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QALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY. 



that the extraordinary varieties found in books 

 often owe their existence to the vagueness of 

 their names, which represent ideas far removed 

 from truth, and that the number of true varie- 

 ties is much less than at first would appear. 



Matthius Sylvaticus says that the citrine apples 

 (pomorum citrinorum, Pand. Med., p. 125,) are 

 lour in number, the citron tree (citrus), the bi : 

 garade tree (citrangulus), the lemon tree (limon), 

 and the lime (lima vulgo dicta), which, apparently, 

 is but the Adam's apple. 



Hugo Falcandus talks of lumies (lamias), and I 

 incline to the opinion that they are nothing else 

 than lemons, because he says they are only fit 

 for seasoning food (ad condiendis cibis idoneas). 

 These are all the varieties known in Italy until 

 the middle of the fifteenth century. 



The orange tree of sweet fruit appeared about 

 this time, and in Mathioli's day it had been fol- 

 lowed by only a very few varieties. 



This botanist counts but three varieties of cit- 

 ronsthat of large fruit or citron of Genoa, the 

 citron of Salo, and a third whose fruit is the size 

 of a lemon. 



He describes three varieties of orange trees 

 the sour, the sweet, and a third of mixed taste. 



He speaks but of a single species of lemon tree, 

 also ot but one species of Adam's apple, that he 

 calls lomia. 



Augustine Gallo, who wrote at very nearly the 

 same epoch, names only three species of orange, 

 trees sweet, sour, and medium. 



He mentions but one citron, that of Salo ; only 

 one lemon, the Adam's apple, and the limonea, 

 which, he says, is a middle species between the 

 Adam's apple and the lemon, and is, perhaps, a 

 poncire. 



It is surprising that Herrera, who lived after 

 these authors, speaks only of the orange, lemon, 

 and asamboa or toronjo, which is the Adam's 

 apple. 



Olivier de Serres says "there are known in 

 Italy four species of orange trees, under the 

 names of orange, citron, lemon, and limones, 

 called, also, pantiles, and a fifth, called Adam's 

 apple ; and of each of these four there are sev- 

 eral sorts, differing among themselves rather in 

 size and taste than in species, their form and 

 color remaining nearly always the same." He 

 cites the cedrice, a kind of lemon, called thus in 

 Provence, and the horned orange or bigarade, 

 much valued for its easy growth, adding, " there 

 are sweet and sour oranges, and others partaking 

 of both savors. The same may be said of lemons, 

 citrons, and ponciles." (Ouv., Theatre of Agri- 

 culture, p. 632.) 



Such was the state of the family of the agrumi 

 in Europe at the commencement of the sixteenth 

 century, but at this lime the commercial rela- 

 lions which extended themselves in the countries 

 where these fruits were indigenous, and the mul- 

 tiplication and use of the seed in the culture of 

 these plants increased prodigiously the number 

 of varieties. Thus we see, one hundred years 

 after, Tauara counts eighty-three species or varie- 

 ties, and this number has since increased still 

 more rapidly, either /m tact or in appearance, 

 until we see the numerous catalogues have be- 

 come a subject of despair to the most wealthy 

 and most zealous amateur who would form a 

 collection. 



It is impossible to follow the history of all 

 these new varieties. Many have surely been 

 brought from India or China; such as the little 

 Chinese, the myrtifoiium, the red orange, the 

 monstrous citron, &c. Others have been formed 

 in our own gardens such as the citron of Flor- 

 ence, the bergamotte, the poucires, the lustrat, 

 and the bizaria. We have seen that this last 

 named was born at Florence in 1644, according 

 to the testimony of a Tuscan naturalist, who has 

 preserved for us the history of its appearing in 

 the gardens of that city. 



We have also seen that the poncires form con- 

 stantly in our gardens, whenever we follow the 

 method of seeding. 



This great multiplication ot hybrids and va- 

 rieties was the natural result of this culture. 



Leaudro Alberti has left us details of its state 

 in Italy, about the year 1523. Navagero, Vene- 

 tian Ambassador to Charles V., has given us an , 

 idea of its progress in Spain ; and the relation of 

 the voyage in Provence of Charles IX., by Abel 

 Jouan, enables us to judge of the prodigious 

 multiplication at Hyeres. There remains for 

 us to examine the progress of this culture outside 

 of Europe. 



ART. VIII. 2he Citrus Exotic in America 

 Naturalized after the Discovery by Europeans 

 Proofs of this fact. 



Perhaps no plant has ever spread with so 

 much rapidity and success as the orange tree. 

 After being propagated a short time in The tem- 

 perate climes of Europe, they have passed into 

 all the lands where Europeans carried their com 

 merce and conquests. 



The Portuguese naturalized them at Madeira, 

 in the Canary isles, and in all their colonies in 

 the Atlantic ocean. The Spaniards carried them 

 to America, where, shurtly after, we see those 

 new countries, which possessed none of the trees 

 of the old continent, presenting forests of orange 

 trees. 



It is surprising that this vast hemisphere, uni- 

 ting in its extent nearly all latitudes, bad not re- 

 ceived from Nature a tree thus suited to its soil, 

 and which has found in its warm, moist climate - 

 a position favoring the rich vegetation with 

 which it is endowed. 



Had not the original narratives of the first 

 Spanish discoverers of these regions, and the 

 testimony of contemporary historians assured us 

 that America received from Europe these fine 

 trees, one would surely think them indigenous. 



But this fact, reported in a very positive man- 

 ner by all historians of that time, is still further 

 strengthened by proofs not to be doubted with- 

 out renouncing the principles of just criticism. 



We have but to run over the relations by the 

 conquerors and Spanish historians, to see that 

 they never speak of orange trees, although they 

 often give very brilliant descriptions of the de- 

 lightful gardens of Mexico, especially those of 

 Montezuma. The same silence respecting this 

 tree may be noticed in relations of Peru, Brazil, 

 and other parts of South America. 



Now the orange tree is so well naturalized 

 there, that one sees on all sides forests of them ; 

 but these forests are in places near habitations, 

 and these trees do not exhibit marks of the great 



