88 



GALLESIO'S TREAflSE OJs" THE CITRUS FAMILY. 



countries. As soon as the Hebrews were estab- 

 lished in the Laud of Promise, they began to 

 have intercourse with the Assyrians and Per- 

 sians, and it is reasonable to suppose that they 

 would be the first to know of this beautiful plant, 

 and to naturali/e it in the fertile valleys of Pales- 

 tine. 



It is, however, astonishing that in all the .Bible 

 one meets not a single passage where this tree is 

 mentioned. 



I have thought, sometimes, witb a crowd of 

 iuterpreters and commentators upon this book, 

 that the tree /atdar, whose fruit the Hebrews 

 carried at their Feast of Tabernacles, was no 

 other than the citron tree. 



That which gives probability to this opinion is 

 the custom always maintained among the Jews, 

 of presenting themselves in the synagogue on the 

 day of tabernacles with a citron in hand. This 

 usage, existing still to-day among them, and to 

 which they attach great importance, dates, with- 

 out doubt, from an epoch very remote, since 

 there is mention of it in the Jewish antiquities 

 of Joscphus; and Samaritan medals have been 

 found expressing on one side the loir lave of the 

 Jews, and upon the reverse of which one sees 

 citrous fastened to a palm tree. 



All these data, however, do not prove that the 

 tree Jtadar is the citron it is necessary to ex- 

 amine the words in Leviticus and those of Jose- 

 phns to discover what gave rise to this opinion. 

 4i You shall take," said Moses to his people, " Yon 

 shall take, on the first day, fruits of the tree 1m- 

 dar, of palm branches, boughs of the thickest 

 trees, and willows that cross the length of rapid 

 waters, and rejoice before the Lord your God." 

 (Levit, c. 23, 40.) 



If this custom had not been consecrated since 

 so many centuries in the religious rites of the 

 Jews, no person could have supposed that Moses 

 wished to speak of the citron under the name of 

 kadar. This word, very far from being the proper 

 name of a thing, signifies, according to the Sev- 

 enty, only the fruit of the finest tree, and, accord- 

 ing to our Latin version, fructus Ur/ni upeciost. 



Now, according to the acceptation given to 

 this word, hadar, the command of Moses enjoined 

 upon the people only a choice of the fruit of the 

 iinest tree, without determining the species to be 

 preferred. They were masters of the choice, and 

 there is little doubt that as soon as they knew 

 the citron they would substitute it for the tree 

 of which they had made use until then. 



The precept was generic it would always re- 

 fer to the most beautiful tree of which they had 

 knowledge ; and the citron was, without doubt, 

 for a long time, and is, perhaps, still the finest 

 tree known. 



The words of Josephus come to the help of 

 my argument. This historian does not say that 

 the law directed the Hebrews to carry in the 

 Feast of Tabernacles fruits of the citron tree ; he 

 only says that the law prescribed to offer burnt- 

 offerhigs, and to render to God thanksgivings, by 

 carrying in their hands myrtle and willow, with 

 palm boughs to which Persian apples had been 

 fastened. (l\mtmen dt: Perse.) 



This expression shows that the apples had been i 

 attached to the palm tree by a sort of voluntary ' 

 usage, and not in consequence of the precept. 

 J The citron tree, thun, w;i5', p.tili unknown in 



Palestine in the time of Moses. At that period 

 the Asiatics were not sufficiently civilized to 

 think of transporting the plants of one country 

 to another; neither their wants nor their habits , 

 of luxury had, as yet, made close ties between j 

 nations. But it is surprising that the Jews did 

 not know of this tree after the Babylonish cap- 

 tivity ; and we are still more astonished to find 

 that they knew nothing of it at the commence- 

 ment of the Christian era. 



The [Seventy, who translated the Scriptures 

 into Greek two hundred and sixty-six years 

 after the return of the Hebrews to Palestine, 

 rendered the word kadar by the same paraphrase 

 used in the Latin version " the fruit of the finest 

 tree." And the gospel, which contains so many 

 allusions to the palm, the fig, and many other 

 trees, says not a word of the citron. 



This tree, however, was already known to the i 

 Greeks and Romans. Theophrastus gives a very 

 truthful and exact description of it. This philos-_5 

 opher wrote after the death of Alexander, whose 

 conquests had greatly extended the knowledge 

 of the Greeks concerning the region of Asia, sit- 

 uated this side the Indus, where this plant was 

 indigenous. These are his words on the matter : 



"All the country situated east and south of us 

 produces peculiar plants and animals. Thus one 

 sees in Media and Persia, among many other pro- 

 ductions, the tree called Persian or Median apple. 

 This tree has a leaf as large as and resembling 

 the pour-pier : it has thorns like those of the pear 

 tree and hawthorn, but which are more slender, 

 pointed, and stubborn. Its fruit is not edible, 

 but it has an exquisite odor, as also have the 

 leaves, which are used as a protection from 

 moths in clothing. A decoction of the pulp of 

 this fruit is thought to be an antidote to poison, 

 and will also sweeten the breath. 



" They sow the seeds in the spring in furrows 

 carefully prepared, and water it for four or five 

 days after. 



" When the small plant has gotten a little 

 strength, it is transplanted, always in the spring, 

 into a moist and mellow soil, not too light. 



" The citron bears fruit continuously ; while 

 some fruit is falling with ripeness other fruit is but 

 just starting, and still other approaching matur- 

 ity. Fruit is given only by the flowers which 

 have in the middle a sort of straight spindle ; 

 those which do not have this fall off, producing 

 nothing. They seed it also, as the palm, in per- 

 forated earthen vases. This tree, as we have said , 

 is common in Persia and in Media." 



Virgil is the first among Latin writers to speak 

 of the citron, not, however, calling it by this 

 name, but, like Theophrastus, giving it the appel- 

 lation of Median apple. 



He says it is a large tree resembling the laurel, 

 whose leaves arc odoriferous and never fall, 

 whose flower sets easily, and whose precious 

 fruit, though its juice is sour and bitter, serves 

 among the Medes as a cure for poison, and is also 

 used to correct a fetid breath, and as a relief to 

 asthmatic old men. 



Pliny begins to give it several names ; he calls ( 

 it malus medica, malm a*yria, and citruA. He 

 says its leaf, which carries a thorn at its side, and 

 is of an excellent odor, is used by the Medes to 

 perfume clothes ; that its branches arc alw r ays 

 rovorod witli fruit: ^omo proon, others s 



