GALLESIOVS TREATISE OX THK CITRUS FAMILY. 



to be plucked for preserving they should be | 

 taken from the tree, with hough and leaf, in a 

 night when there is no moon, and placed sepa- 

 rately, the one from the other, so they do not 

 touch. Some persons put each one into a vase 

 by itself, seal the vases with plaster, and leave 

 them iii a dark place ; others save; them in saw- 

 dust from cedar wood, or in such straw as is u~ed 

 to thatch the trees in winter." 

 *~ Progress thus marked could not but be the re- j 

 .suit of a long course of years; therefore we must ' 

 date the introduction of the citron tree into Italy 

 from a period more than a century before Palla- 

 dius. 



Historians are not agreed upon the time in 

 which Palladiua flourished. 



The monks of St. Maur, in the history of 

 French literature, insist that the writer of the 

 book bearing the name Palladius was a son of 

 Esuperantius, prefect of the Gauls, a native of 

 Poictiers, of whom Rutilius speaks in his Itiner- 

 ary, and who lived in the fifth century. Others 

 have attributed the book to a Palladius who wrote 

 in the reign of Tiberius. I at first thought that 

 the opinion of the learned Benedictines should be 

 set aside, because the writer upon the citron 

 taught us that he himself had possessions in Na- 

 ples and Sardinia ; but, after a little reflection, I 

 see that it is easy to reconcile their opinion with 

 this fact. 



The Roman conquests had made of the world 

 but a single family ; it was then not impossible for 

 an inhabitant of "Poictiers to have domains in 

 Sardinia and Naples. Moreover, I have ob- 

 served that Palladius often speaks of Apulia, 

 who wrote, according to Vossius, about the year 

 218, under the Emperor Macrinus ; he would, 

 then, be posterior to this philosopher. This fact 

 might place our agricultural writer iu the third 

 century of the Christian era, but as his name 

 does not occur in any writings of that time, and 

 as his Latin savors of the decay of taste, I readily 

 believe that he is the Palladius of Poictiers who 

 lived in the fifth century, according to the authors 

 of the literary history of France. 



In adopting this conjecture, otherwise well 

 founded, we shall fix the transmigration of the 

 } citron into Italy between the third and fourth 

 century of our era. But many other proofs con- 

 firm me in this opinion. 



Florcntinus, a Greek writer on agriculture of 

 the third century, speaks of the citron as a tree 

 .cultivated not only in warm districts, but also in 

 climates where it needed shelter. 



In his tenth book he expresses himself thus of 

 the citron : " The citron-tree should be planted 

 near walls so as to be protected on the north. 

 In winter it is necessary to cover it with mounds 

 of straw and the vines of gourds. Rich persons 

 who live in magnificence and luxury plant the 

 citron under porticos open to the south, based 

 upon walls, and they water it abundantly. In 

 summer they open the portico so that the sun 

 can penetrate it to enliven and warm these plants. 

 They cover them at the approach of winter." 



The citron, then, was already in Greece at the 

 time of Florentinus, an ornament in the pleasure- 

 gardens of the great. Why should it not have 

 been in Rome and in Naples, where the riches 

 and effeminacy of the court and princes had 

 concentrated splendor and extravagance ; also in 



Sardinia and in Sicily where the mildness of the 

 climate was so favorable to its culture? The re- 

 lations of these countries neighbors and united 

 under one government were then so intimate 

 and so multiplied that it was not possible for the 

 citron, already valued at Rome, to be cultivated 

 in the gardens of Greece, and not in the delight- 

 ful fields of Sicily, of the Campngna of Rome, 

 and of Tusculum. 



We must think it probable, then, that this ^ 

 plant, already in Asia Minor and Palestine at the y 

 time of Dioscorides and Josephus. passed into f 

 Italy about the third century, and that in the 

 time of Palladiua it was grown not only in parts 

 of Italy, whose climate would allow it to grow in 

 the open air, but also in districts less warm, 

 where the luxury and magnificence of Roman 

 grandees built country houses, embellished by 

 art, at great expense. 



I would not dare to assert that the citron was j 

 at this time cultivated in Liguria and Provence, j 

 These districts, which owe so little to nature and ; 

 so much to industry, had not begun to flourish 

 until after the barbaric invasions. 



Maritime commerce created the greater num- 

 ber of the small cities, ornamenting since many 

 centuries the steep rocks of Liguria ; they date, 

 for the most part, after the eighth century, and 

 their agriculture, which resulted from their com- 

 mercial success, did not begin to prosper until 

 the ninth century of our era. 



Liguria was in her greatest vigor at the tenth 

 century, but she was so small at the time of which 

 we have been speaking that we cannot believe an 

 exotic plant was cultivated there which would 

 denote a certain degree of civilization not to be 

 found in Liguria at that time. 



The culture of this tree made backward steps 

 in the part of Italy where the climate had not 1 

 permitted it to become naturalized. / 



The barbarians, who effaced all traces of lux- 

 ury in overturning the delightful houses of the 

 rich Romans, would destroy this vegetable wher- i 

 ever it exacted care and expense for its existence, ' 

 but it might still prosper in the isles of the Archi- 

 pelago, in Sicily, iu Sardinia, and iu a large part 

 of the Kingdom of Naples, countries remaining 

 under the dominion of the Greeks, and where 

 political catastrophes had not power to exercise 

 their ravages upon its culture, it being there no 

 longer a tree of luxury, but a naturalized plant, 

 existing by the cares of Nature. 



It was, then, from these countries that the Ligu- \ 

 rians took the citron in the ninth or tenth ceutu- \ 

 ries, since at that time they covered the Mediter- I 

 ranean with their vessels and began to contend / 

 with the Venetians for the commerce of the East. / 



In 1003 we find the citron much cultivated at 

 Salerno, from whence a prince of the country 

 sent it as a gift to some Norman lords who had 

 delivered him from the Saracens. And we know 

 that Liguria, which has always had commercial 

 relations with the coast of Naples, has, for many 

 centuries, provided the Jews of Italy, France, 

 and Germany with citrons. 



The Riviera di Salo, since so celebrated for this 

 culture, had not begun to know of the citron 

 until several centuries after. Still later, it was 

 extended to Mentone and Hyeres, and not until 

 the fifteenth century has if been grown iu the 

 colder parts of Europe. 



