C4ALLESICTS TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY. 



two conjectures, which it will not be impossible 

 to reconcile ; but niy sixth experiment would 

 appear to show results having a wider base, and 

 in contradiction to the received system. In this 

 experiment (spokun oi' in nn early part of this 

 work) I have obtained a change in the nature of 

 the ovary oi' an orange (lower by means of the 

 forced and multiplied action of the pollen of a 

 lemon. This result seemed to indicate thai the 

 masculine element did something more than giv- 

 ing motion to the embryo, and the vitality neces- 

 sary to its development. It would teach also 

 that these principles acted together by their 

 mingling or combination in forming the fruit 

 which resulted from the experiment in question. 

 J dare not enter upon the discussion of this deli- 

 cate problem. 1 limit myself for the present to 

 ttn account of observations made by myself in 

 this matter, and I desire that physiologists better 

 qualified would examine them, following the ex- 

 periments which I have but begun, with the pa- 

 tience, care, and exactness that they seem to de- 

 mand. 



AB.T. VI. Of t]t Agrumi of India Observations 

 upon IJitfie Plant* Their deneription and syno- 

 nyms. 



The description which we are about to write is 

 doubtless sufficient for cultivators, but will be 

 considered imperfect for botanists. 



The Citrus of Europe is, perhaps, the single, 

 isolated genus of which all the species are 

 known to us ; but, for some time, it has been 

 confounded with analogous genera belonging, 

 without doubt, to the same family with ours^ yet, 

 in my opinion, forming special branches of it ; it 

 it is therefore necessary to take cognizance of all 

 those individuals. 



India produces a great number of plants bear- 

 ing close analogy to our Agrurni, chiefly in respect 

 to the form and acidity of their fruit. Their 

 characteristics vary to infinity, extending gradu- 

 ally to species which belong, without doubt, to 

 very different genera. Yet the likeness which 

 they have preserved to our agrmni, appears to 

 have formed, chiefly among the natives, a 

 point of comparison, and they have added, 

 nearly everywhere, to their particular and dis- 

 tinctive names the generic names of lemcm or 

 naregam. Thus they call at Amboyna (one of the 

 Moluccas) the bilacus taurinus of Rurnphius, 

 lemon goda; as at Malabar, one knows under the 

 names of isjeroa-katou-naregarn, otkatou-naregain, 

 and of malnaregam, three plants called by Euro- 

 peans limon, and classed by Linnaeus in the genus 

 Imwnia. All these species, however, form gen- 

 era approaching our European species, and 

 which might, perhaps, be united in the same fam- 

 ily under the common name of Agrumi. 



In general they resemble ours in the activity 

 of uninterrupted vegetation, which shows at all 

 times flowers and fruit in the midst of foliage al- 

 ways green ; in a sharp aroma spread over all the 

 parts of the plant ; in the whiteness of the flower, 

 which is odorous, and in the nature of the fruit, 

 which is always a round berry (a berry among 

 botanists is " a succulent, pulpy pericarp, con- 

 taining naked seeds. The orange and lemon are 

 berries with a thick coat." Lincoln's Bot), hav- 



in , ii yellowish, aromatic skin, and containing a 

 certain number of sections, and a juice some- 

 times sweet, sometimes bitter, and nearly always 

 acidulated. But these plants usually grow only 

 to the size of shrubs ; their branches are crooked, 

 knotty, and often mutilated; their leaves are fre- 

 quently divided into two by the wings of the pe- 

 tiole, and are, at times, discolored ; their thorns, 

 sometimes double, often lacking, are frequently 

 longer on the old branches than on the young, 

 and arrange themselves, nearly always, in some 

 peculiar way. Their flowers, now of four, no-w 

 of five petals, are sometimes axillary and soli- 

 tary, and very often terminals; and, in place of 

 bouquets, like our orange blossoms, they show 

 themselves in bunches like the olive. We know 

 very little of their fructifying parts. Rumphius 

 rarely describes them. The fruit is a berry, but 

 this berry is now round, now oblong, at times 

 angulate ; it is often covered by tubercles of a 

 fixed form, and disposed with a certain regular 

 ity. Its color, though at times green, usually re 

 sembles that of the lemon or orange ; ancl its 

 pulp, enclosed in numerous sections, is now swoel 

 and vinous now disagreeable and glutinous. 



Finally, their traits, taken as a whole, announce 

 decidedly that they do not belong, for the most 

 part, to the genus Citrus. 



There are among them, doubtless, several not 

 far removed from, and having traits of, our hy- 

 brids, but there are also many presenting traits 

 which place them nearer to some species of cnt- 

 tcm, to the limonui, and other plants of India. 



One may see in the Citrus trifoliata, in the 

 limon angukrtux, and in the limonellus madurensis, 

 much to connect them with the bilacus thaurinw 

 of Rumphius, which, from its likeness to tho 

 lemon, is called at Amboyua lemon gala. 



These appear to be links by which nature 

 passes gradually from one genus to another, and 

 forming what a great botanist has aptly called 

 families par encJiainemenl. 



We have not thought it possible to dispense with 

 giving an idea of all these species. Beginning with 

 those which seem to belong to our agrumi, and 

 which might be varieties of them, we pass on to 

 those decidedly removed by their traits, and shall 

 finally say a word concerning species which 

 touch them in analogous genera. We will desig- 

 nate them by the general name of af/r >'////'. 



NO. T. 



Acrmncn nobilis Chincn^c. 



Citrus nobilis. (Lour. Fl. Coc. Sp., 3.) A Canixsanh, E. 

 Tsem can : Citrus inermis, ramis (ascendentibus, petiolis 

 strict!*, fructn tubercnloso, sub-compresso, (t. 2, p. !!>).) 



The CUrm nobilit, rare in China, but abundant 

 in Cochin China, is a tree of medium size, dis- 

 tinguishing itself particularly by the upward 

 growth of its branches, which are thornless. Its 

 leaves, scattering, lanceolated, quite sound and 

 lustrous, are of a dark green, and have a strong- 

 odor. They have linear petioles. The flowers, 

 arranged in terminal bunches, are white, having 

 five petals ancl a very pleasant perfume. The 

 fruit is a round berry, a little compressed ; it 

 usually has nine sections, red inside as well as 

 out. The skin is thick, juicy, sweet, and covered 

 by unequal tubercles (warts.) 



This is twice as large as the Chinese orange, 

 and is the most agreeable of all. 



