UALLKSIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY. 



4r, 



subject, and to determine the (Lite of this event. ' 

 It accords with all the data just given, and with \ 

 historic facts that we have collected. He ex- ; 

 presses himself thus : "The round citron (otrodj ) 

 modawar) was brought from India since thtxycar j 

 three hundred of the Hegira. It was first sowed ! 

 in Oman, (part of Arabia, Trans.,) from thence I 

 carried to Irak, (part of Old Persia, Trans.} and i 

 Syria, becoming very common in the houses of 

 Tarsus and other frontier cities of Syria, at An- j 

 tioch, upon the coasts of Syria, in Palestine and j 

 in Egypt. One knew it not before, but it lost j 

 much of the sweet odor and fine color which it 

 had in India, because it had not the same climate, 

 soil, and all that which is peculiar to that coun- 

 try." 



The lemon appeared perhaps a little later in 

 these different countries, for we see no mention 

 of it either in the Damascene or in Avicenna, j 

 but its description meets our eye in all the works 

 of Arabian writers of the twelfth century ; espe- 

 cially in Ebn-Beitar, who has given to it'an arti- 

 cle in his dictionary of simple remedies. The 

 Latin translation of this article was published in 

 Paris in 1702 by Andres Baluuense. The Impe- 

 rial library contains several manuscripts of this 

 dictionary. 



I had thought to have found proof that the 

 lemon was known by the Arabs in the ninth 

 century ; having seen in a history of India and 

 China, dated 238 of the Hegira (A. D. 860, T.\ of 

 which a French translation was printed in Paris 

 in 1718, the writers had spoken of the lemon as a 

 fruit found in China. But M. de Sacy, who ex- 

 amined the original, ascertained that the word 

 limon was inserted by the translator; in the Ara- 

 bian text one finds only that of at/'odj, which sig- 

 nifies merely citron. Therefore this history,* far 

 from proving that the Arabs knew the lemon- 

 tree at this period, proves quite the contrary. 



It was not until the tenth century of our era 

 that this warlike people enriched with these trees 

 the garden of Oman (in southeastern Arabia, 

 TV.), whence they were propagated in Palestine 

 and Egypt. From these countries they passed 

 into Barbary and Spain; perhaps, also, into 

 Sicily. 



Leon of Ostia tells us that in 1002 a prince of 

 Salerna presented citrine apples (poma citrina) 

 to the Norman princes who had rescued him 

 from the Saracens.f 



The expression, poma citrina, used by this au- 

 thor, appears to me to designate fruit like the 

 citron rather than the citron itself, then known 

 under the name of citri, or of mala medica. It is 

 thus that we should recognize the orange in the 

 citron rond spoken of by Massoudi in a passage al- 

 ready quoted. 



This conjecture accorded with known events 

 and data. The Arabs invaded Sicily about the 

 beginning of the ninth century (828 ); the orange 

 was taken from India to Arabia after the year 

 300 of the Hegira that is to say, early in the 

 ninth century of our era ; the citrine apples of 

 Leon d'Ostia date from 1,002, and were regarded 

 as objects rare and precious enough to be offered 



*The original of this history is in tho Imperial librnry. 

 >[. Laugjles, a learned orientalist, is preparing; anew t ran <- 

 lation to be printed at the Imperial pre**. 



Li-o Ostiensis. bk. 2. c. 38. A. D. 1002. 



as gifts to princes. Thus we have between its 

 introduction into Arabia and propagation in 

 Sicily an interval of nearly a century. In order 

 to conform to the expression of Massoudi, let us, 

 suppose that the orange tree was brought from 

 Arabia some thirty .or forty years later say 

 about 330 of the Hegira ; if we allow fifty years 

 for its propagation in Palestine, Egypt and Bar- 

 briry, and finally twenty years for its naturaliza- 

 tion in Sicily, we fill precisely the interval be- 

 tween one epocji and the other. 



A passage in the History of Sicily, by Nicolas 

 Specialis, written in the fourteenth century, 

 gives still more probability to this opinion. 



This writer, in recounting the devastation by 

 the army of the Duke of Calabria in 1383, in the 

 vicinity'of Palermo, says that it did not spare 

 even the trees of sour apples (pommes acides,) 

 called by the people arangi, which had adorned 

 since old times the royal palace of Otibba. 

 (Nicolas Specialis, bk 7, c. 17.) 



The name (Jubba, given to this royal pleasure- 

 house, seems to refer to the time of the Arab 

 rule; it is probably derived from the Arabic 

 word cobbah, meaning vault or arch. Perhaps 

 some grand dome upon this country-house gave 

 the place its name. 



These data, however, do not appear to me 

 sufficiently strong to combat the authority of a 

 very reliable historian, who says expressly that 

 the lemon and the orange trees were not known 

 in Italy or France, or in other parts of Christian 

 Europe, in the eleventh century. 



Such are the words of Jacques de Vitry, in 

 speaking of Syrian trees, in his History of Jeru- 

 salem. The testimony of this bishop, who ought 

 to have known these countries, would appear to 

 have more weight than simple conjectures based 

 upon reasonings from analogy. 



Whatever be the authority of this historian, 

 compared with the presumptions advanced by 

 us with regard to Sicily, it will always be decis- 

 ive respecting Lake Garcia and the coasts of Li- 

 guria and Provence. 



There is not a doubt that in these last named 

 countries the lemon and orange were unknown, 

 not only in the tenth but even in the eleventh 

 century. 



But an extraordinary event, destined to change 

 the face of Europe, was to open anew to the peo- 

 ple of the West the entrance to Syria and Pales- 

 tine. 



This was also the time when the Crusades, 

 which began at the close of the eleventh century 

 (1,096, Tr.\ reawakened among Europeans the 

 spirit of commerce and a taste for arts and lux- 

 ury. 



The Crusaders entered Asia Minor as con- 

 querors, and thence spread themselves as traders 

 into all parts of Asia. They were not mere 

 soldiers, but brave men drawn from their fami- 

 lies by religious enthusiasm, and who, in conse- 

 quence, would hold fast to their country and 

 their homes. 



They could not see without coveting these 

 charming trees which embellished the vicinity of 

 Jerusalem, with whose exquisite fruits Nature has 

 favored the climates of Asia. 



It was, indeed, at this time that Europe en- 

 riched its orchards by many of these trees, and 

 that the French princes carried into their conn- 



