176 sturtevant's notes on edible plants 



and Greeks, and that its culttire extended into the West only with the conquests of the 

 Arabs. It is mentioned in the Book of Nabathae on Agriculture which is supposed to date 

 from the third or foiirth centviry of our era. The Arabs brought the lemon in the tenth 

 century from the gardens of Omar into Palestine and Egypt. Jacques de Vitry, writing 

 in the thirteenth century, very well describes the lemon, which he had seen in Palestine. 

 About 1330, Friar Jordanus,' saw in India " other lemons sour like ours " which wovild 

 indicate its existence in India before that date. It was ctiltivated in Genoa, about the 

 middle of the fifteenth century and as early as 1494 in the Azores.^ From the north of 

 India, the lemon appears to have passed eastward into Cochin China and China and west- 

 ward into Europe; it has become naturalized in the West Indies and various parts of 

 America. There are ntomerous varieties. Some are cultivated in Florida to a limited 

 extent. They are mentioned in California in 1751-68 by Father Baegert.' 



Lime. 



In Jamaica, the lime is quite naturalized. The fruit is nearly globose, small, yellow 

 when ripe, with a thin skin and an abundance of pure, acid juice.^ This fruit is largely 

 imported into the United States, in its natural form, pickled and in the form of lime juice. 

 About 1755, Henry Laurens * imported Umes into South Carolina. 



Sweet Lemon. 



The fruit has the rind and the flesh of a lemon but the ptilp is sweet. There are 

 many varieties in Italy. 



C. medica Linn, citron. 



Tropical Asia; indigenous to and still found wild in the motmtains of east India. 

 The citron is the only member of the orange tribe, the fruit of which was known in ancient 

 Rome. The tree appears to have been cultivated in Palestine in the time of Josephus 

 and was introduced into Italy about the third centtuy. In 1003, it was much grown 

 near Naples.' Hogg ' thinks this is the tnelea medike of Theophrastus, 322 B. C, and 

 mela medika e kedromela of Dioscorides.* Rhind says it was first cultivated in Italy by 

 Palladius in the second century. Royle ^ found it growing wild in the forests of northern 

 India. In Media and Persia, the citron is found only in the cultivated state. It is now 

 distributed throughout the whole of southern Europe, also in Brazil and in the Congo.'" 

 Fruits are used chiefly in a candied form. 



Jordanus, Fr. Wonders, East. Hakl. Soc. Ed. 15. 1863. 

 ' Fluckiger and Hanbury Pharm. 103. 1879. 

 ' Smithsonian Inst. Rpt. 356. 1863. 

 'Brandis, D. Forest Fl. $4. 1876. 

 ' Loudon, J. C. Hort. 609. i860. 

 Fluckiger and Hanbury Pharm. 115. 1879. 

 'Hooker, W. J. Journ. Bat. 1:105. 1831. 

 'Rhind, W. Hist. Veg. King. m. 1855. 

 Unger, F. U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 337. 1859. 

 "> Ibid. 



