54 



GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY. 



We find a crowd of writers at the beginning of 

 the sixteenth century who treat of the sweet or- 

 ange, and not one among them regards it as a 

 new species. They all speak of it as a very an- 

 cient tree, whose origin was unknown. 



I shall cite Matioli, who printed his translation 

 of Dipscorides in 1540," and who could not have 

 been ignorant of the origin of this species, if it 

 dated from the beginning of this century. His 

 successful study of plants, and the earnest re- 

 searches he made upon this subject, do not per- 

 mit us to presume that he could make a mistake 

 in a matter so important and so new. We might 

 say the same of Augustin Gallo, his cotemporary, 

 who enlarges upon the culture of the orange 

 and chiefly of those at Salo, on Lake Garda. 



This author speaks also of the orange tree of 

 sweet fruit as a species known since time imme- 

 morial.* 



Navagero, Venetian Ambassador to Charles 

 Fifth, published his Spanish voyage in 1525. He 

 therein describes the prodigious trees of the 

 Iluerta del /^'(kitchen garden of the King) at 

 Seville, which may still be seen, and which are 

 all of sweet fruit. 



But nothing proves more strongly how this 

 species was spread in Europe, about the begin- 

 ning of the sixteenth century, than Leandro Al- 

 berti's voyage to Italy. This learned monk, who 

 wrote in 1523, speaks largely of immense planta- 

 tions of orange, lemon, and citron trees, which 

 he saw in Sicily, Calabria, upon the borders of 

 the river Salo, in Liguria, and in many other 

 places. 



He expressly says that a great number of va- 

 rieties were cultivated, chiefly of sweet fruit, f 



If the tree owned by the Count St. Laurent 

 were the first to appear in Europe, would it have 

 been possible to propagate it so promptly, and in 

 such abundance, that in twenty-five years it 

 should people the most distant countries with 

 thousands of trees ? 



At first one would suppose if this species had 

 been brought from India by the Portuguese, 

 they would have followed the easiest method 

 that of bringing the seed and sowing it at Lisbon. 

 But if we presume that it came as a plant, the 

 hypothesis would then present a crowd of diffi- 

 culties, rendering it nearly impossible. 



Voyages from India were, at that time, very 

 long and very dangerous, being made in small 

 vessels inferior to those in use now. 



Crossing the equator was but little favorable 

 to the preservation of vegetables, and the desire 

 of gain, which exclusively occupied those navi- 



* Gallo did not publish his work on agriculture till 1569, 

 but he speaks of the sweet orange as of a plant whose cul- 

 ture dated from time immemorial, and says that at Salo 

 the old cultivators of ninety years of age could not remem- 

 ber the planting of the trees existing in his time. I have re- 

 marked the same in works of physicians, and chiefly in the 

 narrations of voyagers. 



t Leandro Alberti, who travelled in Italy in 1523, speaks 

 of the sweet orange tree in a very precise manner, which 

 leaves no room for doubt. "We see there," speaking of 

 Salerno, "citrons, lemons, and orange trees of all the 

 species. Some have sweet, some have sour fruit, and, 

 finally, others, producing fruits of a medium taste.'' Dolci, 

 ttgrestine, e di mezzo sapore. (p. 192). 



He expresses himself in like manner in his description 

 of Liguna, the river Salo. and Calabria, observing that one 

 coula walk by the side of orange gardens for more than 

 two miles of road. He regards them, however, as plants 

 known there since time immemorial, and of which the 

 culture was widely spread. 



gators, while hindering their search for objects 

 of taste, would scarcely dispose them to share 

 with a tree the provision of water, so precious 

 and so necessary for all concerned in voyages 

 uncertain and dangerous. 



Spite of all these obstacles, 1 would still admit 

 that the spirit of curiosity of these adventurers 

 might urge them to transplant into Europe, 

 across so many dangers, a tree of India. 



All these suppositions, however, will not dis- 

 sipate the difficulties which we meet in recon- 

 ciling this hypothesis with facts which I am 

 about to point out. 



It was necessary tb give to this plant a certain 

 number of years before the Count ef St. Laurent 

 (who was, I will assume, disposed to give grafts 

 of it to all the world) could multiply it in his 

 garden, and in the gardens of Lisbon. After- 

 wards time was necessary for some plants to 

 pass into Liguria, to increase there, and from 

 thence to be propagated in Sicily, in Naples, in 

 Sardinia, and upon the shores of Lake Garda. It 

 is, finally, needful to accord a certain number of 

 years to these grafts for growth, and for suffi- 

 cient increase to form those magnificent groves 

 which, in 1528, covered the gardens of $Italy. 

 All these operations could not have taken place in 

 an interval of twenty-five years an insufficient 

 time for propagating any plant whatever in any 

 single country. 



But I would still suppose the possibility of 

 this propagation. There still remains another 

 problem to solve. How could such rapid and 

 prodigious growth escape the knowledge of so 

 many cotemporaneous agricultural writers, who 

 must have witnessed it, as well as of the bot- 

 anists who flourished at this time, and of the 

 many intelligent travellers who have gathered 

 the smallest details upon the culture of these 

 trees, and concerning the countries which they 

 have overrun ? 



We cannot admit such progress in the propa- 

 gation of the sweet orange without assuming 

 that the cultivators of all countries had a passion 

 for multiplying it, as well as good fortune in 

 transporting it, added to a profound knowledge 

 of the best manner of grafting, and the most rea- 

 sonable methods of cultivating it, as well as a 

 general knowledge of commerce. 



All these circumstances should have made it 

 a noticeable plant, and rendered it an object of 

 attention to botanists and writers of the time. 



We are forced, then, to conclude that the 

 sweet orange tree was taken to Europe long be- 

 fore the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, 

 and consequently could not have been intro- 

 duced by the Portuguese, much less by Jean clc 

 Castro. 



But how did it come into Europe ? This is 

 the question with which we are about to occupy 

 ourselves. 



AHT. VI. Transmigration of the Sweet-fruited 

 Orange Tree Conjectures upon the Time of this 

 Event. 



The Crusades have enriched Western Europe 

 with the most of the Asiatic plants, acclimated 

 by the Arabians in the different countries under 

 their dominion, during the best days of their 

 power. 



