GALLESIO'S TREATISE OX THE CITRUS FAMILY. 



53 



according to the various climates "where they 

 should live. 



Man, alone, has disturbed this distribution. 

 King of Nature, he has assembled under the 

 same sky a crowd of differing beings, which 

 were not assigned to live together. He has thus 

 enriched the climate inhabited by himself, and 

 has assimilated to his system of society 1 " the ani- 

 mals and vegetables. 



But all. this has takeu place by degrees, and 

 is the result of a long course of ages. We shall 

 now inquire regarding the time and manner of 

 naturalizing the sweet orange tree in Europe. 



AKT. V. Observations upon the Acclimation of the 

 Sweet Orange Opinions of Various Writers 

 Examination of their Opinions. 



It is certainly difficult to follow the history of 

 ihe transmigration of ordinary plants, which 

 spread themselves slowly and in times of ob- 

 scurity; but it is surprising that we find no 

 traces of the passage of the orange tree of sweet 

 fruit, which, because of its qualities and the 

 epoch at which we suppose it must have been 

 brought to Europe, ought to have been an object 

 for the admiration of gardeners, and the obser- 

 vations of botanists. 



This investigation presents nevertheless, a 

 crowd of difficulties. 



An opinion, prevailing among the greater 

 part of writers, has attributed this acquisition to 

 the Portuguese. Valmont de Bomare, in his 

 Dictionary of Natural History, gives details so 

 precise upon this fact, that for a long time I be- 

 lieved it to be incontestable. 



He says that at Lisbon, in the Count St. Laur- 

 ent's garden, there exists the first tree from which 

 have come all the orange trees now ornament- 

 ing the gardens of Europe. 



Valmont de Bomare, and the other writers 

 who have reported this fact, speak of the orange 

 in general ; but I think their expressions should 

 be received as applying only to the sweet orange 

 it would be unreasonable to connect them 

 with the bigarade. This naturalist cites no 

 authority to sustain his assertion, and it appears 

 as if taken from the Dictionary of Trevoux, who 

 is also silent with respect to the source whence 

 he obtained it.' ;:- 



It seems that the name of Portugal, applied 

 generally to the sweet orange, has accredited the 

 opinion respecting the origin of this tree. But 

 we must observe first, that this name was not 

 known in Europe till about the middle of the 

 seventeenth century, and that previous to that 

 lime this species was known under the simple 

 name of orange douce, (sweet orange.) Secondly, 

 Unit from the use made of this name among 

 writers, or among the people of the country 

 where it is received, we see clearly that they 

 have 'given it only to a variety carried, perhaps, 

 bv the Portuguese into Europe, and which may 

 be the red-fruited orange. Indeed, in Arabia 

 even, they use the name of Portugal to designate 



* The oranges of China are thti.- named, because those we 

 *aw for the first time had been limiiL'ht thence. Tin-, first 

 ;md only tree from which it is said they nil conic, is still 

 preserved at Lisbon, in the house of Count St. Laurent: 

 and it is to the Portuguese that we arc indebted for this 

 excellent fruit. For that reason they are also called 

 oranges of Portotgal'DtVf. OK TREVOVX, AKT. OKA.XUKR. 

 8 



a sort of orange, just as they use the name of 

 Italy to express two kinds of citron trees. We 

 have but to read Niebuhr's Voyage to Arabia, 

 where in remarking these denominations, he 

 says it is believed that the Arabs received from 



I Europe one species of orange and two of citrons. 



1 (Niebuhr, bk. 1, sec. 39.) Apparently, the orange 

 of which he speaks is the narendj Bortughal, 



j and the citrons are the Idalia Hoelu, and the 

 Idalia Maleck, of the Flo-ra ^Egyptiaco-Arabica of 

 Forskal. 



The opinion of Bomare has been shared not 

 only by Hunter in his voyage to China, and by 

 the" most of European writers upon agriculture, 

 but also by learned botanists, such as Loureiro. 



i (See first volume of Memorias de Lisboa, page 



! 152.) And I have read, not without surprise, in 

 the Botanique llistorique of Madame de Genlis,lhat 



i we can even name the person to whom we owe 

 the acquisition of the orange (Jean de Castro). 



Assertions thus positive give to the opinion of 

 Bomare an air of truthfulness, which seems to 

 render it unassailable; but having brought to- 



i gether the dates of the various proofs which I 



| have collected for and against this opinion, I 



i have seen that it is in contradiction to well estab- 



! lished facts, and thus deprived of foundation. 



The Portuguese did not reach China until 1518. 

 Jean de Castro, born in 1500, could not return 

 from his first voyage until about 1520. There- 

 fore, if the orange were carried from China by 



I the Portuguese, and specially by Jean de Castro, 

 this species should not have appeared in Europe 

 until after the years 1518 or 1520, a fact impossi- 

 ble lo prove. 



It would be more probable to suppose it 

 brought from India by the Portuguese, who 

 penetrated there in 1498. In this case it might 

 be possible for the Count de St. Laurent to have 

 in his garden the first tree seen in Europe. But 

 tliis hypothesis, whatever appearance of truth it 



! may have, can be combatted with success. 



Vasco de Gama, who first doubled the Cape of 



I Good Hope in 1498, said, in his relation of his 

 voyage, arranged bv a Florentine who was in his 

 vessel, that in India there were many orange 

 trees, but all with sweet fruit Souvl melarancic 

 <ixr<fii t ma tuttle dolci. RAMUS, bk. 1, p. 121. 

 It does not seem, from these expressions, that 



, the sweet orange was to him an unknown spe- 

 cies ; they would appear to denote solely that 



; the bigarade, then very common in Europe, was 

 not cultivated there. 



It would be very astonishing, supposing the 

 sweet orange a species unknown among us, if 

 this navigator had not made a remark upon it, 



1 and, if he brought the first seed of it to Europe. 

 that he said not a word of it in his relation. 

 All voyagers <>!' that epocli are equally silent. 



: I have not 'found a single word to indicate this 

 fact in any of tliv original voyages collected by 

 Ramuslo, nor in any of the cotemporaueous his- 

 tories, which 1 have read attentively. On the 

 contrary, I have remarked that none of these 

 travellers showed surprise at sight of this fruit, as 

 they did on seeing many others. 



Hut that which radically destroys this hypoth- 

 esis is, that we have daU to prove the fact of the 

 general cultivation of the sweet orantje in the 

 south of Kuropc before this time. 



