APPENDIX. 161 



These countries, which joined, were also con- 

 nected by political ties, which facilitate communica- 

 tion, and their inhabitants were more civilized then 

 than before or since. A passage by Massoudi, re- 

 ported by the learned M. de Sacy in the notes to his 

 translation of Abd-Allatif, a writer of the twelfth 

 century of our era, seems to confirm our ideas upon 

 this subject, and to determine the date of this event. 

 It accords with all the data just given, and with his- 

 toric facts that we have collected. He expresses 

 himself thus : * c The round citron otrodj modawar 

 was brought from India since the year 300 of the 

 Hegira. It was first sowed in Oman (part of 

 Arabia), from thence carried to Irak (part of Old 

 Persia) and Syria, becoming very common in the 

 houses of Tarsus and other frontier cities of Syria, 

 at Antioch, upon the coasts of Syria, in Palestine, 

 and in Egypt. One knew it not before, but it lost 

 much of the sweet odor and fine color which it had 

 in India, because it had not the same climate, soil, 

 and all that which is peculiar to that country." 

 The lemon appeared perhaps a little later in these 

 different countries, for we see no mention of it either 

 in the Damascene or in Avicenna, but its descrip- 

 tion meets our eye in all the works of Arabian 

 writers of the twelfth .century, especially Ebn-Beitar, 

 who has given to it an article in his dictionary of 

 simple remedies. The Latin translation of this 

 article was published in Paris in 1 702 by Andres 



