GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY. 



tree in Italy. Cujus ager (San Remo), these are 

 his words, est citri, palmaqua!, arborum in Italia 

 rarimmarum, ferat. (Blond. Flav.,Ital. Illust., 

 p. 296.) 



Lastly, Pierre de Crescenzi, Senator of Bolog- 

 na, who wrote in 1300 a treatise on agriculture, 

 speaks only of the citron tree. We find in his 

 expressions no hint of lemon or orange. 



The culture of these trees, then, had been be- 

 gun, in the fourteenth century, only in a few 

 places, but was extended in proportion as arts 

 and luxury advanced the civilization of Europe. 



The orange was from the first valued not 

 alone for the beauty of its foliage and quality of 

 its fruit, of which the juice was used in medi- 

 cine, but also for the aroma of its flowers, of 

 which essences were made.* 



Pharmacists have employed with success the 

 juice of lemon in making medicines.f 



The orange-tree must have been taKen to Prov- 

 ence about the time it entered Liguria. It is to 

 be presumed that the city of Hyeres, so cele- 

 brated for the softness of its climate and the fer- 

 tility of its soil, received it from the Crusaders, 

 because from this port the expeditions to the 

 Holy Land took their departure. 



We see, indeed, that it was greatly multiplied 

 there, and in 1566 the plantations of oranges 

 within its territory were so extensive and well- 

 grown as to present the aspect of a forest.:}: 



The territory of Nice, so advantageously placed 

 between Liguria aud Provence, would necessa- 

 rily receive from its neighbors a tree so suited 

 to the softness of its climate, sheltered by the 

 Alps, and to the nature of its soil, fertilized by 

 abundant waters. It appears that the culture 

 had already greatly extended towards the mid- 



* From the moment the orange was known, it was used 

 in medicine ; Avicenna appears to be the first who used it 

 in making his syrup of Alkadere, of which he was the in- 

 ventor. The Damascene (in Antidotario) began to draw 

 oil from it, and from it? seed. (Ol'-mn <1? ottranffulis. d 

 <>l<<nm de citranr/iilonnn, memimbus. Silv., p. 58.) But 

 nothing was so desirable as the perfumes made of its flow- 

 ers ; they surpass in sweetness those of the other species. 



Medicine and perfumery have made, and still make, 

 great consumption of these flowers. 



t The lemon has been employed also in medicine. Sil- 

 vaticus regards it as an excellent remedy against worms, 

 and say sthe mothers of Piedmont and Nice made great use 

 of it for the children. He commends the virtues of its 

 skin and of the syrup from its juice for the nausea of preg- 

 nant women, and the pestilential fevers. 



But the most common use of this fruit was as a season- 

 ing for food ; this usage existed in Palestine in the time of 

 Jacques de VI try (See Hist. Orient., p. I70K Tt had reached 

 Sicily in the time of Hugo Falcandus ; and Silvnticus 

 teaches us that this use of the lemon was all over Italy. 

 i See Mat, Silv., Pand. Med., fol. 125.) 



It appears that not until some time after did they begin 

 to make the drink known as UmonacU . 



This drink originated among the Orientals. It pas-ed 

 into Italy about the middle of the fourteenth century, and 

 Into France not until the time of Cardinal Mazarin. 

 Menage, Diet. Etymol.). 



At this time drinking-shopp were opened in Paris, where 

 the public found refreshments composed of sugared water 

 and lemon juice. 



These merchants were called liwonctrtuTK. from the drink 

 they sold. They were united a.-* ;i body of tradesmen in 

 1678. In the regulations of police, the name of /tnK>inli< /* 

 is also applied to the coffee-seller*. 



Wc read in an ancient book, entitled "Collection of 

 words, during the voyage of King Charles IX.. now iviu'n- 

 ing, accompanied by tiling worthy of memory, Ac./by 

 Abel Jovan, printed at Toulouse in 1566," the following 

 passage: "The king made his entry said day into the rity 



of Hyeres Around this city there is so great an 



abundance of oranges and palms and pears and other 

 trees, which bear cotton, that they are like n fort^t." 



die of the fourteenth century, as we find in the 

 History of Dauphiny that the Dauphin Hum 

 bert, returning from Naples in 1336, bought at 

 Nice twenty plants of orange trees. (Hist, of 

 Dauphiny, bk. 2, p. 271.) 



From Naples and (Sicily the orange and lemon 

 trees must have been carried into the Roman 

 States, into Sardinia and Corsica and to Malta. 



The islands of the Archipelago perhaps first 

 received them, because, belonging in great part 

 to the Genoese and Venetians, it is probable 

 they were the intermediate points whence the 

 Crusaders of Genoa and Venice transported the 

 plants to their homes. From these isles the 

 trees have afterwards spread into the delightful 

 coast of Salo on the shores of Lake Garda. 

 where, in Gallo's time (1559), they were regarded 

 as acclimated from time immemorial. 



Finally, the orange and the lemon penetrated 

 into tlje colder latitudes, and perhaps one owes 

 to the desire of enjoying their flowers aud fruit, 

 the invention of hot-houses, afterwards called 

 oranyeriex. (The name of orangvrie is a modern 

 word in the French language. Olivier de Serre 

 does not use it he calls this kind of inclosure 

 orange-houses, p. 633. The Italian language 

 has no word responding precisely to orangery. 

 We find in some modern authors, equivalent 

 words, such as aranciera. cedroniera, citroniera. 

 FONTANA, Dizionan'o rustico, bk. 1, p. 74. But 

 the ancient writers styled these places for pre- 

 serving these trees by the phrase, stamone per i 

 cedri. In Tuscany aud the Roman States, they 

 call them rimesise; in other places they are 

 known under the name of serre (inclosure). 

 Matioli says, that in his time they cultivated the 

 oranges in Italy, on the shores of the sea. and of 

 the most famous lakes, as well as in the gardens 

 of the interior, but he says nothing of the places 

 for sheltering them. Gallo speaks of rooms de- 

 signed to receive the boxes of orange-trees, 

 which were very numerous at Brescia,' but he 

 does not designate them by any particular name. 

 The Latin writers also used a periphrase. Fer- 

 raris calls an orangery, tectuiifkibernuiti. Others 

 call it cello, citraria.) 



^This agricultural luxury was unknown in 

 Europe before the introduction of the citron 

 tree. We find not the least trace of it either in 

 Greek or Latin writers. 



It is true that from the time of the Emperor 

 Tiberius, in Rome they inclosed melons in cer- 

 i tain portable boxes of wood, Avhicli were ex 

 i posed to the sun in winter, to make the fruit 

 grow out of season. These iuclosures were se- 

 cured from the eil'ects of cold by sashes or 

 frames, and received the sun's rays through dia- 

 phanous stones (xiit'-"l<H'(ii), which held the place 

 of our ylaxx. But it seems they used no fire for 

 heating them, and that they' merely inclosed 

 thus,, indigenous plants, of which they wished 

 to force the fruiting out of season, it being a 

 speculation of the cultivator ratiier than a luxu 

 rious ornament for embellishing the gardens, 

 i PUNY, bk. 10, chap. 5, p. 330, and COLUMKLI,, 

 bk. 3, chap. :!, p. !>.) It is after the introduction 

 of the citron tree into Europe that we begin to 

 find, among the ancients, examples of artificial 

 coverings and shelters against cold. 



Palladius is the first who speaks of these cov- 

 erings, but only as appropriate for the citron, 



