172 HISTORICAL NOTES ON 



come to the conclusion that the citron, the orange, the lemon, the 

 lime, and their numerous varieties now in circulation, are all 

 derived from one botanical species, Citrus medica, indigenous to, 

 and still found wild in, the mountains of East India. Others, 

 it is true, tell us that the citron, the orange, and the lime 

 are to be found as distinct types in different valleys, even 

 in the wild states ; but these observations do not appear 

 to have been made with that accuracy and critical caution which 

 would be necessary in the case of trees so long and so generally 

 cultivated. 



With regard to the Shaddock (Citrus decumana), it is almost 

 universally admitted as a distinct sj)ecies, although at present 

 only known in the state of cultivation. It must be admitted also 

 that it appears to present more constant characters than most of 

 the others in the pubescence of its young shoots and in the size 

 of its flowers, besides the differences in the fruit ; but Dr. Buchanan 

 Hamilton, who is of great authority on such matters, and some 

 others, are inclined to believe that this also may have originated 

 in the Citrus medica. This point requires much farther investi- 

 gation, and a better knowledge of the floras of South-eastern 

 Asia, before we can come to any plausible conclusion. 



Prof. Targioni gives copious details of the introduction into 

 Tuscany and other parts of Italy, of many of the yarieties there 

 cultivated, for which we must refer to the work itself. It may 

 sufBce, for our present purpose, to extract a few notes on some of 

 the more important races or species according as they may be 

 considered. Among them all the earliest known was the citron. 

 It is not, however, that fruit nor any other citrus, according to 

 Prof. Targioni, that we read of in the Bible under the name of 

 Hadar as is asserted by some, nor yet is it anywhere alluded to 

 by Homer. The first mention we have of it is in a comedy of 

 Antiphanes quoted by Athenseus, in which it is said that the 

 seeds of the citron had then recently been sent by the King of 

 Persia as a present to the Greeks. Theophrastus is the first 

 who describes it ; he tells us that the fruit was not eaten, but 

 solely prized for its odour and as a means of keeping the moths 

 off woollen clothing. Among the Romans we find an allusion to 

 the citron in Virgil's Georgics, but it does not appear to have been 

 then yet introduced into Italy, for Columella, long after Virgil's 

 death, made no mention of it, and Pliny, in his paraphrase as it 

 were of the passage of Theophrastus, adds that it had been 

 endeavoured to transport plants of the citron which he calls 



