<;A1,LKSIO'S TKKAT1SK ON TIIK ('ITEM'S FAMILY. 



I! 



medica. It is impossible to apply to it the de- 

 scriptions made of this tree by Theophrastus, 

 Virgil, Pliny, and the most part of those who 

 have copied them ; and if this opinion has some 

 seeming foundation, in regard to the lemon, it is 

 entirely inadmissible for the orange. The more 

 judicious writers have seen the falsity of it, but 

 have imagined another hypothesis no better 

 founded. I 



It was an old prejudice, generally received 

 among cultivators, that in grafting successfully 

 one species upon another, either new species were 

 obtained, or extraordinary fruit, which resembled 

 at the same time two species. They attribute to 

 this operation, which they consider very difficult 

 of success, the varieties produced by fertilization, 

 and of which they did not know the origin. 



This opinion was also adopted by the Arabs. 

 Abd-Allatif tells us that in Egypt it was believed 

 " that the banana tree came originally from the 

 mingling of the colocasie and the stone of the 

 date, and to produce this composite vegetable it 

 is necessary to bury a date-stone in the interior 

 of a colocasie, and thus to plant it." 



Prosper Alpin reports the same opinion in 

 another manner, and instructs us concerning the 

 belief that was held in this country relative to 

 the sycamore (Jicus sycomoriis. L.), which was 

 regarded as the product of a graft of fig tree up- 

 on the mulberry. He said that some pretend 

 that the banana (m>.isa paradisiaca. L.) was the 

 product of a graft of sugar-cane upon the colo- 

 casie (arum colocama. L.). See the translation 

 of Abd-Allatif, by M. de .Sacy, pp. 28 and 105. 



This prejudice or opinion applies chiefly to 

 sterile varieties of plants, and the cultivated ba- 

 nana is of this number; it is a genuine monster, 

 due to fecundation, and in which the fruit is 

 improved at the expense of the seed. We know 

 that its type exists in India, and there multiplies 

 by seed. It is not cultivated in gardens, because 

 its fruit is not as good as that of the sterile 

 variety. 



The old writers are full of methods relative 

 to these operations, and of ridiculous recipes to 

 sweeten fruits of a disagreeable taste, or " to 

 change their color. Some have applied these 

 fancies to the orange, and many authors have 

 thought that this tree owed its origin to the cit- 

 ron grafted upon the pomegranate or the mul- 

 berry, and that the sweetness of these fruits was 

 but the effect of careful culture received in our 

 gardens. 



I might report a great number of passages 

 proving how much this opinion was believed. I 

 will, however, limit myself to the following : 



Bauhin, in his " Theatre de Botanique," after 

 having said that to obtain the dwarf orange one 

 must graft it upon the citron tree, adds that the 

 orange, unknown to the ancients, is but the 

 product of an extraordinary graft. Salmasius, in 

 his notes to Solinus, says the same thing. It is 

 also the opinion of Nicolas Monardes, cited by 

 Clusius, who insists that the orange is the pro- 

 duct of a graft of citron entered upon the pome- 

 granate. 



This opinion still exists in the mind of many 

 cultivators with respect to the red-fruited orange 

 and the bizarrerie, and all plants which offer 

 singular varieties. One has but to read the 

 notes to the Italian translation of the " Elements 



of Agriculture," by Miti'Tinclm-, vol. 2, p. 201, 

 to be convinced of this. 



\Ve have already, in the early part of this book, 

 shown how this opinion is without foundation, 

 it is based upon no well known fact, and a thou- 

 sand experiences unite to disprove it. However, 

 ignorance of the true cause of these varieties and 

 extraordinary productions, has credited it, and 

 with the necessity for assigning a cause for a 

 phenomenon recognized as really existing, this 

 system was received even by physicians and nat- 

 uralists. 



These principles have also been applied to the 

 lemon, which some have thought was the result 

 of culture and extraordinary grafts. I have al- 

 ready demonstrated that this plant cannot owe 

 its existence to fecundation, since it has features 

 peculiar to itself, which are constantly reproduced 

 by seed, and which make it known as a mother 

 species. There only remains for me to prove that 

 it was not known to the ancients, either under 

 the generic name of mala medica, or any other 

 i appellation. 



The Persian apples described by Theophrastus 

 and Pliny bear all the characteristics which be- 

 i long to the citron, and we do not see that any old 

 I writer has observed that there existed two kinds. 

 | This could not have escaped Palladius, Florenti- 

 | nus, Conslantiue, Galen, or Dioscorides, who, 

 I either as writers on agriculture, or as physicians, 

 ought to have appreciated the difference bet ween 

 i the lemon and citron, in their relation toagricul- 

 : t lire, 'ns well as to medicine. Therefore their 

 : silence should be considered, in good criticism, 

 as not only a negative proof, but as positive data ; 

 i while the exclusive mention they have made of 

 I the properties of this species of fruit, without 

 i presenting any of those which could belong to 

 I the lemon, suffices to give to our conjecture the 

 ! character of certainty. 



Pliny's Natural History speaks of two plants 

 I seeming to the casual glance to have points of 

 resemblance with the citrus one is the ritre of 

 | Africa, the other the tliyam. 



The following occurs as a foot-note in the 

 original : 



Among the writers who have spoken of the 

 tables of citre (citrea 4?ttAM,Petrt>nL)of which the 

 i ancients made so great account, some have 

 | thought that they were of the wood of the cit- 

 I ron, others, of the juniper, the arbor-vita, the 

 savin, the acacia, or the almug of Scripture. (1st 

 Kings, 10, 12.) 



But nothing else than the identity of name 

 and exorbitant price of these tables among ih<> 

 Romans could have given rise to these two opin- 

 ions, equally unfounded. 



It is very true that the word ctirua has been 

 indifferently employed by the Latins, to desig- 

 nate the African citre., (dint* fybira, Varron ; 

 citrus fittantica. Martial ; and the citron tree of 

 Media, citrus medica.) 



We have of this many examples, not admit- 

 ing of doubt; nevertheless, it appears that this 

 name belonged originally to the eilre of Africa, 

 and was given to the citron long after as a syn- 

 onym of apple of Media. All the writers of the 

 Augustan era have applied it only to the dire of 

 Africa. We see thiTin Horace, 'Martial, Petro- 

 nius and Lucan. 



