

LIME AND POMELO 



CITRUS 



History 



DeriYfttion of 



N.-ime ntr..n. 



of cultivation in the gardens of the Romans doe* not exist prior 

 ci-ntury of our era. 



, Udius (De re Ruetica, iv., 10), who lived poHnibly about tho fifth eentury(A.n. ), 

 he methods pursued by him in cultivating the plant in his Sardinian and 

 I it an possessions, so that its cultivation in Italy by the 3rd or 4th centuries 

 i>o accepted as having been fully established, though for many centuries the 

 made in Europe was but slow, down to the llth or 12th centuries. 



aid that whilo tho orange is indigenous to China, and the limes 

 , that the citron originated very possibly in Persia and Media, while the 

 . is so closely associated with the Arabs as to suggest its having come 

 \rabia. The Arabs, at all events, carried its cultivation to Africa, Egypt 

 and Europe. In the 10th century, for example, we read of them conveying it 

 .r.l.-ns of Oman to Palestine and Egypt. So also it is generally 

 apted that the fruit held in the hand by the Jews during the Feast of 

 lernacles has for many centuries past been the citron. Risso has, however, 

 iuced evidence which he thinks goes to show that the Hebrews did not very 

 sibly know the citron much before the beginning of the Christian era, hence 

 1 -nds that it was very likely not the fruit so used by the early Jews. 

 HT writers have, however, contended that the Jews were scarcely likely 

 >a\r ( hanged the symbol and yet retained the ceremonial. And it is, more- 

 r, \\cil known that a close relationship subsisted for many centuries between 

 Hebrews and the people of Media and Persia, so that there is no reason why 

 y should not have known of the citron long before the Romans. There is, 

 rever, a long interval between the first European classic references to the 

 it and the detailed accounts of medicinal and horticultural writers. To 

 over this gap, Loret assumes a knowledge in these plants, possessed 

 tho Arabs, Jews and Egyptians, very much more ancient than the earliest 

 r-ic- record. For example, the earliest Arab and Persian writers who knew of Arab Writers. 

 citron and lemon are : Serapion (De Simpl., i., 1) and Rhases (Cont., i., ult. 

 119), who describe the former, while the latter is alluded to by Ibn Baithar. 

 enna (De Med., ii., 2, 116, 433) the author most frequently cited apparently 

 fused these plants. \Cf. Paulus jEgineta (Adams Comment. ), 1847, iii., 472.] 

 The orange was not known until much later than the citron or lemon. 

 gioni-Tozzetti tells us that it was conveyed from India to Arabia about the 

 century. We have no knowledge of its having reached Europe for a couple of 

 turies later, when it seems to have been carried by the Moors to Seville. In 

 1 3th century we read of its cultivation at Palermo and Rome. But, according 

 le most generally accepted opinion, the bitter orange reached Europe before 

 oweet. Lecomte says that the Portuguese claim to have taken the sweet 



from China to Portugal somewhere about 1545. 



It is remarkable that many of the Indian authors, who might be expected Indian Authors. 

 Afford useful historic particulars regarding the citron, lemon and orange, are 

 it regarding these plants. Marco Polo makes no reference to them, but Varthema 

 ivels (ed. Hakl. Soc.), 1863, 190), who in 1510 visited Cananor and subsequently 

 >'lon, speaks of the sweet oranges (melangoli) of both places, and says of Ceylon 

 they were the finest in the world. Vertomannus (Voy., in Hakl. Voy., 1811. 

 577), a gentleman of the city of Rome, who also visited Cananor and Narsinga 

 1503, says the " soyle beareth neyther wheate nor vynes, or fewe other fruites, 

 sept Oranges and Gourdes." Baber (Memoires, 1519 A.D., 327-9) mentions nine 

 different kinds of <'<*, as known to him. This is the earliest complete statement 

 regarding Indian cultivation. The Ain-i-Akbari, written 1590, amplifies some of 

 the particulars given by Baber, but adds nothing very material. \Cf. Blochmann, 

 transl., i., 69; also Jarrett, transl., ii., 124.] The Emperor Akbar, we are told, 

 "aged the cultivation of all fruits and brought expert gardeners for that 

 purpose from Persia and Tartary, who doubtless carried to India with them all 



was good and desirable in the way of new fruits from their own countries. 



Linschoten ( Voy. E. Ind. (ed. Hakl. Soc,), 1598) makes frequent mention of the 



"rnii^os, lemons, etc., of India, Ceylon and other countries visited, but in such 



language as to imply that his readers knew everything about them. Rheede, 



"ii the other hand, who, in 1686, figured and described the plants of Malabar, 



i hus practically of Cananor, makes no allusion to the orange or the lime, 



whilo Herbert (Travels, 1677, 333) speaks in the highest terms of the oranges 



;"mons of Mangalore : in the case of the oranges, " the rind," he tells us, 



no less pleasant tlian the juice." A century or so later Rheede and 



rt were followed by Rumphius, who gives a full description of several 



Wild 



