The True- Lime Group. 87 



After having exhausted Rumphius's interesting 

 chapters on |the citrus, I turned to Kurz's " Flora of 

 British Burmah," and under the name of Citrus hystrix, 

 D.C., Shouk-pot^ I found the identical lima of Ceylon, 

 and the Limo ventricosus of Rumphius, in what appears 

 to be a wild state. If I were writing a description of 

 the lima of Ceylon, I would take Kurz's C. hystrix. 

 " It is armed with longer or shorter straight axillary 

 spines ; all parts glabrous ; leaves oval or ovate, i\ to 2, 

 rarely 3 inches long ; unusually blunt or retuse, almost 

 entire, or crenate, glabrous ; petiole i-i, often 2 or 3 

 inches long, leaf-like, expanded, and often larger than 

 the blade itself, obversely cordate, or obovate ; oblong, 

 at the base contracted in a single petiole ; flowers, 4-5- 

 merous small white,* on very short glabrous pedicels ; 

 ovary obovate, terminated by a very thick style. 

 Berries obovate, or irregularly globose, the size of a 

 citron, or larger, f very uneven and warty, almost 

 juiceless, with a thick yellow skin ; not infrequent in 

 tropical forests of the Martaban hills ; also in upper 

 Tenasserim ; often cultivated in native gardens." 



Dr. Trimen also thought that the lima of Ceylon 

 and the C. hystrix of Kurz are the same thing. 

 Possibly this lima got into Ceylon through the Dutch, 

 having been brought from the Malay archipelago by 

 their servants, as an insecticide, and by change of 

 climate and soil its fruit may have varied. But more 

 probably, judging from its name lima, it was a 

 Portuguese introduction from the same direction. 



In the Malay archipelago the Limo ventricosus 

 of Rumphius occurred in Celebes ; in almost all the 

 islands of Amboyna, as also in Banda. " Everywhere, 



* In the Ceylon lima, I found them slightly tinged purple, 

 t A rather vague size. I have seen citrons from three to ten 

 inches long. 



