GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY. 



gives plates of five, of which three arc monsters. 



Comrnelyn gives four species of it, of which 

 two are only monsters. 



Volcainerius gives ten species, of which sev- 

 eral are only monsters, and others are sub-va- 

 rieties or varieties represented tvyicc. 



The plan we shall follow simplifies this nomen- 

 clature, and causes the most of these above-men- 

 tioned races to disappear. 



There is only one type ; but hybrids are num- 

 berless, wm'ch it is impossible and useless to fol- 

 low, and which must be reduced to those whose 

 peculiarities are most remarkable. 



The citron of Media, known in Liguria as the 

 citron of the Hebrews, or the Hebrew citron, is 

 certainly the type. 



There are only three varieties deserving men- 

 tion : the citron of Genoa, which surpasses the 

 type in size, but is inferior to it in taste and deli- 

 cacy ; the citron of Salo, which surpasses the 

 type in delicacy and aroma, but is inferior to it 

 in volume ; and the double-flowered citron, re- 

 markable for its double or semi-double flower, 

 and so prone to irregular fecundation as often to 

 produce monsters. 



The hybrids seem innumerable, because they 

 present a gradation of shades of difference in 

 their phj r 8iogrioiny, which is as varied as the 

 combinations from which they result ; but when 

 accustomed to seeing them, one easily perceives 

 that there is a determinate number of mixtures, 

 to which all may be referred. 



I will begin by dividing them into two classes 

 hybrids and semi-hybrids. I understand by hy- 

 brids those in which the mixture has sensibly 

 altered the natural physiognomy of the species, 

 and by semi-hybrids those in which this mixture 

 is so" slight as to be determined only with great 

 care. I will place in this article only the last 

 class, and discuss the first class under the articles 

 concerning the respective species which predom- 

 inate in the mixture. 



The semi-hybrids of the citron tree are only 

 three : the citron of Florence, the citron of China, 

 or the orange-citron, and the sweet citron. All 

 the other citrons with which the Hesperides of 

 Cornmelyn are filled are only sub-varieties dif- 

 fering only by insensible peculiarities, which ap- 

 pear and re-appear successively, or else isolated 

 monsters, which are only fruits of which every 

 tree produces some annually in the midst of or- 

 dinary fruit, but which are not perpetuated by 

 their seed. Among the first, the sub-varieties, 

 are the citron of Corfu, whose fruit is so small 

 and ordinary that it is called in the country the 

 cedro mazza-cani. The cedrat of Holland, the ce- 

 drat bergamotte, the cedrat oviform, the cedrat 

 of Garda^the cedrat musciato and the dorato, 

 names given by Volcamerius, are only lemon-cit- 

 rons, whose family is so numerous and varied that 

 I might easily describe twenty varieties of them 

 now growing in my garden, produced from seed, 

 and which I regard as unworthy to be perpetu- 

 ated by the graft, because they possess no char- 

 acteristic rendering them extraordinary. 



*The species with monstrous fruits completes 

 the list of the Hesperides. 



At the present time I know of but very few 



*Up to this point Prof. Wilcox had translated this work 

 at the time of his death. The translation has been com- 

 pleted by Mrs. C. A. Cowgill. of Tallahassee. Fla. 



among the citrQii trees which form monstrous 

 varieties. The lemon and the orange present 

 plants, of which the fruit is striped, starred, &c., 

 but the citron produces no other than fruit which 

 is tuberculous, a form peculiar to this species. 

 The fruits shaped like a hand, or crumpled 

 around the nipple ; those which enclose within 

 themselves another fruit with its rind, or only a 

 multitude of cells crossed and confounded one 

 with another, all appear upon ordinary trees only 

 in the midst of other fruits ; and, far from owing 

 their form to the nature of the plant which bears 

 them, they are the result of an extraordinary and 

 irregular fertilization, which has acted upon the 

 thin skin (pericarp) of the individual fruit. 



Thus it becomes necessary to place in the class 

 of monstrosities the five varieties spoken of in 

 the Hesperides by Volcamerius, on pages 41, 45, 

 65, 116, 117. 



These extraordinary fruits appear more fre- 

 quently among certain varieties, yet but a few of 

 these monsters are found, in the midst of a great 

 number of fruits whose forms are unaltered. 



VARIETIES NO. I. 



Citrus medica cedra fructu oblongo, cras^o, eduli, odora- 

 tissimo. Citronier des Juif*. (Cedrat.) 



Cedro degli Ebrei, vnlgo. (Pitima.) Malnni citreum 

 maximum Salodianum : Cedro grosso bondolotto. (Vole.") 

 Ceclrato ordinario. (Ib.) 



Citreum vulgare. (Tournef.) Limonia cedra fructu 

 maximo. conico, verrucoso, sapore, et odore insigni. (L. 

 B. Calvel.) 



Citrus medica : cedro : cedrato. (Targ. Inet. Bot.) 



Citrus medica cedra. (Desfont, Tab. de FEcole de Bot.) 



The cedrat, properly speaking, or citron of 

 Media, is a tree of medium height, with a root 

 greatly branched or ramified, yellow outside, 

 whitish within. 



The general appearance of the tree is irregular 

 and scattering. The trunk is of a greyish green, 

 striped with white. The wood is hard, and 

 branches tough, short, and well grown. The 

 buds are large, prominent, and furnished with a 

 single thorn, short and thick. The shoots, or 

 scions, violet at their budding, change finally to 

 green. The leaf is long, regularly pointed, and 

 almost as large near the extremities as in the 

 middle ; it is of a beautiful green, bitter to the 

 taste, and odorous. The flowers are in clusters 

 cup-shaped, large and full haying five white 

 petals shaded on the outer side with purple, and 

 thirty or forty stamens ; the anther oblong, and 

 clear yellow ; the pis til, large and long, rests upon 

 the ovary. Some of the flowers, lacking this 

 part, fall off. The flower has a feeble odor, and 

 yields very little essence. 



The fruit is large and oblong, carrying some- 

 times the pistil upon its point. The rind is yel- 

 lowish, thin, glossy, a little uneven, and contains 

 delicious aroma. The inner skin is thick, tender, 

 aromatic, rather sweet, and may be eaten with 

 sugar, or made into conserves. This skin ad- 

 heres very closely to the pulp, which is thin, com- 

 posed of an infinity of whitish vesicles, contain- 

 ing a slightly acid, yet somewhat insipid juice, 

 and enclosing a great number of oblong seeds 

 covered by a reddish skin, and formed of a whit- 

 ish and bitter kernel. The citron tree of Media 

 is grown in Liguria only from slips ; these root 

 very easily. It is sometimes grafted upon the 

 bigarade (sour orange). 



It bears but little fruit, and fears extremely the 



