GALLES10\S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY. 



Pliny is, perhaps, the first to use citrus as 

 a synonym of pomme de medie, but he gives it 

 also to the citre atlantiqiie, and it is because of 

 an error in some translations we see arbor cedri. 

 The more exact editions have arbor citri. 



It is difficult to determine what has caused 

 this confusion. It is not to be attributed to any 

 similarity between the plants, when the descrip- 

 tions left us by the ancients prove that they 

 were really two very different species. 



We have already seen what Theophrastus, 

 Virgil and Pliny have said of the citron. I will 

 now examine what Pliny says of the citre atlan- 

 ti<iuc\ " The citre," he says, (book 13,) " is a tree 

 resembling the wild female Cyprus in leaf, in 

 color, and in general appearance." The Cyprus, 

 among botanists, has not trees male and trees 

 female; it is a monoscian plan!, carrying the 

 two sexes upon one foot, but there is a variety 

 known among cultivators as the female tree, 

 having spreading branches. It seems the an- 

 cients called this cypres male. They designate 

 under the name of cypres femellc, the ordinary 

 Cyprus, regarded by us as the type of the spe- 

 cies, and in our countries, called male Cyprus. 



Millar says that the Cyprus with spreading 

 branches is a peculiar species ; but all accustomed 

 to cultivate it, consider it as a variety, and I can 

 affirm that I have seen this spreading Cyprus 

 grow among pyramidal Cyprus, in seed-beds, 

 where the seed had been gathered from Cyprus, 

 very close and smooth. 



This is one of the facts which have driven me 

 to search for the cause of these aberrations to be 

 seen among all plants. But, whatever may be 

 said of this variety, it is always certain that the 

 citre of Africa resembles the Cyprus, and that it 

 has a pyramidal form, very smooth, which dis- 

 tinguishes it from juniper and arbor-vitre. 



We must then ascertain if there exists a spe- 

 cies of Cyprus whose wood is beautiful enough 

 to make these precious tables, costing, as Pliny 

 says, one million four hundred sesterces ($56,- 

 000.) 



On reflecting upon the description of this fur- 

 niture by the Latin naturalist, it appears to me 

 that its beauty depended not so much upon the 

 natural quality of the tree, as upon accidents 

 which accompany, nearly always, the part of its 

 wood of which they were made. 



Pliny says the tables were made of the roots, 

 or the knots of the trees, and adds that they were 

 esteemed because of the veins of different colors, 

 or of irregular and capricious waves with which 

 they were mottled, and which gave them a re- 

 semblance to the skin of a tiger, or panther, or 

 even to the tail of the peacock. 



Now these waves and veins are in the roots of 

 most of these trees, and chiefly in protuberances 

 or exostoses, produced perhaps by a derange- 

 ment in the course of the sap. We see it in all 

 the species in our southern climate, and princi- 

 pally in the stump or the roots of the olive, the 

 walnut, the box-tree, and in knots and bunches 

 of woods most sought by the cabinet-maker. It 

 would be nothing strange if these precious tables 

 were made of the ordinary cypress, which, grown 

 in Africa, has perhaps more color. 



We can believe that at this period, Mt. Atlas 

 was still covered with those old trees which date 

 from the creation, and whose roots have ac- 



quired in the long course of centuries, remarka- 

 ble peculiarities due to old age. 



The forests of Madeira and of America offer 

 like examples; they have furnished, and still 

 supply, trees of immense size and rare beauty. 

 But they vanish with time, and their description 

 will be for our posterity an object of admiration, 

 astonishment and doubt. 



Pliny says Mount Ancorarius, which had been 

 so famous for its trees, offered none in his time. 



Perhaps the Cyprus of Mount Ancorarius is of 

 the same species as that foifnd in Southern 

 America, known as vypres chart ve, (cupresms di*- 

 ticlta, L.) 



This tree (Dupraz' History of Louisana) grows 

 to a great size, and has protuberances or exosto- 

 ses, which, at intervals, cross the roots, and 

 grow above the surface of the ground, like boun- 

 dary posts. This coincides with what Pliny 

 said of the African citre, in speaking of Nomio's 

 table, which was nearly four feet in diameter. 



However this maybe, it is certain that tho 

 African citre has nothing in common with our 

 citron ; this tree furnishes no wood much de- 

 sired by cabinet- workers ; we never see it in the 

 work-shops of Europe, where it does not attain 

 sufficient size to make planks, and where the 

 wood of it could only be had after frost had 

 killed the tree, in which case it would scarcely 

 be fit for working. j 



The few we know have qualities making them 

 as precious as the tables of the ancients. And 

 we think that though the citron tree may be 

 more abundant in Media, yet its wood is by na- 

 ture the same as ours. 



The orange tree has not enough trunk to be 

 serviceable as wood. It owes to its branches, 

 which spread themselves, its resemblance to the 

 walnut ; when despoiled of these, it presents very 

 little wood fit for use. According to Herrera 

 the orange and lemon of Spain have but little 

 wood. The orange is sometimes used for delicate 

 inlaid work ; it is very beautiful and durable. 



Perhaps they also use the wood in India, but 

 in Europe 1 think furniture has never been made 

 of it. I have worked some small pieces, and 

 find that it receives polish, and that its clear yel- 

 low color is pretty, but it is not remarkably so. 



But the citre presents no other likeness than its 

 name, which has a singular identity with that of 

 the citron ; and the thyam, whose name has no 

 sort of connection with either citron or lemon, 

 shows only some equivocal features which might 

 arrest attention, but, on examination, have noth- 

 ing in common with the lemon. Pliny, who is 

 the only one to speak of the tfiyam, made a vague 

 description of it, yet explicit enough to distin- 

 guish it from the lemon. He says : " The plant 

 was sought by one, and rejected with horror by 

 another, because of its odor and its bitterness, 

 and some use it as an ornament to houses." 

 PLINY, bk. 13, c. 16. 



These characteristics do not belong to the 

 lemon. It is, in truth, very proper to adorn 

 houses, either on the outside, disposed against a 

 trellis, or within, placed in vases for decorating 

 apartments ; but surely no person ever rejected 

 with horror the lemon for its odor, which is most 

 sweet, or for the bitterness of the skin, which is 

 corrected by an aroma so agreeable, and which 



