144 Oranges and Lemons of India. 



allowed to stand and deposit impurities. It should be 

 kept cool and in the dark, as the mucilage in it is said 

 to cause decomposition and to spoil the essential oil. 

 The best way to get rid of this mucilage is to shake 

 the oil well with warm water, and then allow it to 

 stand, and when clear decant it close to the water. 

 The expressed oil of the lemon is the finest, and has an 

 intense odour of lemons. This oil is called " Citron 

 Zeste," while that distilled from the rind is not of the 

 finest quality, but probably keeps better, and is called 

 " Essence of Lemon." 



England imports 85,000 to 90,000 pounds weight 

 annually of the otto of lemon and " Citron Zeste." It 

 comes principally from Messina, where there are 

 hundreds of acres of lemon groves. Indeed, the 

 extraction of the ottos of lemon, orange, and bergamot 

 constitutes the chief industry of Sicily, particularly 

 in the vicinity of Palermo. Nevertheless, what 

 England gets from the South of Europe does not 

 meet the demand. 



The acid pulp of the lemon, after rasping off the 

 rind, is pressed for citric acid. 



The otto of the Citrus peel has many uses in per- 

 fumery, and is the leading ingredient in " Lisbon 

 water " and " Eau de Portugal." 



Mr. Piesse further says that " No tree is so profit- 

 able to the flower farmer as the orange, and emigrants 

 to any of our warm colonies should make a note of 

 this, and fix on their memory that the leaves of the 

 orange tree yield an otto worth (in 1879) three shillings 

 an ounce ; the flower, an otto, worth ten shillings an 

 ounce. That the flower, by ' enfleurage,' yields a fat 

 worth eight shillings a pound, and the rind, an otto, 

 worth twelve to sixteen shillings per pound. More- 

 over, if the fruit cannot be sold by the score in the 



