1 86 Fruits and Fruit-Trees. 



and the Sweet, by the smaller flowers, their peculiar and 

 ambrosial odour, and the pear-like figure of the fruit, 

 which resembles that of the Bergamotte pear ; say, rather, 

 of one of the several varieties of the pear so called. 

 The pear takes its name from Bergamo, a city about 

 thirty miles north-east of Milan. Some consider that the 

 Bergamot is more nearly allied to the Lime than to the 

 oranges, and conjectures are not wanting as to its possibly 

 having a double parentage. In colour the fruit is pale ; 

 the pulp is greenish, sub-acid, firm, and fragrant. The 

 value of the Bergamot consists in the oil contained in the 

 rind, from which it is extracted either by distillation or 

 by heavy pressure. A hundred oranges yield about three 

 ounces of the oil. Perfumers use it extensively, as do the 

 manufacturers of eau-de-cologne. It is also employed by 

 apothecaries to give an agreeable smell to ointments. 

 The quantity imported into 'England is about 40,000 Ibs. 

 weight yearly. But much of this, Mr. Piesse tells us, is 

 adulterated with lemon otto. The principal scene of the 

 cultivation of the Bergamot in Europe is southern 

 Calabria, near Reggio. 



THE LEMON (Citrus Limonum). 



PLACED in its rightful botanical position the lemon would 

 follow the citron. Linnaeus, whose grasp of true affini- 

 ties was usually sound, considered these two fruits to be 

 essentially the same. So, at the present moment, do 

 Sir J. D. Hooker and Dr. Brandis, authorities next to 



