6 Oranges and Lemons of India. 



Loureiro's C. fusca may have been like the ndrtun of 

 Tanjore. 



The Seville orange, or the Citrus bigaradia of Risso, 

 the " Bigaradier franc" of the French, the " Arancio 

 forte" of the Italians, and the ndranj of the old Arab 

 physicians, is probably not an Indian Citrus, but origin- 

 ally a Chinese variety, and probably one of the most 

 ancient varieties of Citrus. Being used medicinally, 

 it may have reached Western India (possibly across 

 South India) before any other kind of Citrus, and was 

 adopted by the Arab physicians in their pharmacopoeia. 

 As alcohol is also an old Arab production, it is not 

 impossible that those ancient physicians extracted 

 whatever there is of active principle in the ndranj 

 peel, by means of alcohol, which was afterwards handed 

 down to us as "tincture of orange peel," and is now 

 principally used for disguising the unpleasant flavours 

 of other medicines. 



It is not easy to make out whether Sir J. Hooker's 

 wild orange of the Himalayas is this, or some sour 

 variety of the suntara type. I incline to the latter 

 view, especially as the suntara type of orange is so 

 common all along the outer hills of the north-eastern 

 Himalayas. That the Seville is found wild in Cochin 

 China is pretty clear from the researches of Loureiro, 

 where he calls it "citrus fusca," which in turn corre- 

 sponds with Rumphius's aurantium acid^lln of Am- 

 boyna, which again Miquel asserts is the same as 

 citrus vulgaris of Risso the Seville orange. Being a 

 medicinal plant, it is not impossible that from South- 

 E as tern Asia it may have found its way to Eastern 

 India through the Malay archipelago, and thence 

 across South India to the Western Coast, whence it 

 was in course of time taken to Europe, via Syria. The 

 only place in India where I have heard of its being now 



