CITRUS 



MEDICA 



Lemon 



Sour Lime. 



Cultivation. 



West Indies. 



Sweet 

 Lime. 



Baber's 

 Opinion. 



Budding Stock. 



THE SOUK AND SWEET LIMES 



is hardly one of the regularly grown fruits, in the gardens of the people 

 generally, but rather of the well-to-do and the curious. 



3. Var. acida; Kew Bull., 1894, 113-6, 177-82 and pi. ; the Sour Lime of 

 India. This is the lemon of most popular writers, and is undoubtedly a native 

 of India. It is the true nibu or nebu, nimbu, libu, etc., and is the jambiri of 

 Baber, the jambira, limpdka, nimbuka, vijapura and vijaka (according to Dutt) 

 of the Sanskrit authors (Susruta (ed. Hessler), 1844, i., 86). This is the plant 

 usually met with in a wild state in the warm valleys of the Himalaya. There 

 are numerous cultivated forms of it, the two chief being a round lime (pdti-nembu) 

 and a long lime (kdghzi (kaguji) -nimbu or thin-skinned nebu). The thin-skinned 

 limes of Jaunpur and Azamghar are celebrated. Then there are in addition 

 the pati or small round lime, the gord or oval fruit, the Chini-gora, which much 

 resembles an orange, the kdmurdli, a very large lime, the khatta of Upper India, 

 the Bajoura limes a sort of citron-lemon, the gungoli and Bihar i and many 

 others. 



The Sour Lime is easily reproduced by layers or seeds, the finer qualities 

 being budded on the commoner and hardier wild stocks. The wild 

 lime is, in fact, the chief budding stock for all species of orange, lemon 

 or citron. The juice of this fruit is universally used for flavouring soups, 

 curries, fish, etc., since it imparts a pleasant acid taste and agreeable 

 flavour. It is also largely used in domestic medicine. The small sour 

 limes are extensively employed for sherbets and in the manufacture of lime- 

 juice, and the large ones made into various preserves. Baber refers to 

 several forms of lime, so that we have abundant evidence that they have 

 been known and valued in India for many centuries. 



In the West Indies the lime is specially grown in Montserrat, 

 Dominica, Jamaica and Trinidad on account of the juice the lime-juice 

 of commerce. The reader will find a highly instructive paper on the 

 West Indian Lime Industry, written by A. J. Brooks (Journ. Roy. 

 Hort. Soc., 1907, xxxii., 172-88). It will be found to deal with the 

 following among other subjects of interest : History, Cultivation, Pests, 

 Fruiting, Essential Oil, Raw Juice, Concentrated Juice, Citrate of Lime, 

 Green Limes, Improvement of the Lime, etc. Brooks informs us that 

 "the juice is exported in its natural or 'raw' state, or as 'con- 

 centrated ' juice, the latter being one of the chief sources of citric 

 acid." There would seem no good reason why India might not parti- 

 cipate in this trade. 



4. Var. Limetta or Sweet Lime of India the santara nibu, mitha-nibu, 

 amritphal, elemitchum, thanbaya, etc., and the madhukarkatika of Sanskrit. 



Wight regarded the sweet lime as indigenous to the Nilgiri hills. 

 It was known to Baber, who apparently did not much appreciate sweet 

 limes or sweet oranges. In the Turki copy of his Memoirs there is a 

 footnote written by his son Humaiun to the effect that Baber's dislike 

 to the amratphal was " a consequence of his having been long and much 

 addicted to the use of strong drinks, whence he naturally did not like 

 sweet things." It has, however, very little flavour except that of sweet- 

 ness, but being in season in August to October, when oranges are not pro- 

 curable, it is much appreciated by many persons as a cooling and refreshing 

 fruit. But it seems highly likely that the sweet lime has by many writers 

 been frequently confused with the bergamot or green orange. It is eaten 

 fresh, or after being preserved or cooked. 



The sweet lime is very largely employed by the Delhi orange-growers 

 as a stock on which to bud the santara orange, and this circumstance may 

 to some extent account for the peculiar flavour of the best Delhi oranges. 



Conclusion. It has not been found possible to afford space for more 



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