172 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. 



was planted by St. Dominic about the year 1 200. 

 This fact has no other foundation than tradition, 

 but this tradition, preserved for many centuries, 

 not only among the monks of the convent, but 

 also among the clergy of Rome, is reported by 

 Augustin Gallo, who, in 1559, speaks of this 

 orange as a tree existing since time immemorial. 

 If -we refuse to attribute its planting to St. Dominic, 

 we must at least refer it to a period soon after that 

 is, to the end of the thirteenth century, at the 

 latest. 



Nicolas Specialis, in the passage cited on an- 

 other page, in describing the havoc made by the 

 besiegers in the suburbs of Palermo, regrets the 

 destruction of Grangers, or trees of sour apples 

 (pommes aigres), which he regards as rare plants, 

 embellishing the pleasure-house of Cubba. 



Blondus Flavius, a writer of the middle of the 

 following century, speaks of the orange on the coast 

 of Amalfi (a city of Naples) as a new plant, which 

 as yet had no name in scientific language (Blond. 

 Flav. , Ital. Illus. , p. 420) ; and he extols the val- 

 leys of Rapallo and San Remo, in Liguria, for the 

 culture of the citrus, a rare tree in Italy. " Cugus 

 ager (San Remo)," these are his words, " est citri, 

 palmaquae, arborum in Italia rarissirarum, ferax" 

 (Blond. Flav., Ital. Illust.., p. 296). Lastly, 

 Pierre de Crescenzi, Senator of Bologna, who wrote 

 in 1300 a treatise on agriculture, speaks only of the 

 citron tree. We find in his expressions no hint of 



