1 88 Fruits and Fruit- Trees. 



ranean, also in the Canaries, the Azores, and most sub- 

 tropical countries both of the Old world and the New, 

 and in numerous varieties. The lemons brought to 

 England come chiefly from Sicily, being shipped from 

 Messina and Palermo. Malaga and Lisbon also fur- 

 nish large supplies. During the twelve months ending 

 August 3ist, 1884, there were imported into Liverpool 

 alone a hundred and twenty-one thousand packages, of 

 the declared value of ,73,000. 



In constitution the lemon-tree is somewhat tender, 

 decidedly more so than the orange, though upon the 

 Riviera it better endures the sea-breezes. The excep- 

 tional warmth of the winter climate of Mentone, even 

 for the Riviera, is proved by the one simple fact of the 

 presence in that favoured spot of many groves of large 

 and healthy lemon-trees. They occupy every sheltered 

 ravine and warm hillside, provided there be a good 

 supply of water; constant irrigation, both winter and 

 summer, being to the lemon peculiarly indispensable. 

 The anxiety of the owners, in winters of unusual severity, 

 compares with that of the Lancashire gooseberry-growers 

 when there is threat of a thunderstorm. They sit up 

 all night, watching the thermometer; for a few degrees 

 further fall, when already low, means certain destruction. 

 Warm and sheltered nooks are the special delight of the 

 lemon : then it can live to a great age, and occasionally 

 attain dimensions truly surprising. A lemon-tree at the 

 bottom of the quarry of Dionysius, at Syracuse, Sicily an 

 excavation sixty feet deep growing where not a breath 



