OALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY. 



17 



species, without, however, manifesting exactly i 

 their peculiar features. Such are most of the 

 races of Amboiue, of which Rumphius'has given 

 us the description ; such are some races of the 

 Cochin China and China fruit, described by Lou- 

 veiro ; and such, finally, are some races from Ja- 

 pan, reported by Ksempfer and Thumberg. 



The most of these races not only cannot be re- 

 garded as varieties of our Citrus family in Europe, 

 but they cannot even be considered as species be- 

 longing to our genus Citrus. They differ sensi- 

 bly from them, considered either with reference 

 to the conventional features established by artifi- 

 cial systems, or the natural features presented by 

 the structure of their trunk, the form of their 

 leaves, the character of their flowers, the proper- 

 ties and modifications of their fruits. Their 

 physiognomy, as a whole, announces that they 

 belong to the same natural family as the Citrus, 

 but that they form another branch or genus of it 

 which has its- own species, varieties, and mon- 

 sters. 



Perhaps among those which have more rela- 

 tion to the Citrus, there may be some which unite 

 these two analogous genera and form a transition 

 by which nature passes from one genus to the 

 other; perhaps also this transition is apparent in 

 some other species deviating more from them, 

 and approaching more to the orateva marmelos, 

 the murraya exotica, and the limonia. 



We will leave to botanists the examination of 

 this conjecture, which demands profound scien- 

 tific knowledge, experimental observation of 

 those plants which we at present are acquainted 

 with only from descriptions, and which no one 

 probably has as yet studied in all the details of 

 their vegetable life. We shall confine ourselves 

 to a general view of the species arranged by bota- 

 nists under the genus Citrus, and the varieties 

 which belong to them. 



ART. II. Order of divisions followed 1>y Nature 

 First division Second division Characteristic 

 features which determine them. 



These principles fixed, it is easy to classify in 

 a natural order the Citrus family of Europe. 

 Nature, which never proceeds by leaps, but al- 

 ways gradually and insensibly in her operations, 

 has commenced by dividing this genus into two 

 sections, of which one is formed by the citron and 

 the other by the orange. She has marked these 

 two species by several pronounced and constant 

 characteristics, which form their physiognomy. 



The citron tree has always a leaf with a linear 

 petiole, a scion or young shoot of a violet red, 

 (lowers partly hermaphrodite and partly dioe- 

 cious, the corolla white within and shaded with 

 violet red without, stamens to the number of 

 thirty or forty, the fruit oblong, yellowish, with a 

 tender peel, adhering to the pulp. 



The orange tree, on the contrary, has constant- 

 ly a leaf with a winged petiole, the scion of a 

 whitish green, the flower hermaphrodite, with flu 

 entirely white corolla, and stamens to the num- 

 ber of twenty, the fruit round, golden, and having 

 a peel interiorly cottony or downy, and not at all 

 adherent to the pulp. 



But this first division was not sufficiently adapt- 

 ed to the infinite combinations with which Nature 

 wished to enrich this beautiful genus. She has, 



therefore, subdivided these two species into as 

 many sub-species, which have also received their 

 character from the hand of Nature, and are, con- 

 sequently, equally invariable. 



The citron has beenjfftivided into the cedrat and 

 the lemon. The orange has been -divided into 

 the orange and bigarade. % 



The cedrat tree has been distinguished by short 

 and stiff branches, green and oblong leaves, 

 whose petiole is smooth and continuous with the 

 central vein which divides them, and by its ob- 

 long fruit, formed of a thick, tender, and aro- 

 matic peel. 



The lemon tree, on the contrary, bears long, 

 pliant, and flexible branches, with large and yel- 

 lowish leaves, whose petiole is raised on the sides 

 by a kind of jutting out, and articulated at the 

 point of its union with the disk of the leaf; it 

 bears fruit with a smooth, thin, and bitter peel, 

 and an abundant pulp, full of an acid but agree- 

 able and piquant (sharp) juice. 



The sweet orange differs from the bigarade by 

 its appearance or bearing, which is more vigor- 

 ous, by its flower, which has less aroma, and by its 

 fruit, whose peel, which is thin, contains a more 

 feeble essential oil, and whose pulp is full of a 

 sweet and agreeable juice. A less majestic bear- 

 ing, an infinitely more odoriferous flower, and a 

 fruit whose peel possesses a bitter and piquant 

 aroma, mingled also with the acidity of the pulp, 

 are the distinctive characteristics of the bigarade 

 tree. 



These four species have been the elements for 

 forming all the races we now possess. The3 r 

 have been subdivided into various generations, 

 which have been modified by fecundation with- 

 out altering the characteristics of the species, 

 and have given rise to varieties. They have 

 been subsequently crossed among themselves in 

 a great number of different proportions, and have 

 given birth to hybrids which are as numerous as 

 the gradations or variations of which these com- 

 binations are susceptible. Nevertheless, all these 

 different races always, by their peculiarities, an- 

 nounce either one or several of these types, and we 

 find everywhere either their isolated mark or the 

 mark of the reunion of several of them. 



We will commence^by giving a representation 

 of the species. 



THE CITRON TREE. 



The citron tree is an arborescent plant. It 

 does not bend like the lemon tree. It does not 

 grow high like the orange tree. Its branches are 

 short and stiff. Its leaves are violet at first, but 

 afterwards green, alternate, simple, oblong, den- 

 tate, and sprinkled with an infinite number of 

 little points, which are so many vesicles contain- 

 ing the aroma. The petioles are nude, and only 

 a continuation of the central vein of the leaf. 

 The bud is large, conical, and guarded by a soli- 

 tary spine. It puts forth, during almost the 

 whole year, flowers in bouquets or clusters, each 

 borne on a pedicel resting on a peduncle, some- 

 times axillary, but regularly terminal and multi- 

 florous. The flowers, in part hermaphrodite 

 and partly dioecious, are formed of a mono- 

 cephalous five-pointed calyx, which contains 

 a corolla whose petals, five in number, are 

 enlarged at the base, inserted around a hypo- 

 gynous disk, white within, and shaded -with- 

 out with a violet red; the stamens, thirty or 



