GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY. 



developed, others quite ripe ; but that no one cats 



I it, and that it is only used to protect clothing 

 from moths. He says the Parthians eat the seed 

 for perfuming the mouth, and adds, it is the only 

 plant boasted of in Media ; and vain attempts had 

 been made to transport it thence to Italy. This 

 ^description, which appears as if drawn from 

 Tkeophrastus, would imply that the citron was, 

 at that point of time, but a foreign production 

 / known only by name ; but many other passages 

 \ from Pliny teach us that this fruit had been car- 

 <ried from Persia to Rome, where it served in 

 ! medicine, chiefly as an antidote to poison, and 

 was in common use as a perfume for apparel, 

 and protection from moths. 



This naturalist reports that they found in the 

 tomb of King Numa books of papyrus, which 

 were uninjured, though entombed for five hun- 

 dred and thirty-five years, and that the preserva- 

 tion was attributed to the virtue of the citron. 

 / Such was, the use of this fruit among the Ro- 

 I mans for two centuries, and it was not until the 

 isJtime of Plutarch that they began to use it as food. 

 ^We know not whether it was eaten raw, or made 

 into confections with honey, \vhich was so greatly 

 \used among the Romans. 



Neither Plutarch, Atheneus, or Apicius in- 

 struct us upon this point. The first two tell us 

 that it was regarded as delicious food, but are si- 

 lent respecting the manner of eating it; and 

 A.picius, who devotes a chapter to it, in his 

 Treatise on Cooking, contents himself by telling 

 us in very few words the method of conserving 

 it, without saying whether it was eaten, although 

 he gives in another chapter a recipe for making 

 a roseate wine with its leaves. 



All these writers speak of it always as an ex- 

 otic fruit, and not until a long time after was it 

 naturalized in Italy. 



We do not know whether the rigor of our cli- 

 mate, which, in olden time, was colder than now, 

 retarded the naturalization of this beautiful tree, 

 or whether we should attribute the delay to the 

 difficulty of transporting it so far, in the centuries 

 when communication was so difficult and the 

 useful arts so little cultivated. 



The first of these conjectures would seem the 

 least likely, but finds in history more foundation 

 than the second. Communication was, indeed, 

 more difficult in those days, when navigation, 

 then in its infancy, lacked the mariner's com- 

 pass, and the manners and prejudices of the 

 more isolated peoples raised barriers among 

 themselves that civili/alion and philosophy have 

 since overthrown. But we also know'that the 

 luxurious demands of ih<- world's conquerors 

 had penetrated to the most remote regions, and 

 that nothing was spared which could augment 

 the delights of the effeminate Ciusars. 

 > Pliny tells us that attempts had been made to 

 S transport the citron in earthern vases, perforated 

 I to give air to the roots. This attempt, which the 

 L length of the voyage may have defeated, would 

 have been more successful if, instead of plants, 

 they had carried well-ripened fruit, of which 

 they might have sowed the seeds. But we can- 

 not suppose that the Romans, excelling as they 

 did in agriculture, were ignorant or neglectful 

 (if-it had been practicable) of a means so simple 

 and natural for placing in their gardens a fruit 

 so precious. There must, then, have been a 

 



greater obstacle to surmount, and this doubtless 

 was the climate. 



It would be easy to demonstrate by convincing 

 arguments that many European countries have 

 experienced in the revolution of centuries marked 

 alterations in the temperature of their climate. 

 The cultivation of the earth, the cutting of trees, 

 and drying of marshes, would produce, naturally, 

 this effect, but it is not necessary to recur to these 

 physical discussions in order to establish a fact 

 of which history gives us certain proof. 



Virgil, in his Georgics, says that in his time 

 it was necessary to cover the sheep in the Roman 

 field in order to prevent their perishing in winter. 



Pliny, the younger, in describing a field which 

 he owned in Tuscany, said that the cold was so 

 severe there that they could not cultivate the 

 olive, the myrtle, or other delicnte trees. 



Horace asserts that the streets of Rome were 

 full of ice and snow, and that in rigorous win- 

 ters the rivers, and even the rapid waters, were 

 covered by ice. 



Juvenal pictures-for us the superstitious female 

 breaking the ice to make the ablutions (a reli- 

 gious ceremony). 



Strabo reports that the vine made little growth 

 in the parts of France bordering on the ocean ; 

 and that if it grew at all in such places it never 

 bore fruit. 



Finally, a vast number of passages to be found 

 in old writings prove to us in an incontestable 

 mannner that the climate of Italy and France 

 was, in those long past times, much colder than 

 it is now. This was surely the obstacle which 

 hindered the ancients from acclimating in Europe 

 the citron, whose fruit was perfectly well known 

 to the Romans, and was to them an article of 

 luxury. 



But its cultivation would extend into Asia 

 Minor. The citron tree, originally from Media, 

 where the warm, damp climate favored its con- 

 tinual vegetation, was already cultivated in Per- 

 sia in the time of Theophrastus, and could have ; 

 been easily propagated in other provinces of this 

 Empire. 



Herodotus records that Nebuchadnezzar caused 

 the famous gardens of Babylon to be constructed 

 in compliment to his wife, w ? ho was accustomed 

 to the delightful climate of Media. Nothing 

 could be more natural than that upon this occa- 

 sion the citron be carried to Babylon, whence 

 it could be spread in the neighboring provinces. 

 At the time of Dioscorides it was, without doubt, 

 acclimated in Cilicia. This physician speaks of 

 it in a way to make us think it was naturalized 

 in the district where he lived. He calls it Pomme 

 dc, Media or cedrouit'lex, and says that the Latin.* 

 named it citron. 



Once cultivated in Cilicia, llic citron would, 

 naturally, soon be in Palestine, which at that i 

 point touched Persia, and had so many relations / 

 with that vast country. 



We have already said that as soon as the He- 

 brews knew of the tree, they devoted it to their 

 Feast of Tabernacles, in which their law ordered 

 them to carry the fruit of the finest tree ; and we 

 see by the Samaritan medals, reported by Otius, 

 that this usage was very ancient. 



Although it could not have been cultivated in 

 Palestine at that time, it is to he believed that 

 the Hebrews hastened to naturali/e in their own 



