xviii .Introduction. 



The balance of evidence at present obtainable is 

 not, I think, in favour of the true lime being a variety 

 of the Citrus medica proper. 



There are many varieties of citrus in India, that 

 might without much difficulty, be referred to the 

 C. medica ; but in the Malay Archipelago, in the time 

 of Rumphius, there was a whole group of cultivated 

 citrus, referable with more probability to the citrus 

 hystrix, which is said to be found in a wild state in 

 Burma, not improbably the true lime may belong to this 

 group. The facilities for its being transported to 

 India at some remote period appear to have been 

 great. I believe that the Malay Archipelago, with its 

 numerous islands, its temperature and moisture, has 

 played an important part in giving birth to new 

 varieties of citrus. 1 further believe that those 

 numerous islands have acted as a sort of half-way house 

 for the dissemination of the Chinese varieties of citrus 

 to India, Africa, Western Asia, and Europe. At 

 each place, new varieties resulted from the sowing of 

 the seed, under different conditions of climate, soil, &c. 



In the following chapters I have entered fully into 

 all that concerns each group of citrus. That on the 

 Pummelo may be found interesting to Botanists, as 

 hitherto they have considered it a separate species. 

 For reasons given, I do not think it so. 



It is, I think, of some importance to have established 

 by these researches that one of the best pummelos in 

 the world, is to be found in Bombay in December 

 a red, thin-skinned juicy fruit, as large as a 

 man's head ; that Tanjore possesses the best Portugal 

 orange in all India ; that Butwal on the borders of 

 Nepal, north of Gorruckpore and Gonda, grows in 

 a semi-wild state, perhaps the sweetest orange to be 

 had in any part of the world ; that Gujranwala in the 



