Mature by culture 1 , not forcing her by the graft, I have been able to obtain many 

 results, and to compare them with preceding phenomena, I have, also, attempted 

 experiments in order to find the secret cause of these results. I have operated upon 

 the flowers of the citrus, watching them from the moment of conception, in their 

 development, in their fructification, and in reproduction from their seeds. 



Upon observations and their consequences I have based a theory by which 1 have 

 arranged my classification, definitely fixing, by decisive experiments, the species, the 

 chief varieties, many hybrids, and nearly all the monsters. This theory I have elab- 

 orated in the first chapter of this work, and in the second I have shown its applica- 

 tion to the citrus. The third chapter offers a comparison and description of all these 

 beings. The monsters of the genus citrus have also furnished me an article in this 

 chapter, to which I have added remarks upon the species of India. Finally, the 

 history of the citrus has been the subject of my fourth chapter. My chief design has 

 been to throw light upon the physiological problems that I have tried to solve. To 

 this end I have sought to determine the different climates in which these species 

 were placed by Nature, and to discover by what degrees and in what manner they 

 were spread, mingled, and naturalized in the countries where we now see them. I 

 have endeavored to spy out the circumstances and causes which gave birth to the 

 crowd of varieties, or which have made them disappear. 



For the title to my book I have preferred the botanical name of this genus, 

 discarding, as savoring of the fabulous, the term Ilesperides, so often used by my 

 predecessors. I also use, in the course of this work, the ancient Italian word Ayrwni, 

 which comprehends all the species of this family. It is thought that this word was 

 borrowed by the writers of the sixteenth century, from the Arabs, who called their 

 fruits by a term denoting their acidity. It is certainly a name well chosen to dis- 

 tinguish this genus. 



