164 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. 



it is probably derived from the Arabic word Cobbah, 

 meaning vault or arch ; perhaps some grand dome 

 upon this country-house gave the place its name. 



These data, however, do not appear to me 

 sufficiently strong to combat the authority of a very 

 reliable historian, who says expressly that the lemon 

 and the orange trees were not known in Italy or 

 France or in other parts of Christian Europe in the 

 eleventh century. Such are the words of Jacques 

 de Vitry, in speaking of Syrian trees in his history 

 of Jerusalem. The testimony of this bishop, who 

 ought to have known these countries, would appear 

 to have more weight than simple conjectures based 

 upon reasonings from analogy. Whatever be the 

 authority of this historian, compared with the pre- 

 sumptions advanced by us with regard to Sicily, it 

 will always be decisive respecting Lake Garda and 

 the coasts of Liguria and Provence. 



There is not a doubt that in these last-named 

 countries the lemon and orange were unknown, 

 not only in the tenth but even in the eleventh cen- 

 tury. But an extraordinary event, destined to 

 change the face of Europe, was to open anew to the 

 people of the West the entrance to Syria and Paless- 

 tine. This was also the time when the Crusades, 

 which began at the close of the eleventh century 

 (1096), reawakened among Europeans the spirit of 

 commerce and a taste for arts and luxury. 



The Crusaders entered Asia Minor as conquerors, 

 and thence spread themselves as traders into all 



