GALLE^IO'S TREATISE OX THE CITRUS FAMILY. 



The orange appeared in Italy under the name 

 of orengea, which the people modified according 

 to the pronunciations of the different sections, 

 into arangio, naranzo, aranza, aranzo, citrone, cc- 

 trangolo, melarancio, melaiigolo, arancio. One 

 meets successively all these names in works of 

 the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, 

 such as those of Hugo Falcandus, Nicolas Spe- 

 cial is, Blondus Flavius, Sir Brunetto Latini, 

 Ciriffo Calvaueo, Bencivenni, Bocaccio, Giustini- 

 ani, Leandro Albert!, and several others. 



The Provencals also received this tree under 

 the name of orenges, and have changed it from 

 time to time in different provinces, into arangi, 

 nirange, orcnge, and finally orange. (See Glossary 

 of the Roman Lauguage/by Roquefort.) 



During several centuries the Latin authors 

 found themselves embarassed in designating this 

 fruit, which had no name in that language. The 

 iirst who spoke of it used a phrase indicating its I 

 characteristics, accompanying it w r ith the popu- 

 lar name of arangi, latinized into orenges, arnn- \ 

 </MX, arantium. 



Thus, Jacques de Vilry, who calls the oranges 

 />vi/ia cilrina, adds, " The Arabs call them 

 vrenges" And Nicolas Special is designated them 

 as pommes aigres (acripoiuorant, arboreb), ob- 

 serving that the people call them arangias, 

 These have been followed by Blondus Flavius 

 and many others. 



Matheus Silvaticus first gave to the orange the 

 name of citrangulum* and this denomination 

 seems to have been followed for a long time by 

 physicians and translators of Arabic works, who 

 have very generally adopted it for rendering the 

 Arab word, na/rincy. 



Thus, citranguluui was received for more Hum 

 a century in the language of science ; finally, lit- 

 tle by little, were adopted the vulgar, Latinized 

 names in use among other writers, such us au- 

 thors of chronicles, etc. ; and they have written 



hut what is this he calls nmlv-i ? Evidently it must be the 

 orange, 



Alberti, in his voyage to Italy 111,1528, uses the Italian 

 names of o.ntttfi, <<<! ri, rnn<m'i, etc.; but Giustiniani, who 

 in 1500 wrote the History of Genoa, in Italian, savoring of 

 the patois of his country, Uses names analogous to those 

 used by Hondio, long after. // It nU'/r'xt d'i x. /,', 

 he\ i mttopienodi <.-ifr<i'>Jiin'>n>. <-(r'i. < <//<>//:/. 



We easily recognize in these, the four species, now called 

 bigarade, lemon, citron, and orange. But writers \V<TC 

 slow to adopt them into living or dead languages, <;n-ek 

 or Lfftin; and there have been rigid purists, who liked 

 better to form new words drawn from the ancient name of 

 citrus, of which these <pe<-i, 's were regarded as modifica- 

 tions, rather than 1on.se these foreign words, thought to 

 be barbarisms. Thus were, created liie Latin \vord>. .;/- 

 i-(iiifjnl<i, c'ifi':i!'ift, i-'f fc/,.;, and !!" l':ili;i!i names ci(ran- 

 'fo'i, Cf front, i)>il(iii>i"lt, etc. 



In France, they have pushed tin* purism of language so 

 far as preserving to the lemon in ordinary laiiL'i; . 

 name of citron ; and have adopted the words linwnaae and 

 limonadier, because those who sold this drink came into 

 France during the ministry of Cardinal Ma/arin, and 

 knew no other than their Italian names. 



Of this we have proof in an in.junction to the IIIIIUIKI- 



dicri-; reported by Delamar in his Treatise of I'olire. 



where, speaking of these merchants, he .says: Un'i ('/<//">>'- 



in , tcitnl* >.>/><>**/// rttidit, iwcukrrwn, citreontm. pro- 



.y*</r/,....bkl, p. 204. 



No doubt the<e dfrei \\en- lemons, but this name was 

 considered a vulgar word, ;md. writing in Latin, one 

 thought he could hot, use another word than c'ttr't, which 

 uas regarded as the only technical term. It is in follow- 

 ing these principles that the word citron has continued to 

 be used for lemon, in the ordinary language of France. 



-Mat. Sil., Pandect* Medicinte, p. 5*. 



successively, amngium, aranci'un, arantium, an- 

 arantium,, nerantium, aurantium, ponium aureum. 



The Greeks followed in the same steps ; they 

 have either Gredauized the name of narenge, 

 which was in use among Syrian Arabs, or they 

 received it from the Crusaders from the Holy 

 Land, and have adopted it in their language, 

 calling it nerantzion* 



These have, however, always been considered 

 Vulgar names, and, in general, the better Latin 

 writers have made use of the generic name, 

 citrus, for designating the AgrumiT 



This usage, followed by most of the writers on 

 history and chorography, often occasions un- 

 certainty and difficulty in researches concerning 

 the beginning of this "culture in the different 

 countries where these trees have been intro- 

 duced.! 



* In the islands of the Archipelago they call the oran^o, 

 in common language, ntrica. 



t Etymologists of all nations have sought for the origin 

 of the names citrus, Hmon and aurantium. Persuaded that 

 these trees had been known, by Greeks and Romans, they 

 have expected to find them only in the languages of these 

 two peoples ; and this assumption has given oirth to all 

 conjectures concerning the origin of these words. 



We do not propose to examine separately each of the 

 etymologies offered ; it suffices for combating them that 

 we present the result of our research and observation. 



^^e are forced to admit that the citron was known very 

 anciently by the Greeks ; but they have never designated 

 it as other than Median apple (imntne de Medie), 



The word citrus did not pass into their language until 

 the second century of the Roman Empire, and in adopting 

 it they gave it a national termination (kitrion), just as the 

 Latins did upon receiving from them the name of pomm? 

 </e Mlie (m-aht medico). One cannot raise a doubt con- 

 cerning this fact, attested by Dioscorides, who tells us that 

 only among the Latins did the word citrus designate apple 

 of Media ; and by Phrisnicus Arabius a Sophist, and 

 cotemporary with the Emperor Commodus who says posi- 

 tively that in his time the Greeks had 'adopted this first 

 word as an ancient synonym (rnala medica, qua nunc 

 clfra appeUantur). 



It is, then, certain, from these two authors, that first, 

 the Greeks received the w^orcl citrus a long time after hav- 

 ing known the citron-tree ; secondly, that we can not find 

 its etymology in their language ; thirdly, it cannot belong 

 to the language of the country where the citron was indig- 

 enous, for in that case the Greeks Ayould have received it 

 with the tree, and given it to the Latins instead of gettin*" 

 it /V-mJhem. 



We have seen that the Latins themselves for a long time 

 knew the citron only as Apple of Media (mala medica). 

 They gave it the name of elf re* long after, and as a syno- 

 nym of the name received from the Greeks. 



This was not, however, a new word in the Latin tongue ; 

 it had been used a long time, and we find it in nearly all 

 t'ie writings of the pure age of literature; but it was not 

 devoted to the designation of the citron-tree, as they kne\f 

 nothing of it. It, was applied to the African tree' which 

 furnished the precious tables spoken of elsewhere. 



This would seem to indicate that the name originated 

 in the country from whence they came ; for the tree of 

 which they made the planks must have had a name among 

 the natives, and the merchants who sold these to the Ro- 

 mans could not but call them by that name. Therefore, it 

 necessarily passed into the language of the conquerors, just 

 a- the names of most of the American and Asiatic plants 

 have passed with the plant, or the fruit, into our modern 

 languages. 



Tliis conjecture is so natural that it seems to me to re. 

 quire no proof. It is more difficult to explain how this 

 name was applied to the citron-tree. 



Ancient writers furnish no passage which can throvr 

 light upon this obscure point ; but they offer some conjec- 

 ture's well founded. The Romans had very vague ideas of 

 the tree called African citn/n, and also of the citronicr 

 they thought of them merely as precious plants furnishing 

 them luxurious objects. 



In the infancy of botany, when they had but very impe 

 feet notions of objects, it was easy to confound tiier.i, e. - ii 

 to persuade themselves that a tree v.-ix; j wood was 

 liable ought to produce fruit of ;, cat jnw. 



Many circumstances favored u-ia i&Isz <rviwr;. 

 Citnus of Africa had for ^ome tim fomishwu 



