Tas, 6807. 
CITRUS mepica, var. Riversii. 
The Bijou Lime. 
Nat. Ord. Ruracrz.— Tribe AURANTIEX. 
Genus Citrus, Linn.; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. i. p. 305.) 
Citrus medica, Linn., vide Tab. 6745. 
Var. Riversii ; frutex inermis v. pauci-spinosa glaberrima, ramulis gracilibus tere- 
tibus, foliis 2-3-pollicaribus breviter petiolatis ellipticis acutis serrulatis vy. 
obscure crenatis, basi acutis, nervis utrinque 7-10 gracilibus parallelis, petiolo 
brevi aptero, floribus pro genere parvulis subiinis albis 5-meris, fructu parvo 
1 poll. diametro globoso v. subgloboso mamillato, cortice tenui aureo v. aurantiaco 
glandulis non aut vix depressis, pulpa pallida acidissima et subamara. 
River’s Bijou Lemon, Masters in Gard. Chron. N.S. vol. v. p. 690, f. 123. 
Under a very full description of the West Indian Lime, 
which I gave in this Magazine last year (Tab. 6745), I 
alluded to the fruit of the ‘*‘ Bijou Lemon,” figured without 
a history in the ‘Gardener’s Chronicle,’ as belonging to 
the same variety. Specimens of this, with leaf, flower, and 
fruit, subsequently communicated to me by its possessors, 
Messrs. Rivers, of Sawbridgeworth, prove that it is a 
totally different variety, and that it adds another to the 
great host of forms of the Citrus medica, though still 
referable to what I regard as the Limes in contradistinction 
to the Lemons. From the West Indian the Bijou Lime 
differs in the few spines (our specimen is spineless), the 
elliptic smoother leaves with very numerous parallel regu- 
larly placed nerves (too strongly defined by far in our 
Plate), the wingless petioles, and in the smaller more 
globose higher coloured fruit, which has a distinctly bitter 
flavour superadded to the acid; the peel, too, is not so 
fragrant. I have in vain searched through the fine work 
of Risso and Poiteau for this Lime, but find nothing that 
agrees with it in fruit and leaf. 
The Royal Gardens are indebted to Messrs. Rivers of — 
Sawbridgeworth for a most interesting and instructive — 
MARCH Ist, 1885. 3 
