GALLESIO'S TREATISE OX THE CITRUS FAMILY. 



Egypt, which soon followed the invasion of 

 Arabia by the Barbarians of the West (Ethio- 

 pians, T.). 



The commerce of these rich lauds must then 

 have taken a much longer and more dangerous 

 route. The traders were obliged, after going 

 down the^ndus, to reascend that stream, and 

 by the Bactria (Balkh) to roach the Oxus and 

 finally, by the last, pass into the Caspian Sea, 

 from whence they went into the Black Sea by 

 the river Don. 



But this long and dangerous voyage was never 

 undertaken by the traders of Constantinople: 

 they would not have been able to traverse with 

 safety such an extent of country, partly a desert, 

 and in part inhabited by wandering tribes, most 

 of them nations with whom they were nearly 

 always at war, and who were destined, in the 

 end, to swallow the Greek Empire. 



They therefore limitedUheinselves to receiving 

 upon the borders of the Caspian sea, the mer- 

 chandise of India, brought to them by interme- 

 diate people. 



One can scarcely realize that in such a state of 

 affairs the orange tree could pass into Europe, 

 for this beautiful partjof the world had never 

 been in so general disorder or had so little inter- 

 course with India. Her luxury and commerce 

 were nearly annihilated, and the Arabians, whom 

 the new religion of Mahomet rendered fanatics 

 and conquerors, menaced, on one side the tot- 

 tering empire of the Greeks, and on the other 

 threatened to plunge into barbarism the West, 

 just beginning to be civilized. Yet it was pre- 

 cisely at this point of time, and by the conquer- 

 ing spirit of this people, that the great changes 

 were prepared which should revive and extend 

 farther than ever before the commercial relations 

 of Europe with Asia, and of Asia herself with 

 the more distant regions of her own continent. 



The Arabs, placed in a country which binds 

 together three grand divisions of the globe, have 

 extended their conquests into Asia and Africa, 

 much farther than any people before them. 

 Masters of the Red sea and Mediterranean, they 

 had invaded all the African coast this side of At- 

 las, and penetrated beyond to the region of the 

 Troglodytes (Ethiopians living in caves Trans.), 

 the ancient limit of the Roman establishments on 

 the east coast of this Continent ; they had made 

 settlements there, and according to the testimony 

 of a historian of the country, cited by Barros, they 

 had populated in the fourth century of the He- 

 gira (A. D. 944), the towns of Brava, Mombas, 

 and Quiloa, whence they extended themselves to 

 Sofalo, Melinda, and to the islands of Bemba, 

 Zanzibar, Monfra, Comoro, and St. Laurent. 

 On the side of Asia they had carried their con- 

 quests, in the third century of the Hegira, to 

 the extremities of the Relnahar.and towards the 

 middle of the fourth century, under the Seluci- 

 da3, they had established a colony at Kashgar, 

 the usual route of caravans to Toorkistan or to 

 China, and which, according to Albufeda (a 

 geographer and historian, of Damascus, Tram.), 

 is situated in long. 87 deg. (7o dog., 57 min. j 

 Trans.), consequently they had penetrated very 

 far into Asia. 



Never had there been in Asia <tn empire so 

 vast, and never had the commerce of nations so 

 near Europe been pushed as far into India. 



A position thus advantageous and favorable to 

 the commercial spirit and love of luxury which 

 succeeded, among the Arabs, the fury of con- 

 quest, would naturally cause them to learn of 

 and to appropriate many exotic p*lants peculiar to 

 the regions they had conquered, or to the ad- 

 joining countries. 



Fond of medicine and agriculture, in which 

 they have specially excelled, and of the pleas- 

 ures of the open country, in which they have al- 

 ways delighted, they continued to profit with 

 eagerness from the advantages offered by their 

 settlements and the hot climates which they in- 

 habited. 



Indeed, it is to them that we owe the knowl- 

 edge of many plants, perfumes, and Oriental aro- 

 matics, such as musk, nutmegs, mace and cloves. 



It was the Arabs who naturalized in Spain, 

 Sardinia, and Sicily the cotton-tree of Africa, and 

 the sugar-cane of India ; and in their mediciifts 

 we for the first time hear of the chemical change 

 known as distillation, which appears to have 

 originated in the desire to steal from nature the 

 perfumes of flowers and aroma of fruits. 



It is, then, not surprising that we are indebted 

 to them for the acclimatization of the orange, 

 and lemon-trees, in Syria, Africa, and some Eu- 

 ropean islands. 



It is certain that the orange was known to 

 their physicians from the commencement of the 

 fourth century of the Hegira. The Damascene 

 has given, in his Antidotary, the recipe for mak- 

 ing oil, with oranges, and their seeds (oleum dc 

 citranrj-ula, et oleum dc- citrnngulorum seminibus. 

 Mat. Silv., f. 58), and Avicenna* who died in 428 

 of the Hegira (1050), has added the juice of the 

 bigarade to his syrup of alkedere, " et sued ace- 

 tositatis citri (otrodj), et succi acetositatis citranguli 

 (narendj)." 



These two Arabians seem to have first em- 

 ployed it in medicine. I have examined with 

 care the authors of this nation who preceded 

 these, and find in no other the least hint relating 

 to these species. Mesue, even, who speaks ot 

 the citron, says not a word of orange or lemon.-' 



1 have observed, on the contrary, that Avi- 

 cenna, in giving his recipe for making syrup of 

 alkedere, in which he puts juice of the bigarade, 

 announces it as a composition of his own in veil - 

 tion.j- 



This circumstance would indicate that this 

 fruit had been known but a short time in Persia ; 

 but it suffices that it was cultivated there to 

 prove that it might, at once, pass into Irak (prob- 

 ably Irak-Arabee, in Asiatic Turkey, comprising 

 Bagdad, Tran*.), and into Syria. These countries, 

 which joined, were also connected by political 

 ties, which facilitate communication, and their 

 inhabitants were more civilized then than before 

 or since. 



A passage by Massoudi, reported by the 

 learned M. de Sacy in the notes to his translation 

 of Abd-Allatif, a writer of the twelfth century 

 of our era, seems to confirm our ideas upon this 



* Moue, who was of .Syria, appear* to bo. the first to men- 

 tion confects of citron, but he xys nothing of the lemon 

 or orange. Sylvius, who commented on him, observer 

 that these confections were more efficacious than those of 

 oranges (amnciwwiD. irhicli are, Jtoicew, much used. 



\- Avicenna, bk. .">. page <2M> Edition of Von ice, by Val- 

 urisiimi. 15ti4. 



