.; but Giustiniani, who in 1500 wrote the History of Genoa, in Italian, savoring of the patois of his country, Uses names analogous to those used by Hondio, long after. // It nU'/r'xt d'i x. /,', he\ i mttopienodi <.-ifr<»i'>Jiin'>n>. <-«(r'i. < <//•<>//:/.
We easily recognize in these, the four species, now called bigarade, lemon, citron, and orange. But writers \V<TC slow to adopt them into living or dead languages, <;n-ek or Lfftin; and there have been rigid purists, who liked better to form new words drawn from the ancient name of citrus, of which these <pe<-i, 's were regarded as modifica- tions, rather than 1on.se these foreign words, thought to be barbarisms. Thus were, created liie Latin \vord>. .•;/- i-(iiifjnl<i«, c'ifi':i!'ift, i-'f fc/,».;, and !!"• l':ili;i!i names ci(ran- 'fo'i, Cf front, i)>il(iii>i"lt, etc.
In France, they have pushed tin* purism of language so far as preserving to the lemon in ordinary laiiL'i; . name of citron ; and have adopted the words linwnaae and limonadier, because those who sold this drink came into France during the ministry of Cardinal Ma/arin, and knew no other than their Italian names.
Of this we have proof in an in.junction to the IIIIIUIKI-
dicri-; reported by Delamar in his Treatise of I'olire.
where, speaking of these merchants, he .says: Un'i ('/<//">>'-
• in , tcitnl* >.>•/><•>**»/// rttidit, iwcukrrwn, citreontm. pro-
.y*</r/,....bkl, p. 204.
No doubt the<e dfrei \\en- lemons, but this name was considered a vulgar word, ;md. writing in Latin, one thought he could hot, use another word than c'ttr't, which uas regarded as the only technical term. It is in follow- ing these principles that the word citron has continued to be used for lemon, in the ordinary language of France.
-Mat. Sil., Pandect* Medicinte, p. 5*.
successively, amngium, aranci'un, arantium, an- arantium,, nerantium, aurantium, ponium aureum.
The Greeks followed in the same steps ; they have either Gredauized the name of narenge, which was in use among Syrian Arabs, or they received it from the Crusaders from the Holy Land, and have adopted it in their language, calling it nerantzion*
These have, however, always been considered Vulgar names, and, in general, the better Latin writers have made use of the generic name, citrus, for designating the AgrumiT
This usage, followed by most of the writers on history and chorography, often occasions un- certainty and difficulty in researches concerning the beginning of this "culture in the different countries where these trees have been intro- duced.!
* In the islands of the Archipelago they call the oran^o, in common language, ntrica.
t Etymologists of all nations have sought for the origin of the names citrus, Hmon and aurantium. Persuaded that these trees had been known, by Greeks and Romans, they have expected to find them only in the languages of these two peoples ; and this assumption has given oirth to all conjectures concerning the origin of these words.
We do not propose to examine separately each of the etymologies offered ; it suffices for combating them that we present the result of our research and observation.
^^e are forced to admit that the citron was known very anciently by the Greeks ; but they have never designated it as other than Median apple (imntne de Medie),
The word citrus did not pass into their language until the second century of the Roman Empire, and in adopting it they gave it a national termination (kitrion), just as the Latins did upon receiving from them the name of pomm? </e M«lie (m-aht medico). One cannot raise a doubt con- cerning this fact, attested by Dioscorides, who tells us that only among the Latins did the word citrus designate apple of Media ; and by Phrisnicus Arabius— a Sophist, and cotemporary with the Emperor Commodus— who says posi- tively that in his time the Greeks had 'adopted this first word as an ancient synonym (rnala medica, qua nunc clfra appeUantur).
It is, then, certain, from these two authors, that first, the Greeks received the w^orcl citrus a long time after hav- ing known the citron-tree ; secondly, that we can not find its etymology in their language ; thirdly, it cannot belong to the language of the country where the citron was indig- enous, for in that case the Greeks Ayould have received it with the tree, and given it to the Latins instead of gettin*" it /V-mJhem.
We have seen that the Latins themselves for a long time knew the citron only as Apple of Media (mala medica). They gave it the name of elf re* long after, and as a syno- nym of the name received from the Greeks.
This was not, however, a new word in the Latin tongue ; it had been used a long time, and we find it in nearly all t'ie writings of the pure age of literature; but it was not devoted to the designation of the citron-tree, as they kne\f nothing of it. It, was applied to the African tree' which furnished the precious tables spoken of elsewhere.
This would seem to indicate that the name originated in the country from whence they came ; for the tree of which they made the planks must have had a name among the natives, and the merchants who sold these to the Ro- mans could not but call them by that name. Therefore, it necessarily passed into the language of the conquerors, just a- the names of most of the American and Asiatic plants have passed with the plant, or the fruit, into our modern languages.
Tliis conjecture is so natural that it seems to me to re. quire no proof. It is more difficult to explain how this name was applied to the citron-tree.
Ancient writers furnish no passage which can throvr light upon this obscure point ; but they offer some conjec- ture's well founded. The Romans had very vague ideas of the tree called African citn/n, and also of the citronicr • they thought of them merely as precious plants furnishing them luxurious objects.
In the infancy of botany, when they had but very impe feet notions of objects, it was easy to confound tiier.i, e. -ii to persuade themselves that a tree v.-ix; j wood was liable ought to produce fruit of ;, cat jnw.
Many circumstances favored u-ia i&Isz <rviwr;. Citnus of Africa had for ^ome tim« fomishwu
4.8
GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
The use of it as seasoning for food, brought from Palestine to Liguria, to Provence, and to Sicily, penetrated to the interior of Italy and France.
The taste for confections was propagated in Europe vvitli the introduction of sugar, and this delicate food became at once a necessary article to men in easy circumstances, and a luxury upon all tables.* It was, above all, as confections, that the Agruuii entered into commerce ; and we see by the records of Savona that they were sent into cold parts of Italy, where people were very greedy for them.
ful planks, yet little by little became very scarce, and it was said that this cutting tlie wood had thinned these trees upon Mount Ancorarius, and that they only grew at the base of Mount Atlas. About this time were brought the first citrons from Asia to Koine. The Komans had no proper name for these fruits, while they had one belong- ing to the tree which furnished the tables. They found that even the Greeks only knew these fruits by a paraphrase in- dicating the country whence they came. Nothing more natural than from esteem to give to them the name of a tree of which they were beginning to have only a remem- brance, and whose rarity and price seemed to ally it to the newly-imported fruit.
This is founded only on probabilities, but is, neverthe- less, more admissible than the conjectures of the etymolo- gists. Those persons desirous to know these should con- sult Macrobe, in the third book of Saturnales, chapter 19; Athenee, book 3; Phanias Eresius, Isidorus, Ferraris, the Lexicons, and the Etymolog. Magn.
It will suffice here to observe that the word citrum has also been given by the Latins to a kind of gourd, probably on account of its clear, yellow color, which distinguishes it. From this word has come citrullit*, whence probably has been derived titrouille, Which in France is given to a kind of gourd. We have but to consult Apicius, who gives the mode of seasoning it, in his treatise upon cooking.
The words ciM-nw and citrina, as epithets, were in use for a great number of fruits, after they had been adopted to express the clear, yellow color peculiar to the citron. (Pliny, Nat. Hist.) The etymology of the words Union and aurantium has been equally sought after in the Greek and Latin languages.
Some have traced back the word linwn to a Greek word for meadow or prairie, because of the analogy thought to exist between the lemon tree and a meadow in their con- tinued verdure.
The second appears to be formed of the word aitra.tin. and some have thought aurantvnti was but a corruption of inctiutn auratum, which has been regarded as a synonym of the malum hespe-ridum of the ancients.
All these views have been displayed by a great number of authors, chiefly by Ferraris, in his Hesperides: by Sau- maise, in his Notes upon Solinus, p. 955; by Octave Ferrari, in his Orujines Linguce Italics ; by Menage, in his Etymo- logical Dictionary of the French language; and by the au- thors of the Dictionary of Trevoux.
The facts that we have collected upon the history of these plants convince us that these names belong neither to the Greek or Latin tongues. These, as well as all modern lan- guages, received them from the Arabians, who took them From the Malay and Hindoo. It is, in truth, under the names of lemmn and naregan, that these trees are to-day known in India. We are assured of this by all travellers and bot- anists who have described the plants of that country, bui chiefly by Gilchrist, a learned Englishman, who, in his Dic- tionary of English-Hindoo, printed at Calcutta, points out the word narcndj as belonging to the Hindostanee.
It was, then, from the languages of India that they must have passed into the Persian and Arabic, where they were modified according to the genius of pronunciation.
Those names which by their form must have originated in the Arab tongue, have an uncertain orthography, vary- ing in different authors of that nation. From the Arabic they passed into our modern languages, submitting to some alterations, Latinized and Grecianized by the writers in these two tongues. Thus, of narendj has been made the Latin word airangl, afterwards changed to arangi, aran- gium, arantium, aurantium. Thus, too, have the French formed their words, arangi, airange, orenge, orange ; the Italians the words arangio, aranzo, naranzo, omticio. cjxdtiie r^r;-,iiiri3fl tho word narancca. Tho word lymmtn hj»iibeen ifx'':en wl. i '"lie change.
• -i.e ys provided
Tor tjs gre. , r \ .• jre, in tif.e' thirteenth cen-
tury, OTIC o£ tive axo*^ <ugu!y-prized ov the articles of luxu-
After having cultivated these species for the use made of their fruits, they soon cultivated them as ornaments for the gardens.
The monks began to fill with these trees tht: courts of their monasteries, in climates suited to their continual growth, and soon one found no convent not surrounded by them. Indeed, the courts and gardens of these houses show us now trees of great age ; and it is said that the old tree, of which we see now a rejeton in the court of the convent of St. Sabina, at Rome, was planted by St. Dominic, about the year 1200.*
This fact has no other foundation than tradi- tion; but this tradition, preserved for many centuries, not only among the monks of the con- vent, but also among the clergy or Rome, is re- ported by Angustin Gallo, who, in 1559, speaks of this orange as a tree existing since time im- memorial.
If we refuse to attribute its planting to St. Dominic, we must at least refer it to a period soon after, that is, to the end of the thirteenth century, at the latest.
Nicolas Specialis, in the passage cited on an. other page, in describing the havoc made by the besiegers in the suburbs of Palermo, regrets the destruction of oranyert, or trees of sour apples (po mmes at'yreti), which he regards as rare plants, embellishing the pleasure-house of Cubba.
Blondus Flavius. a writer of the middle of the following century, speaks of the orange on the coast of Amalfi (a city of Naples, 7>.) as a new plant, which as yet had no name in scientific •language (Blond. Flav., Ital. Illust., p. 420), and he extols the valleys of Rapallo fcnd San Remo, in Liguria, for the culture of the citrus, a rare
ry. Jean Musso, who, in 1388, wrote a history of pleasure- houses, in describing the manners of his time, says they commenced dinner with Confectum znehari, and that most men in easy circumstances provided it as a thing in com- mon use: Tenent bonas confectiones in. doinibus cofwm elf ziK'horo <-f <!<• 'iii< lie. This, is confirmed by all the authors of that period; and we find in the records of Savona, in 1468, the Commune sent as a present to its ambassador at Milan, citrons and lemons. .I'ntfr'ticiih'iix minnix \f<-ffiol<(- // a in videlicet limoidbvs c&nfectls et elfin*. Liv. d'admin.
* The orange tree that one sees in the court of the con- vent of St. Sabina. atjKome, is doubtless of a very ancient date. An old tradition says that it was planted by St. Dominic. This was a well-established opinion in 1530, and Augustine Gallb, who wrote about that time, speaks of it as a fact very sure. The Father Ferraris saw and de- scribed this tree in KiOO. and Tanara, about forty years later, did the same.
This plant exists to-day, and grows in a. kind of nook or hollow, whose locality agrees precisely with that described by Ferraris. It was carefully tended by the monks of St. Dominic, who regarded it as planted by their founder, and distributed its fruit to the sick as miraculous. There was also a rule among the monks to present of it to the cain dinals and Pope, when they should come on Ash- Wed- nesday to visit this church. -vj
The actual condition of this tree is, however, too vigor- ous to admit of our thinking this was always the same stem. It is to be supposed that the present orange tree is but a sprout from the old plant, which, no doubt!, was cut off in the frost of 1709. What helps this conjecture is the fact that in the time of Ferraris the tree was in a state of extreme old age-. It is true this writer said it had at its foot a sprout or re jeton, which promised its renewal, but this is not that sprout, for it must have submitted to the frost of which we have spoken.
The present stem has a diameter of ten inches. Jt is di- vided into two branches, well covered, which, in 180(5, ac- cording to the assertions of the monks, yielded 2,000 oranges.
These fruits have a sour juice, and differ in no way from our bigarades. Indeed, at Koine, they are called nitkut fjni>- fortL
GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
tree in Italy. Cujus ager (San Remo), these are his words, est citri, palmaqua!, arborum in Italia rarimmarum, ferat. (Blond. Flav.,Ital. Illust., p. 296.)
Lastly, Pierre de Crescenzi, Senator of Bolog- na, who wrote in 1300 a treatise on agriculture, speaks only of the citron tree. We find in his expressions no hint of lemon or orange.
The culture of these trees, then, had been be- gun, in the fourteenth century, only in a few places, but was extended in proportion as arts and luxury advanced the civilization of Europe.
The orange was from the first valued not alone for the beauty of its foliage and quality of its fruit, of which the juice was used in medi- cine, but also for the aroma of its flowers, of which essences were made.*
Pharmacists have employed with success the juice of lemon in making medicines.f
The orange-tree must have been taKen to Prov- ence about the time it entered Liguria. It is to be presumed that the city of Hyeres, so cele- brated for the softness of its climate and the fer- tility of its soil, received it from the Crusaders, because from this port the expeditions to the Holy Land took their departure.
We see, indeed, that it was greatly multiplied there, and in 1566 the plantations of oranges within its territory were so extensive and well- grown as to present the aspect of a forest.:}:
The territory of Nice, so advantageously placed between Liguria aud Provence, would necessa- rily receive from its neighbors a tree so suited to the softness of its climate, sheltered by the Alps, and to the nature of its soil, fertilized by abundant waters. It appears that the culture had already greatly extended towards the mid-
* From the moment the orange was known, it was used in medicine ; Avicenna appears to be the first who used it in making his syrup of Alkadere, of which he was the in- ventor. The Damascene (in Antidotario) began to draw oil from it, and from it? seed. (Ol'-mn <1? ottranffulis. d <>l<<nm de citranr/iilonnn, memimbus. Silv., p. 58.) But nothing was so desirable as the perfumes made of its flow- ers ; they surpass in sweetness those of the other species.
Medicine and perfumery have made, and still make, great consumption of these flowers.
t The lemon has been employed also in medicine. Sil- vaticus regards it as an excellent remedy against worms, and say sthe mothers of Piedmont and Nice made great use of it for the children. He commends the virtues of its skin and of the syrup from its juice for the nausea of preg- nant women, and the pestilential fevers.
But the most common use of this fruit was as a season- ing for food ; this usage existed in Palestine in the time of Jacques de VI try (See Hist. Orient., p. I70K Tt had reached Sicily in the time of Hugo Falcandus ; and Silvnticus teaches us that this use of the lemon was all over Italy. i See Mat, Silv., Pand. Med., fol. 125.)
It appears that not until some time after did they begin to make the drink known as UmonacU .
This drink originated among the Orientals. It pas-ed into Italy about the middle of the fourteenth century, and Into France not until the time of Cardinal Mazarin. Menage, Diet. Etymol.).
At this time drinking-shopp were opened in Paris, where the public found refreshments composed of sugared water and lemon juice.
These merchants were called liwonctrtuTK. from the drink they sold. They were united a.-* ;i body of tradesmen in 1678. In the regulations of police, the name of /tnK>in«li< /•* is also applied to the coffee-seller*.
£Wc read in an ancient book, entitled "Collection of words, during the voyage of King Charles IX.. now iviu'n- ing, accompanied by tiling worthy of memory, Ac./by Abel Jovan, printed at Toulouse in 1566," the following passage: "The king made his entry said day into the rity
of Hyeres Around this city there is so great an
abundance of oranges and palms and pears and other trees, which bear cotton, that they are like n fort^t."
die of the fourteenth century, as we find in the History of Dauphiny that the Dauphin Hum bert, returning from Naples in 1336, bought at Nice twenty plants of orange trees. (Hist, of Dauphiny, bk. 2, p. 271.)
From Naples and (Sicily the orange and lemon trees must have been carried into the Roman States, into Sardinia and Corsica and to Malta.
The islands of the Archipelago perhaps first received them, because, belonging in great part to the Genoese and Venetians, it is probable they were the intermediate points whence the Crusaders of Genoa and Venice transported the plants to their homes. From these isles the trees have afterwards spread into the delightful coast of Salo on the shores of Lake Garda. where, in Gallo's time (1559), they were regarded as acclimated from time immemorial.
Finally, the orange and the lemon penetrated into tlje colder latitudes, and perhaps one owes to the desire of enjoying their flowers aud fruit, the invention of hot-houses, afterwards called oranyeriex. (The name of orangvrie is a modern word in the French language. Olivier de Serre does not use it — he calls this kind of inclosure orange-houses, p. 633. The Italian language has no word responding precisely to orangery. We find in some modern authors, equivalent words, such as aranciera. cedroniera, citroniera. FONTANA, Dizionan'o rustico, bk. 1, p. 74. But the ancient writers styled these places for pre- serving these trees by the phrase, stamone per i cedri. In Tuscany aud the Roman States, they call them rimesise; in other places they are known under the name of serre (inclosure). Matioli says, that in his time they cultivated the oranges in Italy, on the shores of the sea. and of the most famous lakes, as well as in the gardens of the interior, but he says nothing of the places for sheltering them. Gallo speaks of rooms de- signed to receive the boxes of orange-trees, which were very numerous at Brescia,' but he does not designate them by any particular name. The Latin writers also used a periphrase. Fer- raris calls an orangery, tectuiifkibernuiti. Others call it cello, citraria.)
^This agricultural luxury was unknown in Europe before the introduction of the citron tree. We find not the least trace of it either in Greek or Latin writers.
It is true that from the time of the Emperor Tiberius, in Rome they inclosed melons in cer- i tain portable boxes of wood, Avhicli were ex i posed to the sun in winter, to make the fruit grow out of season. These iuclosures were se- cured from the eil'ects of cold by sashes or frames, and received the sun's rays through dia- phanous stones (xiit'-"l<H'(ii), which held the place of our ylaxx. But it seems they used no fire for heating them, and that they' merely inclosed thus,, indigenous plants, of which they wished to force the fruiting out of season, it being a speculation of the cultivator ratiier than a luxu rious ornament for embellishing the gardens, i PUNY, bk. 10, chap. 5, p. 330, and COLUMKLI,, bk. 3, chap. :!, p. •!•>.) It is after the introduction of the citron tree into Europe that we begin to find, among the ancients, examples of artificial coverings and shelters against cold.
Palladius is the first who speaks of these cov- erings, but only as appropriate for the citron,
50
GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
and gives no description of them. Flort'utiu, who wrote, probably, after him, describes them at more length ; and it seems by his expressions that in his lime the citron was covered in the b^d season by wooden roofs, which could be withdrawn when there was no occasion to de- fend them from cold, and which, also, could be arranged to secure for them the rays of the sun. (FLORENT., bk. 10. chap. 7, p. 219.)
This agricultural luxury, which began to ap- pear about the time of Palladius and Florentio, must have been entirely destroyed in Italy by the invasion of the barbarians. 1 have remarked that Pierre de Crescenti, whoxwrote a treatise on agriculture in 1300, while treating of the citron, speaks only of walls to defend it from the north, and of some covers of straw. Brunsius and Antonius, quoted by Sprengel, have thought to find in the Statutes of Charlemagne indica- tions of a hot-house. I have closely exajnined the article cited by those writers, (in Comment, de reb. Franc, orient, bk. 2, p. 902, etc.), but have not found a word that could make me believe this means of preserving delicate plants was em- ployed at that period.
I have even remarked that in these ordinances many plants are named, which Charlemange wished to have in his fields, but no word to be construed into ordering a shelter for any, unless the fig and almond.
It is astonishing that having- spoken in detail of ajl the parts of the house, of laboring utensils the most ordinary — and even of those of house- keeping— he forgot an object of such great luxury as a hot-house.
But in proportion as civilization and com- merce increased riches and extravagance, the fruit of this tree became more sought for, and at the same time, more common : whilst, above all, the properties*'of the new species just intro- duced extended its use in medicine, in agreea- ble drinks, and as a luxury of the table.
At first they were, in cold countries, only a foreign production, procured from the South; but afterwards the people began to covet from the more happy climates the ornament of these trees, and to wish, above all, to embellish with them their gardens.
In temperate climes they began to cultivate them in vases, depositing them during winter in caves; and in the cold latitudes the necessitj' of struggling against nature, gave the idea of con- structing apartments which could be heated at pleasure ,by fire, and which would shelter the plants from the rigor of the season.
It is difficult to fix the date at which they be- gan to build edifices for protection of oranges. The oldest trace of it that I have been able to find is furnished by a passage in the History of Dauphiny, dated 1336, (we find in this History, printed at Geneva in 1722, an extract from an account of expenses made by Humbert, the Dauphin, in his Voyage of Naples in 1336. In the expenses for the return we see the sum of ten tarins— the tarin was the thirtieth part of an ounce of Naples— for the purchase of twenty orange plants. Item pro arboribus ciginti de plantls arangiorum ad plantandum taren. X. Hist, of Dauph., bk. 2, p. 276). This, it is true, offers few circumstantial details for fixing the fact that the princes of Dauphiny had really, at
that time, an orangery ; but as this historian tells us that Humbert bought at Nice twenty roots of oranges for a plantation (ad plantandum) * it is to be supposed that he had in his palace at Vienna, a place designed to preserve them in the winter; for without this precaution, they cer- tainly would have perished in the rigorous climate of Dauphinv. (In southwest part of France.— TV).
This luxury must have passed immediately into the capital of France, and though I have not yet found in history indications of these es- tablishments before 1500, it is very probable that they were known there about the middle of the fourteenth century.
The celebrated tree, preserved still in the or- angery at Versailles, under the name of Francis First, or Grand Bourbon, was taken from* the Constable of Bourbon, in the seizure made of his goods in 1523. And this prince, who, it is said, possessed it for eighty years, could not have kept it except in an orangery. (The orange tree at Versailles, known as Francois Premier, is the most beautiful tree that I have seen in a box. It is twenty feet high, and extends its branches to a circumference of forty feet. Spite of that 1 scarcely believe -that this fine stalk dates from the fourteenth century. It is too vigorous, and the skin is too smooth, to be able to count so many years. It is probable that in so long a course of time it has been cut, and that the pres- ent tree is a sprout from the old root. This might have occurred after the frost of 1709, which penetrated even info sheltered places. One cir- cumstance gives foundation to this conjecture This tree is composed of two stalks, which both come out of the earth, and have a common stock. This is never the way the tree grows by nature, still less in a state of culture, and from roots held in vases. I have mostly remarked it in the greater number of trees growing upon a stump which had been razeed at the level of the ground In such case one is forced to leave two suckers, because the sap, being very abundant, could not develop itself in one shoot. It would experience a sort of reaction which would suffocate the stump and make it perish. This is a well known fact in the South, where we cultivate largely the orange, and where the trees of double stems are generally recogni/ecl as rejeto?is, or suckers from old roots.)
After all these data, we are authorized to tliink that in the fourteenth century .they had begun already to erect buildings designed to create for exotic plants tin artificial climate. But at the beginning of the fifteenth century orangeries, passed from kings' gardens to those of the peo- ple ; chiefly in countries where they, were not compelled to heat them by fire, as in Brescia, Romagna, and Tuscany. (See Matioli, who says that in his day the orange was cultivated in Italy, in all the gardens of jt-h-e interior, where cer- tainly it could not live, unless in orangeries. Diosc. c. 132. We also find in SprengePs His- tory of Botany, that in this country there were at lhat time many botanical gardens where they cultivated exotic plants; a circumstance which presupposes the necessity of hot-houses.)
About the middle of the seventeenth century this luxury was very general, and we see dis- tinguished by their magnificence and grandeur,
GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY
tbe orangeries oi' the Farnese family at Parma, j of tbe Cardinals Xantes, Aldobrandini, and Pio, j at Rome, of the Elector Palatin at Heidelberg, ! (Olfv. de Ser., p. 633) of Louis Thirteenth; in I France; .and even at Ghent, in Belgium, that of | M. de Hellibusi, who imported plants from j Genoa, and carried his establishment to the last \ degree of magnificence. (See Ferraris, p. 150, where he describes the orangery of M. de Helli- busi at Ghent, and that of Louis Thirteenth at Paris. The latter has been replaced by that of Versailles, of which the magnificence renders it perhaps the finest monument of this kind to be found in Europe.)
We now see orangeries in all the civilized parts of Europe, it being an embellishment ne- cessary to all country-seats nnd houses of ploas-
AKT. IV. — Nature of the Orange Tree among the Arabs and Europeans of Hie Middle Ages— Sweet Orange Unknown at this Epoch — Observa- tions upon the Native Country of the Different Species of Citrus, and their Transmigration.
The investigations of which we have just given the result would seem to fix definitely the history o^ the orange tree. But how much was I surpYised when an examination of all the facts I have gathered upon this subject compelled me to see that the tree in question, from the twelfth to the fourteenth century, was n6t the o range of sweet fruit, but the bigarade \ ' \
This observation, of which I shall presently give proofs, awakened in my mind numberless suspicions and conjectures, forcing me to re- newed observations and examinations, referring always to the theory of species and their im- provement by culture.
1 at first suspected that the bigarade tree might be the wild stock of the orange, which the Arabs, having propagated by seed, had afterwards al- lowed to become debased and to return to its natural state.
But, in proportion as I have obtained results by my own experiments, my conjectures have been changed ; and I find myself forced to seek in historical facts the solution of this problem.
These researches, indeed, have brought me to results which agree perfectly with physiological principles drawn from my experiments ; and I j have had the satisfaction of seeing these two parts of my work leaning the one upon the other reciprocally, and mutually lending them- selves to explain phenomena which they seem to present.
I shall now begin to show the data which have convinced me that the orange tree carried by Arabs into Palestine, Egypt, Barbary, and Spain, thence to Sicily, to Liguria, and to Provence, was only the bigarade or sour-orange tree.
These proofs, already very numerous before my arrival in Paris, have been greatly strength- ened by new observations, for which I am in- debted to the politeness of M. de Sacy.
The Arabs carried the lemon and orange trees first into Arabia, and from that countiy they propagated them in places where they had established their dominion. But the most an- cient agricultural monuments remaining to us of
this conquering people present only bitter or- anges.
The Alcazar of Seville is, perhaps, the oldest of those magnificent palaces preserved with so much care by the Spaniards as an honorable witness to the glories and dangers of their ances- tors. It dates from the twelfth century ; and an Arabic inscription, now to be seen upon one of its portals, and of which M. Bruna has given me a translation, fixes the date of its construction as the year 1181. That which remains the most intact of this antique monument is a large orange grove at the end of the garden. This grove is. stocked with trees, showing extreme old age, and * all are of sour fruit. The territory abound Seville, though covered with orange trees, presents this species only in this grove, and can show no other plantation of so great age. We see, however, many orange gardens whose trees are very old. There is an exact description of such in the Voy- age of M. Navagero, Venetian ambassador to Charles V., printed in 1523.
Doubtless the Caliphs of Spain, who were very particular in the embellishment of their gardens, would have preferred to this species the sweet orange, had it been known when this grove was planted.
Africa, the first theatre of Mo&rish conquests, exhibits also only this species, in places where it has been acclimated since a very remote time.
Witness the woods of orange trees remarked by Jean Leon, near Cano, south of Atlas, the only ones he found in these regions, " and which," said he, " bear sour fruit."
Witness the oranges found in Ethiopia by the Portuguese when, they passed into India, and which were sour ; also" as Alvarez teaches us in his narration of the voyage he made to Ethiopia in 1520 ; and Ferraris,* too, who relies upon the authority of the relations by missionaries. In Ethiopia solo, cultu propemodum nullo, nasdpoma citrea rara ea quidem, sed visendw inagnitudini* et pr&cipui saporis ; aurantia vero acri tantum saporiarguta uberius provemre.— FEK., p. 47.
But we have testimony still more precise and determined, in Arabian works where this plant is mentioned.
The Damascene (Abd-ulfeda) and Avicenna speak of the orange only as a sour fruit, of which
may be made syrups. Acetositatis citri et
acetositatis citranguli.
Ebn-Beitar, in his dictionary of simple reme- dies, makes of this fruit a description agreeing perfectly with what is said of it by those two writers just referred to. He says, "the orange tree is well known ; its leaf is smooth, and of a deep green ; the fruit is round, and the interior encloses a sour juice similar to that of the citron. The tree resembles strongly the citron tree ; its flower is white and of a sweet odor." (Arabian MSS., No. 172.)
Massoudi, who is quoted by M. de Sacy in the notes to his translation of Abd-Allatif, distin- guishes the fruit from the citron only by its form, and calls it citron rond. And Ebn-Al Awam, in his agricultural book, says that the fruit of the orange tree is round, and that its juice has the acidity of the citron, from which it conies. (Spanish translation, bk 1, p. 320.) But it is not only in Arabia, in Africa, and in Spain, that the orange was known as a sour fruit. Italy pre-
CALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
serves some trees which date from the years' 1150 and 1200. Such is the Roman orange tree, already spokeii of, and which is said to have been planted by St. Dominic.
Ferraris tells us that it has sour fruit, (acrium pomorum^ and that the rejeton or sprout of it, ex- isting still, is of this species ; " for I have myself examined and tasted the fruit."
This opinion, as to the acidity of the orange, is also confirmed by all reraainiug to us of our ancient writers relating to this tree.
To the testimony of De Vitry is added that of Simon Januarius, Silvaticus, Special is, Falcan- dus, and many others.
Nicolas Specialis, in his history of the siege of Palermo, calls it the tree of sour apples (acripomo- rum arbores); and Hugo Falcandus, in his history of Sicily, describes it in the following manner : Videas ibi, ct luniias acetosilate »ua condiendts cibis Idoneas, et arangias acetoso nihilominm Jtumore plenas mterius, quce magis pulchritudine sua risum obkctant quam ad illud utiles mdeantur.
Finally, from the tenth to the fifteenth cen- tury, we find not a single passage in history which can relate to the sweet orange ; and wri- ters who have made mention of this tree, (the orange), directly or indirectly speak of it as a kind of sour fruit more agreeable to sight by its beauty, than to taste, by its juice.
Nevertheless, the sweet orange has existed since many centuries in China. "All travellers certify to this fact ; and the large sylvan groves of them found in Japan, Cochin-China, in the vicinity of Canton, and in the Pacific islands, prove that this plant originated there.
We cannot reasonably believe that this species has been obtained by a careful culture in coun- tries so little civilized, and in savage isles where the vegetable kingdom shows only the traces of simple nature. Neither can we admit that the sweet orange is the type of a species, the degra- dation of which, by neglect, has originated the bigarade or sour orange.
This phenomenon (of which no other vegetable offers a single specimen) should have had, neces- sarily, results very different from those given to us by history, and by the actual condition of these plants in various parts of the world.
Extraordinary culture could affect only indi- viduals submitted to its action ; but in wild places the orange tree itself would always be preserved in its natural state, and nothing could have caused the type to disappear entirely. For, if individual trees abandoned to^nature had degenerated to the point of presenting a difference so great as that existing between the sweet and sour oranges, these two species would surely have been found mingled in the fields, and show a gradation of debasement, or amelioration, proportionate to the state of culture, richness of soil, and influ- ence of climate.
But, on the contraiy, all data given us by his- tory upon this matter unite to convince us that these two species of orange trees, as well as the two species of citron trees, created separately by Nature, have existed a long time isolated, and have each had a father-land. The citron is found only in Media. .
Travelling botanists have also recognized the fact that in parts of India where one meets the
orange in an indigenous state, the citron is there only by culture.
The lemon did not pass into Persia, Syria, and Egypt until after the Arabs had extended their conquests beyond the Indus and the Ganges into regions before unknown,, or separated from Western Asia by their political state, their man ners, and their religion.
The bigarade appeared shortly before the lemon, and probably it was not found indigenous, by the side of the sweet orange, as in that case the sweet fruit would surely have been preferred ; at least it would have been associated with "the bigarade, and would have followed it very soon into the regions where it has been propagated.
Yet we have seen that the sweet orange tree was still unknown in Europe at the close of the fourteenth century, and it seems not to have- been cultivated until towards the middle of the fifteenth century.
It is not easy "to determine the different regions where the species were placed originally by na- ture. Luxury and civilization have mingled them in a way to make them appear indigenous in all hot countries, where their culture is cotem- porary with the establishment of agriculture, and the civilization of the inhabitants.
It is only by visiting as a philosopher the in- terior of countries least cultivated, that one could find the trees in that sylvan and isolated state, which we call natural ~
The most reliable data, however, succeed in supplying us with proof that this species has ex isted a long time only in the southern provinces of China, and upon the coasts and isles of the Pacific.
The Indians, in fact, call this fine species by the name of China orange, and I have remarked that at Amboyna and Banda, where it is very common, they acknowledge that to China they owe the choicest and sweetest varieties. (See Rumphius.) It is there, certainly, that all trav- elers meet with the sweet-fruited orange as an indigenous plant; it is from thence, according to tradition, that it passed into India ; it is from thence that recently have been received the greater number of the singular varieties now cultivated at the Moluccas, in India, and in America. It is known in all these countries under the name of China orange, and it was also by this name known in Europe before the crowd of varieties spread from one district to another, and taking the name of the region whence they came, had confounded the nomen- clature of the Hesperides.
In every case it is clearly demonstrated that the original climate of the sweet-fruited orange tree was not that of the bigarade tree, and that each of the four species of the genus citrus had a country whence they have been brought by the industry and luxury of man.
This fact, which we could prove also respect- ing other genera of plants, is it not an effect of a general law of Nature ? Is it not a principle followed by Providence in the distribution of all beings ? The Creator has made the genera for the earth, and the species for the climates.
He has spread equally over all the globe, the greatest number of vegetables ; but He has orig- inally modified them into many differing species,
GALLESIO'S TREATISE OX THE CITRUS FAMILY.
53
according to the various climates "where they should live.
Man, alone, has disturbed this distribution. King of Nature, he has assembled under the same sky a crowd of differing beings, which were not assigned to live together. He has thus enriched the climate inhabited by himself, and has assimilated to his system of society1" the ani- mals and vegetables.
But all. this has takeu place by degrees, and is the result of a long course of ages. We shall now inquire regarding the time and manner of naturalizing the sweet orange tree in Europe.
AKT. V.— Observations upon the Acclimation of the Sweet Orange — Opinions of Various Writers — Examination of their Opinions.
It is certainly difficult to follow the history of ihe transmigration of ordinary plants, which spread themselves slowly and in times of ob- scurity; but it is surprising that we find no traces of the passage of the orange tree of sweet fruit, which, because of its qualities and the epoch at which we suppose it must have been brought to Europe, ought to have been an object for the admiration of gardeners, and the obser- vations of botanists.
This investigation presents nevertheless, a crowd of difficulties.
An opinion, prevailing among the greater part of writers, has attributed this acquisition to the Portuguese. Valmont de Bomare, in his Dictionary of Natural History, gives details so precise upon this fact, that for a long time I be- lieved it to be incontestable.
He says that at Lisbon, in the Count St. Laur- ent's garden, there exists the first tree from which have come all the orange trees now ornament- ing the gardens of Europe.
Valmont de Bomare, and the other writers who have reported this fact, speak of the orange in general ; but I think their expressions should be received as applying only to the sweet orange — it would be unreasonable to connect them with the bigarade. This naturalist cites no authority to sustain his assertion, and it appears as if taken from the Dictionary of Trevoux, who is also silent with respect to the source whence he obtained it.';:-
It seems that the name of Portugal, applied generally to the sweet orange, has accredited the opinion respecting the origin of this tree. But we must observe first, that this name was not known in Europe till about the middle of the seventeenth century, and that previous to that lime this species was known under the simple name of orange douce, (sweet orange.) Secondly, Unit from the use made of this name among writers, or among the people of the country where it is received, we see clearly that they have 'given it only to a variety carried, perhaps, bv the Portuguese into Europe, and which may be the red-fruited orange. Indeed, in Arabia even, they use the name of Portugal to designate
* The oranges of China are thti.- named, because those we *aw for the first time had been limiiL'ht thence. Tin-, first ;md only tree from which it is said they nil conic, is still preserved at Lisbon, in the house of Count St. Laurent: and it is to the Portuguese that we arc indebted for this excellent fruit. For that reason they are also called oranges of Portotgal—'DtVf. OK TREVOVX, AKT. OKA.XUKR. 8
a sort of orange, just as they use the name of Italy to express two kinds of citron trees. We have but to read Niebuhr's Voyage to Arabia, where in remarking these denominations, he says it is believed that the Arabs received from
I Europe one species of orange and two of citrons.
1 (Niebuhr, bk. 1, sec. 39.) Apparently, the orange of which he speaks is the narendj Bortughal,
j and the citrons are the Idalia Hoelu, and the Idalia Maleck, of the Flo-ra ^Egyptiaco-Arabica of Forskal.
The opinion of Bomare has been shared not only by Hunter in his voyage to China, and by the" most of European writers upon agriculture, but also by learned botanists, such as Loureiro.
i (See first volume of Memorias de Lisboa, page
! 152.) And I have read, not without surprise, in the Botanique llistorique of Madame de Genlis,lhat
i we can even name the person to whom we owe the acquisition of the orange (Jean de Castro).
Assertions thus positive give to the opinion of Bomare an air of truthfulness, which seems to render it unassailable; but having brought to-
i gether the dates of the various proofs which I
| have collected for and against this opinion, I
i have seen that it is in contradiction to well estab-
! lished facts, and thus deprived of foundation.
The Portuguese did not reach China until 1518. Jean de Castro, born in 1500, could not return from his first voyage until about 1520. There- fore, if the orange were carried from China by
I the Portuguese, and specially by Jean de Castro, this species should not have appeared in Europe until after the years 1518 or 1520, a fact impossi- ble lo prove.
It would be more probable to suppose it brought from India by the Portuguese, who penetrated there in 1498. In this case it might be possible for the Count de St. Laurent to have in his garden the first tree seen in Europe. But tliis hypothesis, whatever appearance of truth it
! may have, can be combatted with success.
Vasco de Gama, who first doubled the Cape of
I Good Hope in 1498, said, in his relation of his voyage, arranged bv a Florentine who was in his vessel, that in India there were many orange trees, but all with sweet fruit — Souvl melarancic <ixr<fiit ma tuttle dolci. — RAMUS, bk. 1, p. 121. It does not seem, from these expressions, that
, the sweet orange was to him an unknown spe- cies ; they would appear to denote solely that
; the bigarade, then very common in Europe, was not cultivated there.
It would be very astonishing, supposing the sweet orange a species unknown among us, if this navigator had not made a remark upon it,
1 and, if he brought the first seed of it to Europe. that he said not a word of it in his relation. All voyagers <>!' that epocli are equally silent.
: I have not 'found a single word to indicate this fact in any of tliv original voyages collected by Ramuslo, nor in any of the cotemporaueous his- tories, which 1 have read attentively. On the contrary, I have remarked that none of these travellers showed surprise at sight of this fruit, as they did on seeing many others.
Hut that which radically destroys this hypoth- esis is, that we have daU to prove the fact of the general cultivation of the sweet orantje in the south of Kuropc before this time.
54
GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
We find a crowd of writers at the beginning of the sixteenth century who treat of the sweet or- ange, and not one among them regards it as a new species. They all speak of it as a very an- cient tree, whose origin was unknown.
I shall cite Matioli, who printed his translation of Dipscorides in 1540," and who could not have been ignorant of the origin of this species, if it dated from the beginning of this century. His successful study of plants, and the earnest re- searches he made upon this subject, do not per- mit us to presume that he could make a mistake in a matter so important and so new. We might say the same of Augustin Gallo, his cotemporary, who enlarges upon the culture of the orange and chiefly of those at Salo, on Lake Garda.
This author speaks also of the orange tree of sweet fruit as a species known since time imme- morial.*
Navagero, Venetian Ambassador to Charles Fifth, published his Spanish voyage in 1525. He therein describes the prodigious trees of the Iluerta del /^'(kitchen garden of the King) at Seville, which may still be seen, and which are all of sweet fruit.
But nothing proves more strongly how this species was spread in Europe, about the begin- ning of the sixteenth century, than Leandro Al- berti's voyage to Italy. This learned monk, who wrote in 1523, speaks largely of immense planta- tions of orange, lemon, and citron trees, which he saw in Sicily, Calabria, upon the borders of the river Salo, in Liguria, and in many other places.
He expressly says that a great number of va- rieties were cultivated, chiefly of sweet fruit, f
If the tree owned by the Count St. Laurent were the first to appear in Europe, would it have been possible to propagate it so promptly, and in such abundance, that in twenty-five years it should people the most distant countries with thousands of trees ?
At first one would suppose if this species had been brought from India by the Portuguese, they would have followed the easiest method — that of bringing the seed and sowing it at Lisbon. But if we presume that it came as a plant, the hypothesis would then present a crowd of diffi- culties, rendering it nearly impossible.
Voyages from India were, at that time, very long and very dangerous, being made in small vessels inferior to those in use now.
Crossing the equator was but little favorable to the preservation of vegetables, and the desire of gain, which exclusively occupied those navi-
* Gallo did not publish his work on agriculture till 1569, but he speaks of the sweet orange as of a plant whose cul- ture dated from time immemorial, and says that at Salo the old cultivators of ninety years of age could not remem- ber the planting of the trees existing in his time. I have re- marked the same in works of physicians, and chiefly in the narrations of voyagers.
t Leandro Alberti, who travelled in Italy in 1523, speaks of the sweet orange tree in a very precise manner, which leaves no room for doubt. "We see there," speaking of Salerno, "citrons, lemons, and orange trees of all the species. Some have sweet, some have sour fruit, and, finally, others, producing fruits of a medium taste.'' Dolci, ttgrestine, e di mezzo sapore. (p. 192).
He expresses himself in like manner in his description of Liguna, the river Salo. and Calabria, observing that one coula walk by the side of orange gardens for more than two miles of road. He regards them, however, as plants known there since time immemorial, and of which the culture was widely spread.
gators, while hindering their search for objects of taste, would scarcely dispose them to share with a tree the provision of water, so precious and so necessary for all concerned in voyages uncertain and dangerous.
Spite of all these obstacles, 1 would still admit that the spirit of curiosity of these adventurers might urge them to transplant into Europe, across so many dangers, a tree of India.
All these suppositions, however, will not dis- sipate the difficulties which we meet in recon- ciling this hypothesis with facts which I am about to point out.
It was necessary tb give to this plant a certain number of years before the Count ef St. Laurent (who was, I will assume, disposed to give grafts of it to all the world) could multiply it in his garden, and in the gardens of Lisbon. After- wards time was necessary for some plants to pass into Liguria, to increase there, and from thence to be propagated in Sicily, in Naples, in Sardinia, and upon the shores of Lake Garda. It is, finally, needful to accord a certain number of years to these grafts for growth, and for suffi- cient increase to form those magnificent groves which, in 1528, covered the gardens of $Italy. All these operations could not have taken place in an interval of twenty-five years — an insufficient time for propagating any plant whatever in any single country.
But I would still suppose the possibility of this propagation. There still remains another problem to solve. How could such rapid and prodigious growth escape the knowledge of so many cotemporaneous agricultural writers, who must have witnessed it, as well as of the bot- anists who flourished at this time, and of the many intelligent travellers who have gathered the smallest details upon the culture of these trees, and concerning the countries which they have overrun ?
We cannot admit such progress in the propa- gation of the sweet orange without assuming that the cultivators of all countries had a passion for multiplying it, as well as good fortune in transporting it, added to a profound knowledge of the best manner of grafting, and the most rea- sonable methods of cultivating it, as well as a general knowledge of commerce.
All these circumstances should have made it a noticeable plant, and rendered it an object of attention to botanists and writers of the time.
We are forced, then, to conclude that the sweet orange tree was taken to Europe long be- fore the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, and consequently could not have been intro- duced by the Portuguese, much less by Jean clc Castro.
But how did it come into Europe ? This is the question with which we are about to occupy ourselves.
AHT. VI. — Transmigration of the Sweet-fruited Orange Tree — Conjectures upon the Time of this Event.
The Crusades have enriched Western Europe with the most of the Asiatic plants, acclimated by the Arabians in the different countries under their dominion, during the best days of their power.
GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRl S FAMILY.
55
But these warlike apostles, who, during the ; early centuries of their Hegira, had formed col- I onies so numerous in the region beyond the In- ! dus, were stopped in their career of conquest, and ! maintained with these countries a commerce I only proportioned to the luxury of the West. I This luxury was itself very limited in centuries | when the people lived with a simplicity of man- ners natural to those scarcely emerged from barbarism.
Europeans knew very little of the productions of Asia, except the manufactures of Syria and Persia, which were as yet introduced only among the great. The people, who were theu either slaves or soldiers, had but very few wants.
It was not until after the first religious enter- prises in Palestine that the Europeans, who had made great advances towards civilization, and who, during their conquests, had acquired a taste for the merchandise of the Indies, sought with avidity the productions of that rich country.
The small amount of trade which, up to that time, had connected Europe with Asia, was car- ried on in the Caspian sea by the natives of the country, and in the Red sea and in Syria by the Arabs.
Europeans, just beginning to turn their atten- tion in this direction, would buy the few articles of which they felt need in the markets of these people, and on hard conditions.
Difference in religion, and consequently in manners and ideas, rendered it nearly impossi- ble for them to penetrate into the regions of the East. The Arabs, masters of these means of intercourse, not being stimulated by emulation or competition, measured their speculations but by the sales they could make in Europe.
Shorn of their ancient power, and forced, by lack of vessels, by the nature of the country, and by the insufficient police among them, to voyage by caravans, they would buy their merchandise only in the markets of India, where it was car- ried by the natives.
The Crusades brought about a revolution in the commercial system of these regions. By aug- menting among the people of the West, the love of luxury and of opulence, they indirectly multi- plied the business relations and the industry of all concerned in gratifying these desires.
They opened to Europeans the entrance to Asia, and thus furnished to an active, enterpris- ing people the means of knowing and of extend- ing; the trade of India.
From the first the colonies of Christians in Palestine gave facilities for .-penetrating into those countries, and afterwards the reciprocal want of articles of merchandise to which they were accustomed, added to the love of gain, of which they had tasted the advantages on both sides, maintained among these peoples ties and relations, even amidst the difficulties and fetters presented by the differences in religion, and by political rivalries,
We therefore behold a crowd of adventurers going into the interior of Asia, and on their re- turn to Europe spreading knowledge of those lands and their productions.
The obstacles to, and dangers of, these voyages were very great ; but what cannot be done by the human soul possessed with a thirst for gold and passion of discovery V
Often it was necessary to become Mahome- tans in order to be accepted in the caravan, and it was only in caravans that the Arabs them- selves could pass from the Mediterranean sea to the Indian ocean.
They were exposed to an infinity of dangers of every sort, for these voyages offered such, whether they traversed Arabia to Mecca and Aden, or the route of the Persian gulf by Asia Minor, or, finally, that of the Red sea, the most perilous and difficult.
But the enthusiasm for voyaging so filled the minds of Europeans that they would brave all dangers to penetrate into these regions, and the adventures of Marco Polo, Nicolas de Conti, Jerome of Santo-Stefano, and many others, are monuments of the courage and obstinacy of these adventurers. (It is surprising that Marco Polo, who reached China and /India, has never spoken of the orange tree. I have carefully read the relation of his voyage, and found but one place where he speaks of the pomme de para- dis, which is, perhaps, the Adam's apple. But it is necessary to observe that this adventurer did not write during his voyage. He could not have done so iu those countries, and if he could have written, it would have been im- .possible to save his manuscript and bring it to Europe. We know that in order to carry his wealth he reduced it to precious stones, which he sewed into the folds of his tunic. Be- sides, we know that his narration was writ- ten at Genoa whilst he was a prisoner, and where, in recounting his adventures, be managed to obtain consideration, which sweetened his captivity. He had not, even then, narrated them except "in the societies of Venice, where they did not give an unreserved belief to all offered them of the marvellous. They called him, deri- sively, Marco Milioni, because" of his continual description of riches. We need not, then, be astonished by his forgetting to speak of the orange tree, which he certainly saw in his tra- vels.)
During a long time the adventurers were led only by the spirit of commerce ; but finally there was allied to a desire of gain the taste for dis- coveries, and that passion for plants and foreign arts which have enriched Europe with the secret of glass-making and silk stuff manufactures; with ranunculuses, lilies, Arabian jasmine, and many other flowers, brought into our gardens in the course of the fifteenth century. (Every one knows the great progress in the study of plants made in Europe during the fifteenth cen- tury. We have but to consult the learned work of Sprengel, upon the history of botany, to see the large number of plants which passed from Asia into. Europe at this epoch. I shall confine myself to citing here one fact, little known, which goes to show the passion of the people of the Occident for the vegetation of the Orient. We read in a little Italian treatise on flowers, printed in Tuscany towards the close of the six- teenth century, that the jasmine of Arabia (nyctanthes sambac, L.\ carried from the East to the Medicis, was not cultivated except in the gardens of the Villa Castello, at Florence, where it was guarded jealously as a plant peculiar to this pleasure house. In truth, the plant has not long been elsewhere than in those gardens.
515
GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE C1TRKS FAMILY.
Probably it passed finally, either by complais- ; knee or fraud, into special gardens, and the Genoese, vvho tirst acclimated it in Ligurin, have since spread it through Europe. It is still from the seedsmen of Nervi that are procured all the plants cultivated in the rest of Liguria, in Piedmont, in Lombardy, and in France. | This plant is called in the treatise Jasmin du ' Oime (Oehemino del Oime) a name still preserved in Tuscany. The Genoese call it gemdki, proba- bly a corruption of Oime. It is impossible for me to learn the origin of this name.)
With such a taste for plants, and having so ; intimate and active relations with Asia, they saw, doubtless, the sweet-fruiled orange tree; and the abundance, as well as superiority of its fruit, would arouse the desire to enrich with it. the European gardens. It was, surely, no longer necessary to penetrate into China or the archi- pelago of Sooloo to find it. It is probable that this plant was spread over India by reason of the progress there made in agriculture and the arts. This progress was, necessarily, the effect of the trade which commerce with Europe had opened to the industry of this country.
Passed, from country to country, the sweet orange would take the place of the bigarade in those fine climates where that had been first transported, and would offer its delicious fruit to the people of Hindostan, the fertile valleys of Persia, Hyrcania, and perhaps of Syria.
From these places, already better known, the Europeans would transport it to the southern portions of the Occident.
The analogy existing between the sweet orange and bigarade, might assure these navigators of the possibility of naturalizing it in their native country ; while the superior quality of its fruit would tempt their appetites, as well as their de- sire of gain.
But who among these adventurers was in best condition to project and execute this enterprise?
The Genoese and the Venetians, among Euro- peans, had then the closest relations with those countries, and the flourishing state of their ma- rine offered more facility lor executing this transport. But the Venetians had not, in their lagoons, a climate suited to the culture of the agrumi. They could not, therefore, see in this fruit an object of speculation, whilst, on the con- trary, the Genoese inhabited a district already covered with these trees, whose fruit had become a very important article of trade, employing their agriculture, and feeding their manufactur- ing and commercial industry. (The Genoese found in the culture of the agrumi a source of industry and gain. They encouraged agriculture by extending the consumption of its products, nourishing their commerce by increasing the trade in sugar, which they brought directly from Asia, and sustained their confectioners, who furnished then the greater part of Europe.)
The Venetians, it is true, had obtained more indulgence and favor in the marts of Egypt, and the influence with the Sultans that their gold, .their wares, and their marine had given them, made them almost masters of the Red sea trade.
The Genoese, who were driven off by the jeal- ousy of these rivals, made use of scarcely any other route than that of the Black sea and the Persian gulf. But it is necessary to observe that
this last is the only road by which the plants of India are carried to the coasts of the Mediterra- nean. It presents more facilities for that gradual progression of culture, which is the easy and natural menus for naturalizing in a country the plants of a foreign clime, and the only praeti cal way among people little; civilized, and who followed bnt the direct impulses of want.
This route was not intersected by long inter- vals of desert or of sea — obstacles which always arrest the passage of vegetation and arts — but it offered, on the contrary, a nearly continuous chain of people and fertile lands, of which the soft and moist climate assisted, beyond calcula- lation, the progress of agriculture.
In fact it was by this route that the bigarade tree passed from India into Egypt.
Massondi teaches us that tins tree had begun to be cultivated in Oman, whence it went after- wards to Bassorah, thence to Irak and into Sy- ria. The spaces separating these districts at that time offered no great difficulties. Oman, situated opposite the coast of Hindostan, nearly touched Irak by the chain of Arabian mountains, which are very fertile, and it is not far removed from Bassorah, on the seacoast. Nothing easier than to transport upon a vessel, in a short passage, a plant so long-lived, and which sustains itself, perhaps, more than any other without injury, when out of the earth.
Acclimated at Bassorah, the bigarade had nothing worse to cross than very fertile regions, until arrived in Syria, while the fondness of the Arabs of that day for agriculture and for flowers would accelerate its growth.
By this route, also, the orange tree of sweet fruit made its passage into Syria.
Europeans frequented then the markets of this eastern country. Florentines, Pisans, Venetians, Sicilians, Spaniards, and French went there con- tinually as traders and as pilgrims; but the Ge- noese alone, by their commercial and geographi- cal position, could best favor this enterprise. Masters of many isles in the archipelago, of Sar- dinia, and of Corsica, they had a sort of chain of establishments, or colonies, which connected their country to Syria, and they could more easily than any others execute the transport of plants, even the most delicate.
Every one knows to what a point of prosperity were carried the marine and commerce^!' Genoa, from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries. 1 shall observe solely that it was to the coast of Syria that this industrious people directed chiefly their vessels and their activity.
The Genoese fleets frequented those passages long before the Crusades (see voyage of Ingul- phus, Abbot of Croyland, reported by Baronius in 1064, bk. 2, p. 353), and during those famous expeditions it was the Genoese who furnished to the Crusaders the war vessels, the transports, the instruments, the artists for the construction of machines of war, and the food for the soldiers (JUSTIN, p. 28, PAUL KMILTS, GUGLIELME DK VITHY, and CAFFAR).
From 1097 to 1108 they sent into Syriy 337 galleys, and they had so great influence in the success of the Crusaders that Baldwin accorded to them the famous privilege of 1105, the expres- sions of which deserve record : "Primi (Oemien- ses) in e.rercitu Francorum venientes viriliter prafue-
GALLKSIO'S TREATISE ON THE C-lTtlfS FAMILY.
57
runt in acquisitions Hicrnxalcm Autiaclicr ct Lao- (licew ac Tortoscc : /Solinuiit anlem tlGindbru^ (;,•- mream et Assur per se cepenuit"
This honorable testimony is confirmed by all i historians, and chiefly by Morigottc, whose words I will presently give. It is well known, besides, i that during the whole of these expeditions they i ceased not to support with their fleets the efforts of the Crusaders, and that in the ninth Crusade, in 1243, they transported to Egypt the King, ISt. Louis, with thirty -two galleys and seven vessels, and had an important part, in the taking of Da- mietta.
Here are the words of Morisotte : Capti* P/H.K- niciw et Syrian littoribus, urbibu&que quocumque Saraceni fugere, quacumque erupere, ibi prcesto Genuemi* cum xalidis dassibus f tie re, iwc qui. Genuensibus resisteret post Saracenos invem'ebatur, i<i Pisani, Venetique hostes defuissent. MOHISOTUS. Hist., bk. 2, c. 23, p. 514.
According to all these facts, il is evident that the Genoese had, more than all others, facilities for seeing and for bringing to their beautiful shores the lemon and orangtT trees.-
Those sailors who manned the war vessels were the same persons who, after giving some months to tillage, quitted their families to man merchant vessels to go into Palestine, sometimes as traders, sometimes as pilgrims, or disguised as Mussulmen with the caravans into the interior of Persia, and even to India.
Such people, at once farmers, warriors, trad- ers, and adventurers, could not neglect a branch of industry so suited to the climate of the coun- try they inhabited, and which was congenial to the taste for agriculture and for commerce forming the base of their characters. Above all, this conjecture accords EO well with facts which we have stated, that we can ha/ard it without fear of paradox.
They were, besides, the only European people to whom the naturalization of this tree could be profitable, they being for a long time the only ones engaged in the commerce of the Agrnrni. Tbis trade was carried on chiefly by the garden- ers of Nervi and San Remo.
Nervi has been celebrated for its seedsmen, who provided for a long time, and still supply, these trees to the orangeries of Europe ; and to them we are principally indebted for the varieties multiplied by seed, and for the novelties which i have gratifie'd the curiosity and taste of amateurs, i The trade in the fruits was monopolized by the | inhabitants of St. Remo, who have for many j years supplied the citrons used at the Passover j by the Jews of Italy, France, and Germany. | From their country have come the perfumes and essences, as well as the citric acid, used in the arts. From thence are obtained the lemons for I the table, the different fruits for the confectioner, ' and the sweet oranges have been also for cen- j turies an almost exclusive product of their beau- tiful valleys.
One may read, in proof of this, what, is said by ! Olivier de Serres, Ferraris, Judoco Hondio, Mr- rula, Matioli, Gallo, Alberti, Volcamerius, Com- melinus, Giustiniani, Abram Hortelius, Antoine Mangini, and an infinity of others. Writers of all times have deposed in favor of the almost ex- clusive trade by the Genoese in the ngrumi. We have seen what Silvaticus hns said, who
wrote about the middle of the thirteenth cen tury. His testimony is confirmed by writers of the fourteenth century. The first 'is Brasilus, and the second is Bloudus Flavius. The Geo- graphical and Statistical Description of Italy, by Blondus, is, perhaps, the most antique work 6l' tins kind known in Europe since the revival of letters. (It dates from 1450.) This author, who was of Forli, and unacquainted with the part of Italy this side of Tuscany, had recourse to his 'friends for completing his description. He pro- cured that of Liguria, of Brasilus. This learned Genoese, known by several memoirs relating to the history of his country, wrote then aa epistle entitled Descripti? ora: Liguslic(i>.,i\ work valuable for the exactitude, precision, and erudition with which it is written, and which Hlondus copied almost literally.
In this description (which was also printed) he lauds RapaJlo and St. Remo for the culture 01 ag ru mi and palm trees, with which those valleys were covered.
Giustiniani succeeded very closely these two authors. He wrote, in 1500, a history of Genoa, preceded by a description of that beautiful coast known as Rinem di Genova.
In this he notices the territory of St. Remo, on account of the vast number of these trees, from which the fruit was sent into all Europe.
This testimony is repeated in the works of Al- berti, of Matioli", and of Gallo. The first wrote, in 1528, a voyage to Italy, made five years be fore. The second published, in 1544, his disser- tation upon the works of Dioscorides, and the third gave, in 1560, a treatise upon agriculture, highly esteemed— entitled le died Giornate. These all say clearly that Liguria had been of old celebrated for its trade in agrumi. Many other writers attest to the same. See Hondio, in his Nova Italm hodierruc Descriptw, p. 73, and Gualdo Priorato, in his description of Genoa, published at Cologne in 1668, pp. 20, 70, &c.
It would be useless to quote the words of Ferraris, of Volcamerius, and a host of others, where the same truth is repeated. I shall only observe that the number of these trees hud be- come so prodigious in the territory of St. Remo, and the exportation of these fruits so consider- able, that in 1585 the municipal council of that city thought it a duty to subject this commerce to special police laws! A magistrate was desig- nated to direct it, and express rules were formed for sustaining it.
One sees by these rules that the yearly export of lemons alone amounted to several millions of fruits, and that St. Remo supplied nearly all France, Germany, and many other parts of Eu- rope. I reserve for my fifth chapter this curious paper, which gives an idea of these fruits and their trade.
The extent and antiquity of this trade form, doubtless, a strong presumption for attributing to this people (of St. Remo) the acclimatization of this tree, the presumption acquiring still more force, when we consider their commercial posi- tion at the time when this event must have taken place; but 1 think 1 shall be able to present data still more decisive for establishing this opinion.
The sweet orange tree was not yet in Europe jit the end of the fourteenth century ; at the be ginning of the sixteenth it was already very
58
GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
much spread there ; it should then have appeared early in the fifteenth century. It was precisely at tbis epoch that a taste for botany revived in Italy; and at this time the trade and agriculture of Genoa were at the climax of their prosperity. But during all this interval we find no trace of this culture, except solely in Liguria. This fact is attested by two important documents, which I am about to make known.
The first is an account of expenses by the treasurer of Savona, dated 1471. The second is a bill of sale, made in 1472, at Savona, by a mas- ter of a ship of St. Remo, of his vessel laden with oranges.
Let us examine these two papers.
The city of Savona had, in 1471, an ambassa- dor at Milan. Wishing to make him a present, she sent to him citron and lemon comfits, and, afterwards, citruli. This double expedition, of which we find the account in the books of ad- ministration of Savona, dated 1471, is spoken of in a w&y to prove that the citruli were sweet oranges.
It is sufficient to know that the lemons and citrons, sent to Milan, were comfits, and that the eitrulit on the contrary, were in their natural state.
This plainly shows that the citruli were edible, whilst citrons and lemons were not used in com- merce, except after a modification by the confec- tioner, which brought out their aroma, and cor- rected their bitterness. (I owe the knowledge/ of this gift, just spoken of, to M. de Belloro, oore of the most learned persons of Savona, who kindly made investigations upon this subject in the archives .of that city. Here is the passage, copied by myself, from the book of administra- tion, bearing this mark—" 1468, H." under the date of " May 27, 1471, p. 827 : " " De mandato S. D. antianorum pro citrulis, misiss Medio- lanum pro Lazaro Feo, et dictis pro Jacobo de Dego, Gabdlotto, Odbelle fornacum anni pros- sentis, grossos decemnovem, cum dimidio tibras tres, solidos octo, et denarios tres." Below — " Dieprima junii, pro fructibus missis inediolanum, videlicet limonibus confectis, et citris, f. 7, 11." The dif- ference in price, and even the expressions indi- cate that the citruli were fruits in their natural state.) This fact is still more strengthened by a contract of sale of cotemporaneous date, found in the archives of the same city. This contract contained a sale made by a master of a St. Remo vessel, to another of the same place, of a barque then at Savona, loaded with 15,000 citran- guli, or cetroni.
(We find in the archives of the notaries of Sa- vona, a bill of sale received by the notary Pierre Corsaro, dated February 12, 1872, by which Dominique Asconzio, family Antoine, of St. Remo, sells to Jean Baptiste Mulo, family Eti- enne, of same place, one lembo, cum citranyulis, sive cetronis, quindecim mitte, now on board said vessel, for the consideration of two pounds per thousand — Genoese money — the whole for the sum of fifty pounds. The kmbo is a name fora kind of vessel used at that time, which was valued, as we see, at twenty pounds. This price seems very small, but on comparing the value of the money of that clay with that of the pres- ent, it will be found to be a very considerable sum. I am indebted for these facts to the son-in-
law of M. Belloro— M. Nervi— Secretary of the Mayoralty of Savona, where his talents and knowledge are well known.)
The number, 15,000, of these fruits, is suffi- cient ground for concluding, First, that the culture of orange trees at St. Remo had reached a high point of prosperity ; secondly, that these could not have been bigarades, but were sweet oranges ; for what would they do with so many bigarades V
The confectioners were supplied by citrons and lemons. The bigarade also might be con- fected, but one could use for this purpose only the skin, which is thin ; and it being impossible to put them into commerce for any other use, it would be extraordinary to find so large an ex- portation.
It is, therefore, natural to suppose that the 15,000 citranguli, or cetroni, were sweet oranges, of which the consumption is more considerable, and of which the sale would consequently be more easy and more profitable.
These conjectures seem to me reasonable enough for our deducing that Liguria, at the middle of the fifteenth century, had carried this sort of culture and commerce much further than all the rest of Europe, which could scarcely have occurred in so short an interval had not the Ligurians been the first to know and to cul- tivate the sweet orange tree.
ART. VII. — Of the Varieties and Hybrids of the Citrus — History of the Origin and Transmigra- tions— T/ieir Multiplication. The introduction of the sweet orange tree into Europe certainly preceded that of the most of the varieties and hybrids forming now the family of the Hesperides.
Doubtless a few of these races were formed in the original countries where Nature had placed the species. In the ancient woods of India and China, the mingling of the pollen of many differ- ing individuals would have given birth to the varieties with which those peoples afterwards embellished their gardens, and which, step by step, passed into the bordering provinces, and are at last spread over Europe. But a great number were formed only in the orchards of Syria and Egypt, after the naturalization of the species, which were mixed, the one with the other, by culture. Some varieties have originated only in the gardens of Europe.
The oldest variety known in the Occident is cer- tainly the Adam's apple. It was cultivated in Palestine in the twelfth century, and Jacques de Vitry, who calls it by this name (pomum adami), gives us a description so exact as to leave not a doubt of its identity with that we now possess. It is thought that it came from the Indies, where it appears very old, and is regarded as a sub- variety of the pompelmous (aurantium decuma- num). We cannot attribute the same origin to varieties cultivated at about the same time in Egypt. It would appear that those were formed in that country. Abd-Allatif, who describes them, says they "were unknown in Irak and Bag- dad, countries which served as passage for the lemon and bigarade (citrons ronds\ and adds, that these species combine with each other, producing an infinite number of varieties. (See ABD-ALLA- TIF. Description of Egypt, bk. 2, p. 3, translated
GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
59
by JVI. de Sacy.) This last observation, remark- able in a writer ignorant of the sexual system of plants, is a sure indication that these new races were formed in Egypt. It is certainly difficult to connect these varieties with those known to us. Some varieties, perhaps, have passed from Egypt into Spain, and thence into the rest of Eu- rope, but they have surely disappeared in great part, with time and want of culture, and have no connection with ours, or only vague resem- blances, classing them in the same rank upon the chain of varieties, yet not permitting us to re- gard them as identical.
I have always been astonished by the difficulty experienced in all the genera, when attempting to-connect to our varieties those of the ancients; but since I have become persuaded of the true na- ture of these races, and of the laws ruling their existence and propagation, my astonishment has ceased, and I am convinced of the impossibility of attaining to this end.
A variety has a precarious existence, due to an accidental combination, and which cannot be perpetuated, except by art. Thus it disappears whenever the action of art is suspended by the effect of some crisis, re-appearing often under forms very analogous, but never identical ; forms never complete, having always differences impos- sible to reconcile.
Because of this, one occupies himself without success, seeking in our orchards the varieties of the olive, the apple, the pear, &c., of which Pliny and Latin writers upon agriculture give us descriptions. These varieties perpetuated themselves then only by culture. This art suf- fered in Europe by the invasion of the Barba- rians, causing these varieties to disappear, and on the return of culture new forms appeared, re- sembling the old, yet which can never corre- spond exactly to them.
Perhaps for the same reason we seek in vain, in modern Egypt, ihepersea of Theophrastus, and the baumier of the ancients. These two vegetables- regarded by some asjtwo species, the one lost en- tirely, and the other disappeared from that coun- try— were, perhaps, but two varieties ; and from want of care they have submitted to their natu- ral fate. Yet they exist still in their type, and one could obtain them anew, if one could attain to naturalizing this type in au agricultural coun- try, and on a grand scale.
Curious passages of several writers relative to the balm tree, all collected by M. de Sacy in his translation of the Description of Egypt by Abd- Allatif , furnish me with proof of this fact.
I will commence by transcribing these pas- sages, and afterwards give my reflections :
1. Abd-Allatif, in speaking of the balm tree, expresses himself in the following manner : " The tree which furnishes the balsam bears no fruit ; they take cuttings of the tree, which, plant- ed in the mouth of Schobal, take root and grow." Abd-Allatiff, p. 22.
2. " The wild male balm tree 1ms u fructifica- tion, but yields no balsam. It is found in Nedjd (interior of Arabia, Trans.} ; in Tehama (on the coast, T.) ; in the deserts of Arabia, the maritime countries of Yemen, and in Persia; it is known under the name of bascham" Abd-All, p. 2~.
3. Prosper Alpin speaks of it thus : "Oninm . . . . >mo ore affirmant propc Mecchnm ct Medinam, in
montibus, plants, ciiilis atque incaltis locis, iiinu- meras balsam i, plantas sponte natas spectari, pluri- masque etiam m arenotsis sterilibusque locis, quo, tamen vel nihil vel minimum sucoi producebant. Mnlta tamen semina ferunt" PROSP. ALP. of Bals. dial. chap. 12, p. 14. DE SACY, p. 93.
4. A Spanish Arab author, speaking of Mecca, says : " Some persons say that the bascham (balm tree) has not flower and fruit with their parts. The truth is, however, quite the con- trary. At least, if there are districts where such is the case, there are others in which it is not true. The same may be said of the sorbier (ser- vice tree, Trans.) the papyrus, &c." ABOUL- ABBAS NEBATI. Man. Ar. of the Imp. Lib. No. 1,071. DESACY, p. 94.
5. The author of the Garaib aladiaib says : " One finds in Egypt, in Matareeyah (anc. Heli- opolis, Trans.) balm pits, from whence water -is taken to sprinkle the bushes of balm, which fur- nish a precious oil. It is to the pits that this quality is due, for there the Mes- siah was washed. There is not in all the world another place where the balm tree will grow. Almelic-Alcamel asked permission of his father Adel to sow the seed elsewhere. Having obtained it, he planted, but his bushes did not succeed, and one could draw no oil from them. Almelic-Alcamel demanded, and ob- tained still of his father, permission to conduct to his plant the water of Matareeyah, but he had no better success." Ar. MSS. of the Imp. Lib. 791. DE SACY, p. 90.
6. Mandeville'reports the following: Hos ar- bores&eu arbusta balsami fecit quondam qmdam de caliphis ^Egypti de loco Eugaddi, inter marc Mortuum et Jerico, ubi domino wienie excreverat, eradicari, et in agro prcedicto ( Cayr) plantari. Eat tamen hoc mirandum, quod ubicumque alibi, size prope me remote plantantur, quamvis forte mreant et exurgant, tamen nonfructifieant. MAND. Chap. 8, p, 31. In Haktuy's collection,' 1,589. M. de Sacy, p. 87.
From these passages result the following facts : The balm, or balsam tree (a.myris opobalsamum, L.) in a wild state fruits, and reproduces itself by seed, and gives none, or very little, of this sap called balm. (Nos. 2 and 3.)
In a state of culture it does not fruit, but gives, upon incision, a large quantity of balm. (No. 1.) But it does not suffice to take wild trees in the woods and cultivate them in order to obtain this change. The difference is due to the nature of the individual, which has one of the different properties. Even vyhen a tree is found uniting the two properties, its descendants pre- serve not the property of their father. They fruit, but do not yield balm. (No. 5.) The tree which fruits is multiplied by seed ; that which bears no fruit is multiplied by cuttings. The first (1 and 2) is never in gardens, because we pull it up as soon as it appears; the second is ordinarily only in cultivated places, as it requires the hand of man for multiplying itself; yet we sometimes find it among the wild ones; then it is taken to the garden and cultivated. (No. 6.)
Because of these accidents, which contradict common experience, fables have been created on the subject, and one attributes the power of yielding balm to the quality of the soil, an- other lo miraculous causes. (No. 5.)
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GALLEStO'S TREATISE ON TttE CITRUS FAMILY.
All this, which is but a repetition of passages reported by M. de Sacy, proves in an unanswer- able manner, first, thut there exists a balm-tree type vHbich has flower and fruit, and reproduces itself from seed. {Secondly, by fecundation va- rieties are formed, which most often have the ordinary trait of monsters, sterility. Thirdly, that tins monstrous variety, following the ex- ample of other vegetable mules, is indemnified for this sterility by a singular property which, in this kind, is letting fiow in greater abundance a humor probably destined to nourish fructifica- tion. Fourthly, that in nature this variety has existence only "during the life of the individual, consequently it cannot perpetuate itself save by art.
Fifthly. That according to all these facts, this variety could have been lost in Egypt, and might have re-appeared in the vicinity of Mecca ; and in this place could have shown traits of the ancient variety, modified and changed by acces- sory accidents, thus causing it to differ from the descriptions of the ancients.
We can apply very nearly the same reasoning to the persea of Theophrastus. M. de Sacy has proved very conclusively that this tree is the lobakh of the Arabians. He has also proved that it is closely connected with the sidra (rhamnus xpina cristi. Desf.) or nabka of the Egyptians.
Why might it not be a variety of that species, whose fruit is larger and more agreeable f
Species never lose themselves in the regions where they are acclimated.
Nature has provided for their multiplication by numerous means which make up the defi- ciencies of art, and elude the destructive spirit of man. If the persea had been a species, it would have, of itself, multiplied itself by its seeds, and the revolutions of Egypt would have only facilitated its propagation." It must, then, have been but a variety due to fecundation, and consequently could be perpetuated only by the cutting or the graft. In this event the character of its fruit would differ from those of its type as much as the butter-pear differs from the wild pear.
Thus all research to find a plant with fruit, answering exactly to that described by The- ophratus, is useless ; we must content ourselves with a slight similarity, chiefly with regard to the fruit, and admit that the variety of Theo- phratus may have disappeared, but that the species to which it belonged still exists.
One might think it extraordinary that these disappearances have not taken place among varieties of many other plants — the banana, for instance. But I would observe that it (the ba- nana) has received from nature a prodigious facility for reproducing itself by cuttings and suckers ; consequently has the power of self-pres- ervation : whilst our trait-trees require extra- ordinary care, such as grafting, or careful slip- ping, which pre-suppose a degree of civilization, and a certain completeness in the culture.
Besides, there are species, which, more often than others, form varieties, and among such varieties there are some which are regularly formed in the ordinary state of blossoming, and others which are the result of an extraordinary combination, taking place very rarely.
From the complication of all these circum stances result the differences seen in these phe- nomena.
This digression may seem out of place, yet is useful in throwing light upon the principles of the theory advanced by me in the first chapter of this work.
In examining the descriptions of Abd-Allatif, we easily 'recognize the monstrous citron (" Gros Citron.'1' Abel-All., bk 1, p. 31,)— the citron of sweet-fruit — ( " citron doux which is not at all acid," Ib.) the lemon-cedrat. ("Tlie lemons, named by some, composite; among them are found fruit as large as a water-melon." Abd-All., p. 81.) Ebn-Djemi, quoted by Ebn-Beitar, says : " The composite lemon is a lemon graft upon a citron tree. We add, (continues Ebn-Beitar,) that the skin of this fruit has more of sharpness and bit- terness than that of the citron, but less than that of the lemon ; it also has a sweet taste, not in either of those fruits. Because of this, it posses- ses a nutritive quality not found in citron or lemon, and holds a middle place between those two acid fruits.'' This explanation is precise enough for us to recognize in this variety the lemon-ccdrat or poncirc. We also see in his balm-lemon, which is but an inch long and *' in the shape of an elongated egg," a race resemb- ling the lime of Naples.
This lemon is certainly the same as the wild lemons found by Bellon, near Cairo, " which have fruit never larger than a pigeon's egg." (Bel. c. 36, p. 236.)
Burmanni, jin speaking- of a kind of limonia which he found near Ceylon, connects it to the wild lemons of Bellon ; but it is evident that the malm limonia of Ceylon, is a limondlier (Li- monia, L.) ; and Bellon's lemons are true lemon- trees of small fruit, such as the lime of Naples, and the balm-lemon spoken of by Abd-Allatif.
The monsters inclosing another lemon in their interior are but yearly accidents, which might have occurred in the time of Abd-Allatif, as now. (" Some citrons have inside another citron with yellow skin." p. 31.)
In the mokhattan, or sealed lemon, we see a variety very singular and difficult to recognize. Abd-Allatif says : " There is another sort of lemon called mokhattan, that is to say sealed, which is of a deeper and more bright red than the orange; they are perfectly round, and a little flattened above and below, as if forced in by pressing there a seal." This peculiar variety resembles none known to us. It appears to be a lumie or hybrid of the red-orange and lemon.
According to this writer, it owes the epithet mokhattan to the flattened appearance of its ex- tremities.
The conical citron, of which he speaks, is ap- parently but u modification of shape, which might connect it with varieties cultivated by us ; but one cannot determine that, by this single circumstance. ("There are also citrons having an absolutely conical form, beginning in a base, and ending in a point; but which, otherwise, in color, odor, taste of pulp and acidity, differ in no way from the citron," Abd-All.) We have sev- eral varieties that affect this form ; (the lemon perclta is the opposite) and amon^ others, the citron of Florence.
GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
61
Ebn-Ayyas, in his large History of Esrypl:, points out also a quantity of these arid fruit*, (hamidhaf) but gives no description * by which they can be made known to us.
He names only the citron, the lemon, the orange, the cabbad, the hummadli Schoairi, and the red French lemon which was, it is said, taken to Egypt in the year 300 ot the liegira.
The red French lemon is, perhaps, a variety of the citron. The Franks (a name given by Arabians t^> all people ot Western Europe,) long had known the citron ; it is not impossible that they had procured a variety in Sicily or Sir- din'ia, which, carried to Egypt, had gotten the name of French, or the name may have come from some Frenchman having cultivated it first in Egypt. (See notes of M. de Sac}' upon the first 'book ot Abd-Allatif, p. 117.)
I shall not enter upon the examination of the hammadh schoa iri a nd re d lemon. 1 1 i s v e ry d i ffi - cult, from the little said of them, to imagine to what variety they ought to be assigned ; and I would merely say, with regard to the cabbad, that if it is the same which Vansleb calls kebbad, in his new book about Egypt, it should be classed with the Adam's apple, seeing that this author de- scribes it as a tree bearing oranges of enormous size, and the Adam's apple, or citrus decumanas, lias precisely analogous properties.
It is more easy to recognize the races reported by Ebn-el-Awam in his Treatise on Agriculture, where he speaks of the agrumi of Seville.
This Spanish-Arab distinguishes four species, calling them citronier, orange r, htysainou, or yasa- mou, or zamnou, and limonwr, which names the translator rendered in Spanish, as cidro naranjo, Union, a nd limero, llamado, (toronjo o arbode), zam- boa or buxtaiiibvuH, and which is but the Adam's apple.
(" The atrundj, the narendj, the yasamou, called l<(ntb<n.i,M\& the lamounjanne, are as one species, and are cultivated in nearly the same manner." Er.x KL-AWAM, p. 314 ; and elsewhere, " of the planting the bantamboun, which is the zamboa," p. 823.)
Search for the etymology of these names pre- sents difficulties. It would be useless to seek in Arabic or Persian language the origin of yami- in.oii, 'at I/Minion, or ~ainbou. Their physiognomy shows that they belong to neither of those tongues, but seems to prove that they will be found only in the languages ot China or of Tar- tary. The Portuguese have adopted the word ::<i.'i u! »»(., modifying it to zamboa. The word t<>- >'<>rt;i<>, used by the Spaniards for rendering that of lay »a 1 1 wu, has much affinity with imrendj, of which it may be a corruption. The word boxl-am- b',uit seems to be composed of the Arabic word bouxtan (irarden), and the Persian word boun (utility, ornament). In adopting this etymology b'txtautboun might signify ornament of t/ic garden, which would perfectly apply to orange trees. and perhaps particularly to that variety having fruit of extraordinary size.
Ebn-el-A *am describes afterwards the differ- ent varieties ot each species, and we at once rec- ognize the ordinary citron in that which he calls citron. <(/(//<:. (OuV bigarade the Arabs have sometimes called ci(r>ni run;!, sometimes citron <ii<li-(\\\\\(\ finally i\<trcn<lj. Ebn-JJeitur says ot it : " The t.'ftfcrd is -i well Um.'Wn tree, the leaf i-
smooth and of a deep green, the fruit is round, and has an acid juice like the citron. The tree, also, closely resembles the citron tree; its flower is white anil extremely sweet in odor." Ar. MSS. of EIJNT-BEITAR.) We also recognize Ibeoranged poncirc, in that which he calls sweet fruit.
The two first varieties of the yaxamou are re- lated to our citrus decumana, or Adam's apple ; and the third, called toronja chinesca, appears to be our Chinese citron, (C. M. C. fructu monstru- OHO aurantianto, GAL. SYN.)
I know not how to determine what is the orange doree, which he distinguishes from the ordinary orange, and less still, that called fleu-r cdt'Kte ; but 1 clearly recognize a species of lime of Naples in the " lemon of smooth skin, the size of a pigeon's eg?." and a sort of large pon- cire iu the lemon avirolado.
The authority of Ebn-el-Awam, appears to prove that these varieties born, in great part, in Syria and Egypt, passed soon into Spain, but not into France and Italy until long afterwards.
One of the causes rendering difficult the recog- nition of ancient varieties, is the vagueness of descriptions. In those times of ignorance the language of botany was yet unfounded, conse- quently a person attempting to describe a plant did not select the trails most constant and cer- tain, but each described the parts and peculiari- ties which most forcibly struck him, according to his manner of seeing, and with terms and ex- pressions which often only confused ideas.
The Arabs, for example, have sometimes de- signated the orange by the name of round citron, and this expression applies equally to a genuine citron which affects this form. But nothing has been more vague than the attempt to express the color of the orange, as it resembles in no degree any known color. It has been indicated by that which was thought to approach it nearest — thus one calls it jaune (yellow), another speaks of it as doree (golden), another as rouge (red), and, finally, some have well adopted the name of orange color.
But to picture the idea by describing the fruit, they have made use of very indefinite expres- sions, causing great uncertainty in these descrip- tions.
The same inconvenience arises when we try to know the orange rouge.
It would appear a suitable n-ime, yet, being sometimes us«-d for indicating ordinary oranges, we find ourselves in uncertainty when wishing to interpret the authors with exactness.
Some have attempted to picture the color of this fruit by the term vinenze (wine-like). The Ligurians have named it the orange of bloody
juice
One finds himself equally embarrassed when trying to ox press the color of the flowers of the citron and lemon trees. They are shaded with a mixed tint, called by one red, by another violet, and which is, really, of both these colors.
Perhaps it was but this peculiar color that Elm-el-Awam wished to designate by the ex- pression jh>ir celeste.
In thai case the variety lie speaks of i*, proli- i ably, a hybrid of the orange and lemon, like the one in the .Jardin des Pinnies at Paris, called civlet orange tree.
I throw out these conjectures merely to show
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QALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
that the extraordinary varieties found in books often owe their existence to the vagueness of their names, which represent ideas far removed from truth, and that the number of true varie- ties is much less than at first would appear.
Matthius Sylvaticus says that the citrine apples (pomorum citrinorum, Pand. Med., p. 125,) are lour in number, the citron tree (citrus), the bi: garade tree (citrangulus), the lemon tree (limon), and the lime (lima vulgo dicta), which, apparently, is but the Adam's apple.
Hugo Falcandus talks of lumies (lamias), and I incline to the opinion that they are nothing else than lemons, because he says they are only fit for seasoning food (ad condiendis cibis idoneas). These are all the varieties known in Italy until the middle of the fifteenth century.
The orange tree of sweet fruit appeared about this time, and in Mathioli's day it had been fol- lowed by only a very few varieties.
This botanist counts but three varieties of cit- rons—that of large fruit or citron of Genoa, the citron of Salo, and a third whose fruit is the size of a lemon.
He describes three varieties of orange trees — the sour, the sweet, and a third of mixed taste.
He speaks but of a single species of lemon tree, also ot but one species of Adam's apple, that he calls lomia.
Augustine Gallo, who wrote at very nearly the same epoch, names only three species of orange, trees— sweet, sour, and medium.
He mentions but one citron, that of Salo ; only one lemon, the Adam's apple, and the limonea, which, he says, is a middle species between the Adam's apple and the lemon, and is, perhaps, a poncire.
It is surprising that Herrera, who lived after these authors, speaks only of the orange, lemon, and asamboa or toronjo, which is the Adam's apple.
Olivier de Serres says "there are known in Italy four species of orange trees, under the names of orange, citron, lemon, and limones, called, also, pantiles, and a fifth, called Adam's apple ; and of each of these four there are sev- eral sorts, differing among themselves rather in size and taste than in species, their form and color remaining nearly always the same." He cites the cedrice, a kind of lemon, called thus in Provence, and the horned orange or bigarade, much valued for its easy growth, adding, " there are sweet and sour oranges, and others partaking of both savors. The same may be said of lemons, citrons, and ponciles." (Ouv., Theatre of Agri- culture, p. 632.)
Such was the state of the family of the agrumi in Europe at the commencement of the sixteenth century, but at this lime the commercial rela- lions which extended themselves in the countries where these fruits were indigenous, and the mul- tiplication and use of the seed in the culture of these plants increased prodigiously the number of varieties. Thus we see, one hundred years after, Tauara counts eighty-three species or varie- ties, and this number has since increased still more rapidly, either /m tact or in appearance, until we see the numerous catalogues have be- come a subject of despair to the most wealthy and most zealous amateur who would form a collection.
It is impossible to follow the history of all these new varieties. Many have surely been brought from India or China; such as the little Chinese, the myrtifoiium, the red orange, the monstrous citron, &c. Others have been formed in our own gardens — such as the citron of Flor- ence, the bergamotte, the poucires, the lustrat, and the bizaria. We have seen that this last named was born at Florence in 1644, according to the testimony of a Tuscan naturalist, who has preserved for us the history of its appearing in the gardens of that city.
We have also seen that the poncires form con- stantly in our gardens, whenever we follow the method of seeding.
This great multiplication ot hybrids and va- rieties was the natural result of this culture.
Leaudro Alberti has left us details of its state in Italy, about the year 1523. Navagero, Vene- tian Ambassador to Charles V., has given us an , idea of its progress in Spain ; and the relation of the voyage in Provence of Charles IX., by Abel Jouan, enables us to judge of the prodigious multiplication at Hyeres. There remains for us to examine the progress of this culture outside of Europe.
ART. VIII. — 2he Citrus Exotic in America — Naturalized after the Discovery by Europeans — Proofs of this fact.
Perhaps no plant has ever spread with so much rapidity and success as the orange tree. After being propagated a short time in The tem- perate climes of Europe, they have passed into all the lands where Europeans carried their com merce and conquests.
The Portuguese naturalized them at Madeira, in the Canary isles, and in all their colonies in the Atlantic ocean. The Spaniards carried them to America, where, shurtly after, we see those new countries, which possessed none of the trees of the old continent, presenting forests of orange trees.
It is surprising that this vast hemisphere, uni- ting in its extent nearly all latitudes, bad not re- ceived from Nature a tree thus suited to its soil, and which has found in its warm, moist climate - a position favoring the rich vegetation with which it is endowed.
Had not the original narratives of the first Spanish discoverers of these regions, and the testimony of contemporary historians assured us that America received from Europe these fine trees, one would surely think them indigenous.
But this fact, reported in a very positive man- ner by all historians of that time, is still further strengthened by proofs not to be doubted with- out renouncing the principles of just criticism.
We have but to run over the relations by the conquerors and Spanish historians, to see that they never speak of orange trees, although they often give very brilliant descriptions of the de- lightful gardens of Mexico, especially those of Montezuma. The same silence respecting this tree may be noticed in relations of Peru, Brazil, and other parts of South America.
Now the orange tree is so well naturalized there, that one sees on all sides forests of them ; but these forests are in places near habitations, and these trees do not exhibit marks of the great
GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
antiquity characterizing trees indigenous to the New World.
They are generally of a medium size, although their growth is Sufficiently vigorous to smother the ancient vegetation, vvhfch is overcome on all sides where the orange tree grows.
Tliis single fact convinced one learned travel- ler that the orange tree did not exist in Paraguay and La Plata until after the discovery of America by Europeans (See Voyage in/South America by Felix A/ara, hk 1, j> 100)
fjui K is unnecessary to resort to conjectures, when one can rely on unchallenged authorities. I shall cite the Natural History of the Indies hy Acosta, an author contemporary with the first conquests by Europeans ; the History of Peru, by Garcilasso de la Vega, and the Natural His- tory of Brazil by Pison, whose authority is of ihe greatest weight. The first named thus ex- presses himself:
"Among the trees carried to America by Eu- ropeans not one has taken as rapidly as the or- ange, lemon, citron, and other trees of this genus.
" There are now in certain parts woods of or- ange trees. Surprised by this, I asked the inhab- itants of one isle, Who has filled the fields wilh such a great quantity of these trees? They re- plied that it was due to chance, as the frui is fallen from ihe trees first planted had given birth to numberless other trees; that thus, and by means ot rains carrying in all directions fruit and seeds, were formed the tufted woods seen now. This reply seemed to me very satisfactory.
" It is said that this is the most prosperous tree in the Indies, where one finds no section wiihout orange trees, because this earth is warm and moist, a condition required lor the growth of this tree.
" We do not see it in mountainous countries, but in flat lands and near the coast. I have never tasted a conserve of oranges as delicious as is madein these isles." (History, Natural and Moral, of the Indies, by Rev. Father Joseph d' Acosta, bk. 4, chap. 31.)
Pison expresses himself in the same way, in speaking of Brazil. " I shall not speak," says he, "of a,l tiiose plants of which we do not yet know the remedial virtues, or which, carried else- where in this country, have been well enough de- scribed before me by other writers. Such are the citron, the lemon, the orange, the urenade, the ble of Turkey, etc." (GUILIELMI PISON is.. History, Nat. and Med., of Brazil, bk. 4. p. 107.)
Garcilasso de la Vega says as much relative to Peru and Chili, and this writer, descended from the Incas, and who was born at Pern soon after the invasion by the Spaniards, ought to have known the state of that country before the con- quest. Here are his words : " Before the Span- iards conquered Peru, it is certain that one saw there neither tigs, grenades, oranges, citrons, sour or sweet, pears, apples, apricots, quinces, peaches, alberges, nor any of the plums which grow in Spain. But one can say with truth j that all these truiis, and many others which I ; cannot remember, grow there to-day in such abundance that one cares almost nothing for them, any moie than ether Spanish things v\ hich iiu-rease much more in those countries of the Indies than in this realm." ([list, of the Incas, Kings of Peru, by the IIH-H, Garcilasso de la \Vga, bk. 1), c. 38.)
Witnesses thus positive leave no doubt upon the origin of the orange tre< s of America.
That vast hemisphere, whose soil is so fertile, and where is now found nearly all the plants of the Old World, had received from Nature but a certain number of vegetables, which belonged to it, and were unknown to the rest of the world.
Not till after its discovery by Europeans was it enriched with the greater part of those beau- tiful species given by Nature to countries far re- moved from it, of which the culture took rapidly in those fine climates.
This tact, whose certainty is so evident, is an- other convincing proof that each country has had, originally, its species, and that industry alone has so mingled them in one climate as to greatly obscure their origin.
ART. IX.— The Free Sweet Orange Tree— Preju- dices of Agricultural Writers Concerning its Existence— Followed by the Cultivators— Cir- cumstances which have made it Known in Li- giiria — Advantages of its Culture — Conclusion,
It would be interesting to those investigating the history of the citrus, to know whether the orange, naturalized io America, was the sweet orange or the bigarade. I have uselessly read the writings upon the subject for the purpose of learning the truth; none of them speak in a mariner to enlighten us. Yet, notwithstanding this silence, all agree that the sweet orange was carried there at the same time as the bigarade, or, at least, soon after.
The woods seen there now are, in part, of this species, and it is natural that, being cultivated in Europe, it should be taken there by prefer- ence.
I have several times consulted planters of St. Domingo upon the nature of the orange trees of that country.
According to their reports it would appear that the sweet-fruited orange tree is still in that island— only a garden plant— multiplied by graft, and having no thorn. The bigarade tree, on the contrary, (called by them bitter oranges,) is found in. the woods in a savage state; but the Spanish colonists have assured me that upon the Con- tinent one may see woods of the two species.
It is surprising that the success of those plan- tations which renew themselves by seed, and give sweet fruit wiihout being grafted, have not en- lightened Europeans and led them to multiply these trees by seed. I have no means of ascer- taining whether this method is known iu Portu- gal. As to Spain I think it is not practiced there. An attentive examination of the sweet orange trees of lhat country has satisfied me that all are. grafted.
It is certain that the method is still ignored in Sicily and Naples, and not more than hull a ci n- tury has elapsed since its introduction in Liguria.
1 do not know, indeed, ot any writer on agri- culture who 1ms spoken of the sweet orange as a mother-species, capable of perpetuating and re- producing iiseli' by its own seed. All speak only of its multiplication by grafts, or by layers, and ihe greater part have given methods for mod- erating the harshness of five fruits by means of infusions of the seed, or other similar proceed- ings.
GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
We read this, not only in the agriculture of Porta, Charles Etienne, Olivier de Serres, Rozier, Gallo, &c., but again in that of Herrara, himself a Spaniard, and one who should have known 1he properties of this tree in America. Olivier de Serres expresses himself in these words : " It is requisite to graft these trees in order to make them produce fruits entirely good and delightful, without which means they could not be made to do so." (Theatre of Agri., p. 632.)
Tanara, whose writings date from a century later, is the first to reject all these methods as popular errors, but does not recognize the ex- istence of a free species of sweet fruit, and ad- vises recourse to the graft for multiplying this species, " because [these are his words] the nat- ural orange delays twelve or thirteen years to give fruit, and only yields a bad quality!" This opinion is followed by all the best writers, and even by the more modern ones.
Ferraris is the only author who has known of the existence of the orange tree of sweet fruit growing from seed. This writer, the first to ex- amine deeply into the culture of this tree, lived in a time (1646) when this method, already spread in America, had probably passed into Portugal and other parts of Europe. He ought, then, to have had an idea of it. Nevertheless, he speaks of it as a peculiarity accorded by Nature to some of the more favored climates, as the Philippine isles and China (Fer., pp. 44, 450), and he coun- sels European gardeners to supply by graft the defect of climate. Thus, " in some countries, Nature, more adroit, renders art useless, because the seed of domesticated orange trees give abund- antly of sweet fruit without need of being grafted. But this same benefit, accorded not by the most propitious Nature to every climate, admonishes the gardener of the necessity of correcting by grafl the natural defect of the wild orange." (Fer.-Hesperides, p. 450.) He also tells of some specimens seen at Corfu, and at Rome, but re- gards them as phenomena, seeing that he estab- lishes as a maxim that the most perfect seed of the sweetest orange will yield only plants bear- ing sour and wild fruit, which require to be im- proved by the graft. (Fer., p. 450.)
Such is the force of habit and prejudice ; when an opinion has taken root in the mind of men, it is not sufficient for its destruction that Nature reveals herself by her operations. Prejudice will long contend against belief of facts ; and those who dare first to attack these prejudices, must expect censure, and be content to relin- quish the honor of their discoveries during life.
More than a century has passed since Ferraris remarked that there were climates where the sweet orange reproduced itself from seed, and still the prejudice in favor of the graft exists in the minds of the greater number of agricultural writers.
it is by means of the graft, or by cuttings, that this tree is still multiplied at Salo, in Sicily, and in Naples, and always upon citron trees. It is by graft upon the b'igarade that the sweet orange is multiplied at Seville, at Valencia, in Crete, at Nice, and in Provence.
M. Vacca, a land-owner at Finale, and owner of many orange trees, when at Palermo in 1790, was at the country seat of the Marquis Airoldi. then President of Sicily. Seeing onty small
trees in these gardens, as well as in all parts of the isle, he expressed astonishment, and gave so glowing a description of the Fiirale orange trees, that he was scarcely believed. But the details given by him were so positive, that M. Airolde, a great amateur of oranges, and a well informed man, decided to make a voyage to Finale, ex- pressly to see our plantations. He came there in 1798-94, and was so surprised by the beauty of our trees, that, on returning to Sicily, he took with him a family of cultivators, in order fcoofen- duct his plantations according to the method in Finale.
I know not whether he was made to see that the beauty of these plants was only due to the nature of the tree, which, corning from seed, is more vigorous; nor whether he afterwards introduced at Palermo the culture of tree trees. 1 only know that even at that period the orange at Sicily was but a grafted tree, and that the most beautiful ones there gave only twelve or fifteen hundred oranges each.
This custom of grafting had in its favor sev- eral circumstances. The grafted orange gave fruit almost immediately, while a free tree pro- duced fruit only alter twelve or fifteen years ; this, of itself, would appear important enough to give the preference to the common method. Many other reasons united to sustain it. From the first, it was supposed that the bigarade re- sisted cold better than the sweet orange (nee Me- mern reformidant ulpote liabitu. fiuUdiora. FER., p. 451), and this advantage seemed very important. Afterwards it was said that it had the real ad- vantage of submitting more readily to cultivation in boxes, because it. grew more slowly, and re- mained smaller, than the tree orange tree. Finally, the custom of grafting suited the views of the speculating gardeners, as well as amateurs. Both had no other object than to be assured of the varieties they possessed, and which they de- sired to preserve. The success of the seed was distant and uncertain.
Thus it could interest none but the philosopher desirous to study Nature in her operations; and he would need, in addition to an absorbing love for science, means and leisure in order to devote to this study land and time.
Thus we see why there has been such^ delay in learning the nature of this species, which', during a number of years, has existed but precariously upon a different species.
But at length chance led to this discovery. The frost of 1709 caused the destruction of all the orange trees in Liguria. To form the seed- beds of the nurserymen the seeds of the sweet orange were used, this being the only fruit sent from southern districts for consumption in Italy. These plants were condemned by the gardeners ^to be grafted, the same as bigarades had been, 'but the frost, following that of 1709, destroyed many of these grafts.
Ordinarily, they grafted anew the vigorous sprouts from the trunk. Some were, however, neglected; and these gave, after some years, very fine oranges. ^
This phenomenon excited the surprise and at- tracted the attention of several cultivators. They experimented by allowing many of these rejetons to grow without grafting, until a con- si -tut and uniform success at length convinced
GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY.
them that one might have sweet oranges without recourse to the graft.
I have, at Finale, a country-seat, where, in 1718, my grandfather planted a great number of orange trees. The plants, all grafted, were fur- nished, according to custom, by the nurserymen of Nervi. Placed in these gardens, they made prodigious increase, so that every one was aston- ished, and imputed this rapid growth to the t'resh earth brought to form these artificial gar- dens, or to the happy exposure of the field, and the abundance of water ornamenting and fertil- izing the place.
Peculiar circumstances, which I propose to speak of in the second part of this work, secured them from the frosts occurring in that century (notably, that murderous freeze of 1763,) until 1782, w'hen they were frozen to the stumps. Cut close to the earth, they grew in the spring vigor- ously, and the sprouts, known to be free, were raised without being grafted.
Unfortunately, a large number perished by the frost of 1799. Yet several stalks escaped, and each of them yielded, in 1806, as many as three thousand oranges.
Never before the frost did they bear so large a number, owing to the fact that then nothing was free but the foot. The branches grew from the grafts, and did not develop as well as free trees. I shall enlarge upon this fact in the chap- ters wherein I treat of culture and of frosts.
It is necessary to state that the rejetons (sprouts from the roots) of a tree already adult bear fruit at the end of three years, sometimes even sooner. This has facilitated the observation just spoken of.
It is not easy to forget or neglect a small plant, leaving it (ingrafted during a sufficient time for seeing it fruit, because it reaches this point only after fifteen or twenty years, but a re- jeton is, necessarily, left to grow and gain strength for three or four years, before a choice is made of the mos! suitable for grafting, and in this interval the rejeton will certainly put forth flowers, which set themselves very easily and give fruit. It is precisely this which has brought about the discovery in question.
The observation respecting free trees, made for the first time at Finale, drew the attention of all the amateurs, and they formed immediately in this country many nurseries of sweet orange trees. After the frost of 1763 these plantations were extended ; especially where old trees had perished, the free trees were substituted.
The success of these plantations justified at once the method that was being tried. Not a single one of these plants failed to bear sweet fruit.
There was the satisfaction also of seeing that these free trees displayed a vigor in their vegeta- 10
tion, and a rapid increase, such as had never been seen in the old plantations. The gardens of Fi- nale were soon filled with this new race, called seed orange trees (arancio di grana), and little by little it was also adopted in neighboring districts, chiefly at Savona, at Pietra, and at Spezzia, where they now raise only free trees.
The orange trees of Finale are perhaps the finest to be seen in Europe. Those of Sicily bear very sweet fruit, but not a tree produces more than twelve or fifteen hundred. The trees of the Archipelago, of Salo, of Nice, and of Hy- eres, yielded no more than those of Sicity. I have seen those of Murcia, of Tariffa, and of Se- ville. They seem to me to be no larger than those at, Finale.
The monks of Los Remediox, who have, per- haps, the finest garden in Andalusia, assured me that they have gathered from their trees as many as 5,000 oranges each, but nowhere have I seen as large fruit as in the neighborhood of the city of Finale.
The garden of M. Alizeri contains a hundred sweet trees, the smallest of which gives from twenty-five hundred to three thousand oranges. More than half of them bear from three to four thousand.
One sees many of these trees in the garden of M. Aicardi, from which have been plucked six thousand oranges, and in M. Piaggia's garden there is one, distinguished as having yielded eight thousand. This beautiful tree grows to the height of nine metres (nearly thirty feet). Its branches, which form a globe, and descend even to the ground, present a circumference of thirty-four metres (more than one hundred and eleven feet). The stem, still young and vigor- ous, is nearly five feet in circumference.
It is solely by this method (of free trees) that the culture of the orange has been carried to a degree of success rarely seen in exotic plants. In less than sixty years this has advanced the naturalization of the tree much more than gratt- inir and other methods had done in the space of several centuries, and offers an example of what we should expect of all vegetation multiplied by this means.
It has not been without interest, this search to ascertain by what steps this result has been reached, and what circumstances had made it known.
This was the task I imposed upon myself, and which, I think, I have "accomplished in this chapter.
I am happy if my investigations shall aid the progress of agriculture, which is the most sub- stantial source of wealth, and the basis of the prosperity of nations.
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