THE ORCHARD FRUITS 



205 



[its ancestral home is thought by some botanists to have been in 

 [the Polynesian and Malay region, by others to have been in 

 China. Grapefruit trees were brought to Florida from the West 

 Indies at the beginning of the nineteenth century, but they were 

 [iised only as ornamentals until 1880. The last thirty years have 



jeen a tremendous increase in grapefruit production, with more 

 [than half of the domestic output of eighteen million boxes coming 



rom Florida. Being more susceptible to frost than most citrus 



Fig. 143. — Flower and fruit of the 

 lemon. 



Fig. 144. — Unlike other cit- 

 rus fruits, the citron has a thick 

 rind while the pulp is small and 

 unimportant. 



fruits, grapefruit can be grown successfully only in the warmer 

 portions of Florida, Texas, Arizona and California. They are 

 also raised in the West Indies, India and South Africa. The chief 

 use of grapefruit is for canning, both fruit and juice; six million 

 cans are the annual output in California alone. 



The LEMON (fig. 143), a native of southeastern Asia, was 

 introduced into India at an early date, being brought from there 

 to the Mediterranean where it was cultivated by the Greeks 

 and Romans. The lemon was introduced into Spain by the Arabs 

 in the twelfth century. Lemon trees are small in stature, rarely 



