THE OBANGE AND ITS ALLIES. 179 



The Citron claims priority of notice, as having been 

 the first of the whole family to become known to Euro- 

 peans, to whom, indeed, it furnished the botanical name 

 for all its tribe. Identified with the "apples of gold," to 

 which Solomon compared the " words of the wise," and 

 with the fruit wherewith the spouse of the Canticles was 

 " comforted," it is considered to have been known to most 

 ancient nations ; and being introduced into Europe from 

 Media, under the name of Mains medica, Virgil was the 

 first Latin author who mentioned it in his works, and it 

 was first cultivated in Italy by Palladius in the 2nd cen- 

 tury, 1,000 years before the arrival of the orange. Re- 

 versing the characteristics of the latter fruit, it is the 

 exceedingly thick skin which is the valuable part of the 

 Citron, and of which the well-known sweetmeat is made, 

 the pulp, in which numerous seeds lie embedded, being 

 very small in quantity and sour in flavour, though less so 

 than the Lemon, to which, however, it is more nearly 

 allied than to the orange, it being indeed difficult to de- 

 cide concerning some varieties whether they should be 

 called Lemons or Citrons. The flowers of both species, 

 similar in other respects to the orange-blossom, are dis- 

 tinguished by being tinged with pink or violet ; and the 

 fruit of the Citron is also at first of a redcjish purple 

 colour, changing to green as it enlarges, and finally attain- 

 ing a fine saffron tint, the outer surface being very un- 

 even, and one end projecting into a nipple-like protube- 

 rance. About half a dozen varieties have been cultivated 

 in Britain, and the tree being for the most part a native 

 of the woods, is so impatient of sunshine, that it is best 

 grown by being trained on the back walls of orangeries 

 or vineries, and even then requires extra shading during 

 strong sunshine in summer. At Luscombe, the seat of 

 C. Hoare, Esq., are some remarkably large trees, and also 

 at Paisley, where the fruit has been known to measure no 

 less than 18-^ in. by 19^-. In China they have a variety 

 which attains a very considerable size and is almost solid, 

 having scarcely any pulp or cells, and which is divided at 

 the end into five or six long separate cylindrical lobes, on 

 which account it is called there Phat thu, or the Finger 



12 2 



