CITRUS FRUITS. 



The Citrus trees include the orange, the mandarin- 

 orange, the citron, the lemon, the lime, the bergamot 

 and the shaddock, besides numerous intermediary 

 hybrids. Their cultivation originally limited to India, 

 China, Persia and the Mediterranean region is now 

 extended to all tropical and sub-tropical regions of both 

 hemispheres. They are grown chiefly as fruit trees, and 

 their vast economic and commercial importance is well 

 known ; but on account of their evergreen foliage, their 

 pretty sweet-scented flowers and their beautiful fruits 

 which come to maturity at a time when the garden is 

 bare and most trees are leafless, they are rightly con- 

 sidered as very desirable trees in ornamental gardening, 

 and at any rate in the sunny regions of the Mediterranean 

 no garden is complete without its orange-grove or its 

 avenue of citrus trees. To the Maltese cultivator they 

 are known collectively by their Italian designation, 

 AGRUMI, so called no doubt owing to the acidity of the 

 fruit, which is more or less marked in almost all species 

 and varieties 



The original home of the orange-tree is supposed to 

 be India, in the forests at the foot of the Himalayas, and 

 it is probable that its cultivation was carried by the Arabs 

 during the yth or 8th Century, through Persia and 

 Egypt, to the shores of the Mediterranean. The Bitter 

 or Seville Orange ( Citrus Bigaradia, Loisel ), was 

 probably the first to attract the attention of the Arabs 

 on account of the essential oil obtainable from the 

 flowers and from the rind of the fruit, and of the 

 highly perfumed orange- flower water which is obtained 

 by distilling the blossoms, and is still so much in use. 

 The introduction of the ordinary commercial orange 



