I? 6 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. 



to digest. The third substance is its juice, which is 

 sharp and of a strong acid, which will expel worms, 

 and is very cold. The fourth is the seed, which, 

 like that of the orange, is warm, dry, and bitter. ' ' 

 (See Mat. Silv., " Pandecta Medicinae," fol. 125.) 



This testimony of Silvaticus is strengthened by all 

 the authors who have written upon the citrus. There 

 is not one but is convinced that these trees were for 

 a long time very rare in Italy and in France, and 

 that Liguria alone has traded in them since they 

 were first known there. Sicily and the kingdom 

 of Naples cultivated, perhaps before the Ligurians, 

 the citron and orange trees ; but in spite of the ad- 

 vantages of climate, it was only as objects of curi- 

 osity, limited to some delightful spots. This fact 

 is established by the manner in which most writers 

 of the twelfth century express themselves on this 

 subject. Hugo Falcandus, who wrote of the ex- 

 ploits of the Normans in Sicily, from 1145 to 1169, 

 saw there lumies and orangers, and points them out 

 as singular plants, whose culture was still very rare. 

 (Hugo Falcandus. See Muratori, Rerum Italica- 

 rum Scriptores. ) 



Ebn-al-A\vam, an Arabian writer upon agricul- 

 ture at Seville, near the end of the twelfth century, 

 and whose work, translated into Spanish, was pub- 

 lished at Madrid in 1802, speaks as if the culture 

 were very much extended in Spain. Abd-Allatif, 

 who was contemporary with the last-named author, 

 expresses himself in like manner, and describes also 



