^ 



DR. E. TiONWI.V ON- CULTIVATED TRUK LIMES. 213 



Oil the probable Wild Source of the whole Group of Cultivated 

 True Limes (Citrus acida, Roxb.^ (7. hiedica, var. aeida'''o{' 

 Brandi^, Hoolver, and Alp]), de Candolle), ByE. Bon^via, 

 M.D., Brigade-Surgeon, Indian Med. Department. (Com- 



M 



[Read 4th February, 1886.] 



' Dr. Brandts, in his 'Indian Forest Flora/ considers the small 

 sour Lime as a vai'iety directly descended from the Citron, 

 Citrus medica^ Linn. Sir J. D, Hooker, in his * Flora of British 

 India,' follows Dr. Braudis ; and Alph. de Candolle, in his 

 * Origin of Cnltiyated Plants/ follows them both. 



It always struck me that the characters of the Lime-tree were 

 very different from those of the Lemon and Citron trees; and I 

 could not therefore persuade myself to accept the relationship 

 given by Dr. Brandts as a finally settled point. 



Some time ago I took up the study of the cultivated forms of 

 Citrus of India with a commercial object, that is, with the view 

 of ascertaining how this useful genus might be turned to some 

 better account in India and Ceylon than it has hitherto been. 

 I collected specimens from all parts, and observed leaves and 

 fruit ; and in lately travelling from the North-AVest Provinces of 

 India to Ceylon by the Western coast, I had opportunities of 

 seeing Limes and their leaves. I have always been struck with the 

 persistence of the winged petiole in the Lime ((7. acida^ Roxb.), 

 while the Lemon and Citron rarely had it. One cannot help being 

 struck also by the aspect of the Lime-tree, so different from the 

 Lemon and Citron trees. 



In Ceylon, one day, I asked Dr. Trimen to show me what he 

 had in the way of C^/rws-trees in the Eoyal Botanical Garden 

 of Peradeniya. While going over the ground, his foreman 

 placed in my hands a ftVrw^-fruit, which I had never seen before, 

 and which he said he had obtained from an adjoining Cocoa 



estate. 



Kudalu 



(Leech Lime). It flasl)ed across my mind that 1 held in my 

 hand the wild form of the ancestor of all the cultivated true 

 Limes. Dr. Trimen and myself then visited the tree. The 

 immense winged petiole of the " Lima " leaf rather staggered me. 

 The large and small spines and the blade of the leaf were like 



LINN. JOITBN. — BOTANT, VOL. XXTI. T 



