GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY. 



61 



Ebn-Ayyas, in his large History of Esrypl:, 

 points out also a quantity of these arid fruit*, 

 (hamidhaf) but gives no description * by which 

 they can be made known to us. 



He names only the citron, the lemon, the 

 orange, the cabbad, the hummadli Schoairi, and 

 the red French lemon which was, it is said, 

 taken to Egypt in the year 300 ot the liegira. 



The red French lemon is, perhaps, a variety 

 of the citron. The Franks (a name given by 

 Arabians t^> all people ot Western Europe,) long 

 had known the citron ; it is not impossible that 

 they had procured a variety in Sicily or Sir- 

 din'ia, which, carried to Egypt, had gotten the 

 name of French, or the name may have come 

 from some Frenchman having cultivated it first 

 in Egypt. (See notes of M. de Sac}' upon the 

 first 'book ot Abd-Allatif, p. 117.) 



I shall not enter upon the examination of the 

 hammadh schoa iri a nd re d lemon. 1 1 i s v e ry d i ffi - 

 cult, from the little said of them, to imagine to 

 what variety they ought to be assigned ; and I 

 would merely say, with regard to the cabbad, that 

 if it is the same which Vansleb calls kebbad, in his 

 new book about Egypt, it should be classed with 

 the Adam's apple, seeing that this author de- 

 scribes it as a tree bearing oranges of enormous 

 size, and the Adam's apple, or citrus decumanas, 

 lias precisely analogous properties. 



It is more easy to recognize the races reported 

 by Ebn-el-Awam in his Treatise on Agriculture, 

 where he speaks of the agrumi of Seville. 



This Spanish-Arab distinguishes four species, 

 calling them citronier, orange r, htysainou, or yasa- 

 mou, or zamnou, and limonwr, which names the 

 translator rendered in Spanish, as cidro naranjo, 

 Union, a nd limero, llamado, (toronjo o arbode), zam- 

 boa or buxtaiiibvuH, and which is but the Adam's 

 apple. 



(" The atrundj, the narendj, the yasamou, called 

 l<(ntb<n.i,M\& the lamounjanne, are as one species, 

 and are cultivated in nearly the same manner." 

 Er.x KL-AWAM, p. 314 ; and elsewhere, " of the 

 planting the bantamboun, which is the zamboa," 

 p. 823.) 



Search for the etymology of these names pre- 

 sents difficulties. It would be useless to seek in 

 Arabic or Persian language the origin of yami- 

 in.oii, 'at I/Minion, or ~ainbou. Their physiognomy 

 shows that they belong to neither of those 

 tongues, but seems to prove that they will be 

 found only in the languages ot China or of Tar- 

 tary. The Portuguese have adopted the word 

 ::<i.'i u! (., modifying it to zamboa. The word t<>- 

 >'<>rt;i<>, used by the Spaniards for rendering that 

 of lay a 1 1 wu, has much affinity with imrendj, of 

 which it may be a corruption. The word boxl-am- 

 b',uit seems to be composed of the Arabic word 

 bouxtan (irarden), and the Persian word boun 

 (utility, ornament). In adopting this etymology 

 b'txtautboun might signify ornament of t/ic garden, 

 which would perfectly apply to orange trees. and 

 perhaps particularly to that variety having fruit 

 of extraordinary size. 



Ebn-el-A *am describes afterwards the differ- 

 ent varieties ot each species, and we at once rec- 

 ognize the ordinary citron in that which he calls 

 citron. <(/(//<:. (OuV bigarade the Arabs have 

 sometimes called ci(r>ni run;!, sometimes citron 

 <ii<li-(\\\\\(\ finally i\<trcn<lj. Ebn-JJeitur says ot it : 

 " The t.'ftfcrd is -i well Um.'Wn tree, the leaf i- 



smooth and of a deep green, the fruit is round, 

 and has an acid juice like the citron. The tree, 

 also, closely resembles the citron tree; its flower 

 is white anil extremely sweet in odor." Ar. MSS. 

 of EIJN T -BEITAR.) We also recognize Ibeoranged 

 poncirc, in that which he calls sweet fruit. 



The two first varieties of the yaxamou are re- 

 lated to our citrus decumana, or Adam's apple ; 

 and the third, called toronja chinesca, appears to 

 be our Chinese citron, (C. M. C. fructu monstru- 

 OHO aurantianto, GAL. SYN.) 



I know not how to determine what is the 

 orange doree, which he distinguishes from the 

 ordinary orange, and less still, that called fleu-r 

 cdt'Kte ; but 1 clearly recognize a species of lime 

 of Naples in the " lemon of smooth skin, the 

 size of a pigeon's eg?." and a sort of large pon- 

 cire iu the lemon avirolado. 



The authority of Ebn-el-Awam, appears to 

 prove that these varieties born, in great part, in 

 Syria and Egypt, passed soon into Spain, but 

 not into France and Italy until long afterwards. 



One of the causes rendering difficult the recog- 

 nition of ancient varieties, is the vagueness of 

 descriptions. In those times of ignorance the 

 language of botany was yet unfounded, conse- 

 quently a person attempting to describe a plant 

 did not select the trails most constant and cer- 

 tain, but each described the parts and peculiari- 

 ties which most forcibly struck him, according 

 to his manner of seeing, and with terms and ex- 

 pressions which often only confused ideas. 



The Arabs, for example, have sometimes de- 

 signated the orange by the name of round citron, 

 and this expression applies equally to a genuine 

 citron which affects this form. But nothing has 

 been more vague than the attempt to express the 

 color of the orange, as it resembles in no degree 

 any known color. It has been indicated by that 

 which was thought to approach it nearest thus 

 one calls it jaune (yellow), another speaks of it 

 as doree (golden), another as rouge (red), and, 

 finally, some have well adopted the name of 

 orange color. 



But to picture the idea by describing the fruit, 

 they have made use of very indefinite expres- 

 sions, causing great uncertainty in these descrip- 

 tions. 



The same inconvenience arises when we try 

 to know the orange rouge. 



It would appear a suitable n-ime, yet, being 

 sometimes us-d for indicating ordinary oranges, 

 we find ourselves in uncertainty when wishing 

 to interpret the authors with exactness. 



Some have attempted to picture the color of 

 this fruit by the term vinenze (wine-like). The 

 Ligurians have named it the orange of bloody 



juice 



One finds himself equally embarrassed when 

 trying to ox press the color of the flowers of the 

 citron and lemon trees. They are shaded with 

 a mixed tint, called by one red, by another 

 violet, and which is, really, of both these colors. 



Perhaps it was but this peculiar color that 

 Elm-el-Awam wished to designate by the ex- 

 pression jh>ir celeste. 



In thai case the variety lie speaks of i*, proli- 

 i ably, a hybrid of the orange and lemon, like the 

 one in the .Jardin des Pinnies at Paris, called civlet 

 orange tree. 



I throw out these conjectures merely to show 



