CITRUS 



History 



THE ORANGE AND LEMON 



West Indies. 

 India. 



Literature of the 

 Orange, etc. 



European 



Classic 



Authors. 



Cultivation in 

 Europe. 



and the Pomelo constitute a tropical assemblage of fruits in many respects 

 comparable with the apple, the pear, the peach, the plum and the cherry 

 a temperate series though the former are infinitely more valuable 

 than the latter, because more widely cultivated and more extensively 

 used. Moreover, since the orange is consumed very largely in temperate 

 climes, cultivation in the tropics has to be made on the basis of the foreign 

 as well as the local demands, so that oranges, lemons, etc., have become 

 regular articles of trade all over the world. Until very recently Europe 

 obtained its supplies of these from the warm temperate tracts of South 

 Europe itself and from the islands of the Mediterranean and the At- 

 lantic, adjacent to Africa. For some years the quicker transit of steam 

 navigation has permitted supplies to be drawn from a greater distance 

 than formerly, and both Europe and America have, in consequence, come 

 to be very largely supplied by the West Indies. The great success recently 

 of the fruit trade of these islands has given a useful suggestion of India's 

 possibilities. There would seem every chance that a large trade may in 

 the future be done in exporting some of the fruits of India to Europe, more 

 especially the thin-skinned Bombay pomelo. [Cf. Ferrari, Hesper., 

 1646; Jonston, Dendr. Hist. Nat. de Arbor., 1662, 10-27, pi. vi-xviii.; 

 Commelyn, Hesper., 1683, 1-47; Salmasius, Plin. Exer., 1689, 666-77; 

 Lecomte, Beschr. Keyser. China, 1698, 79 ; Sterbeeck, Citricult., 1712, 

 1-60, 66-181 ; Volkamer, Nurnb. Hesper., 1708-14 (2 vols.) ; Clarici, 1st. 

 delle Piante, 1726, pt. iv., 593-751 ; Rumphius, Herb. Amb., 1750, ii., 

 tt. 24-35; Forster, PI. Esc., 1786, 35; Gallesio, Traite du Citrus, 

 1811; Macfadyen, Citrus of Jamaica, in Hooker, Bot. Misc., 1830, 

 i., 295 ; Targioni-Tozzetti, Cenni Storici, etc., 1853 ; also Review 

 of same by Bentham, Journ. Hort. Soc., 1855, ix., 133-81 ; Risso 

 et Poiteau, Hist, et Cult, des Grangers, 1872 ; De Candolle, Orig. Cult. 

 Plants (Engl. transl.), 1884, 176-88 ; Lelong, Cult. Citrus in California, 

 1900.] 



History. So much has been said on the history of the species of citrus in 

 the works above indicated, that it seems almost superfluous to attempt & 

 review of the more interesting particulars, except such as have a practical bearing 

 on India. The Sanskrit and Chinese records of the properties and uses of these 

 plants carry our knowledge back to a time prior to the first mention of the 

 European tradition of the Garden of Hesperides, with its golden-coloured and 

 beautiful fruits, whatever these may have been. [Cf. Susruta, Ayurveda, 

 (d'Hanvantare) ed. Hessler, 1844, iii., 179.] 



It seems fairly certain that the citron fruit had been carried to Europe 

 by traders long before the attempt was made to cultivate the plant there. 

 It was valued as a perfume and also used to protect clothes from insects. 

 Pieces of certain imported coniferous woods were similarly so employed, and 

 the Romans appear to have supposed that the fruits brought from Media were 

 those of the self -same plant as the scented cedron wood. There can be little 

 doubt, therefore, that the modern word Citrus was derived from Cedron and 

 owes its origin to the circumstance mentioned. 



Theophrastus (about 350 B.C.) calls it the Malum Midicum or Molum As- 

 syrianum, and thus may be viewed as confirming the early traditional source 

 of the Citron. But he speaks of it as raised from seed sown in vases and seems 

 to be alluding to that instance from hearsay, as the practice with the Medes, 

 rather than to be narrating a custom followed by the Greeks. There is, how- 

 ever, an amusing story contained in a fragment of the comedy of the Antiphanes, 

 quoted by Athenseus, which, if it can be trusted, would suggest a possible much 

 earlier cultivation in Europe than can be established by direct historic facts. 

 So again the compilation known as the Geoponica (prepared in the 10th century) 

 is supposed to be quoting certain authors who describe the cultivation of the 

 citron several centuries before Christ, but here again it is perhaps hardly de- 

 sirable to put much confidence in these writers. It may thus be affirmed that 



318 



