50 



GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY. 



and gives no description of them. Flort'utiu, 

 who wrote, probably, after him, describes them 

 at more length ; and it seems by his expressions 

 that in his lime the citron was covered in the 

 b^d season by wooden roofs, which could be 

 withdrawn when there was no occasion to de- 

 fend them from cold, and which, also, could 

 be arranged to secure for them the rays of the 

 sun. (FLORENT., bk. 10. chap. 7, p. 219.) 



This agricultural luxury, which began to ap- 

 pear about the time of Palladius and Florentio, 

 must have been entirely destroyed in Italy by 

 the invasion of the barbarians. 1 have remarked 

 that Pierre de Crescenti, whoxwrote a treatise on 

 agriculture in 1300, while treating of the citron, 

 speaks only of walls to defend it from the north, 

 and of some covers of straw. Brunsius and 

 Antonius, quoted by Sprengel, have thought 

 to find in the Statutes of Charlemagne indica- 

 tions of a hot-house. I have closely exajnined 

 the article cited by those writers, (in Comment, 

 de reb. Franc, orient, bk. 2, p. 902, etc.), but have 

 not found a word that could make me believe 

 this means of preserving delicate plants was em- 

 ployed at that period. 



I have even remarked that in these ordinances 

 many plants are named, which Charlemange 

 wished to have in his fields, but no word to be 

 construed into ordering a shelter for any, unless 

 the fig and almond. 



It is astonishing that having- spoken in detail 

 of ajl the parts of the house, of laboring utensils 

 the most ordinary and even of those of house- 

 keeping he forgot an object of such great 

 luxury as a hot-house. 



But in proportion as civilization and com- 

 merce increased riches and extravagance, the 

 fruit of this tree became more sought for, and 

 at the same time, more common : whilst, above 

 all, the properties*'of the new species just intro- 

 duced extended its use in medicine, in agreea- 

 ble drinks, and as a luxury of the table. 



At first they were, in cold countries, only a 

 foreign production, procured from the South; 

 but afterwards the people began to covet from 

 the more happy climates the ornament of these 

 trees, and to wish, above all, to embellish with 

 them their gardens. 



In temperate climes they began to cultivate 

 them in vases, depositing them during winter in 

 caves; and in the cold latitudes the necessitj' of 

 struggling against nature, gave the idea of con- 

 structing apartments which could be heated at 

 pleasure ,by fire, and which would shelter the 

 plants from the rigor of the season. 



It is difficult to fix the date at which they be- 

 gan to build edifices for protection of oranges. 

 The oldest trace of it that I have been able to 

 find is furnished by a passage in the History of 

 Dauphiny, dated 1336, (we find in this History, 

 printed at Geneva in 1722, an extract from an 

 account of expenses made by Humbert, the 

 Dauphin, in his Voyage of Naples in 1336. In 

 the expenses for the return we see the sum of 

 ten tarins the tarin was the thirtieth part of 

 an ounce of Naples for the purchase of twenty 

 orange plants. Item pro arboribus ciginti de 

 plantls arangiorum ad plantandum taren. X. 

 Hist, of Dauph., bk. 2, p. 276). This, it is true, 

 offers few circumstantial details for fixing the 

 fact that the princes of Dauphiny had really, at 



that time, an orangery ; but as this historian 

 tells us that Humbert bought at Nice twenty 

 roots of oranges for a plantation (ad plantandum) * 

 it is to be supposed that he had in his palace at 

 Vienna, a place designed to preserve them in the 

 winter; for without this precaution, they cer- 

 tainly would have perished in the rigorous 

 climate of Dauphinv. (In southwest part of 

 France. TV). 



This luxury must have passed immediately 

 into the capital of France, and though I have 

 not yet found in history indications of these es- 

 tablishments before 1500, it is very probable that 

 they were known there about the middle of the 

 fourteenth century. 



The celebrated tree, preserved still in the or- 

 angery at Versailles, under the name of Francis 

 First, or Grand Bourbon, was taken from* the 

 Constable of Bourbon, in the seizure made of his 

 goods in 1523. And this prince, who, it is said, 

 possessed it for eighty years, could not have 

 kept it except in an orangery. (The orange tree 

 at Versailles, known as Francois Premier, is the 

 most beautiful tree that I have seen in a box. 

 It is twenty feet high, and extends its branches to 

 a circumference of forty feet. Spite of that 1 

 scarcely believe -that this fine stalk dates from 

 the fourteenth century. It is too vigorous, and 

 the skin is too smooth, to be able to count so 

 many years. It is probable that in so long a 

 course of time it has been cut, and that the pres- 

 ent tree is a sprout from the old root. This 

 might have occurred after the frost of 1709, which 

 penetrated even info sheltered places. One cir- 

 cumstance gives foundation to this conjecture 

 This tree is composed of two stalks, which both 

 come out of the earth, and have a common stock. 

 This is never the way the tree grows by nature, 

 still less in a state of culture, and from roots held 

 in vases. I have mostly remarked it in the 

 greater number of trees growing upon a stump 

 which had been razeed at the level of the ground 

 In such case one is forced to leave two suckers, 

 because the sap, being very abundant, could not 

 develop itself in one shoot. It would experience 

 a sort of reaction which would suffocate the 

 stump and make it perish. This is a well known 

 fact in the South, where we cultivate largely the 

 orange, and where the trees of double stems are 

 generally recogni/ecl as rejeto?is, or suckers from 

 old roots.) 



After all these data, we are authorized to tliink 

 that in the fourteenth century .they had begun 

 already to erect buildings designed to create for 

 exotic plants tin artificial climate. But at the 

 beginning of the fifteenth century orangeries, 

 passed from kings' gardens to those of the peo- 

 ple ; chiefly in countries where they, were not 

 compelled to heat them by fire, as in Brescia, 

 Romagna, and Tuscany. (See Matioli, who says 

 that in his day the orange was cultivated in 

 Italy, in all the gardens of jt-h-e interior, where cer- 

 tainly it could not live, unless in orangeries. 

 Diosc. c. 132. We also find in SprengePs His- 

 tory of Botany, that in this country there were 

 at lhat time many botanical gardens where they 

 cultivated exotic plants; a circumstance which 

 presupposes the necessity of hot-houses.) 



About the middle of the seventeenth century 

 this luxury was very general, and we see dis- 

 tinguished by their magnificence and grandeur, 



