1 92 Oranges and Lemons of India. 



un caractere curieux pour distinguer avec certitude une 

 orange douce d'une orange acide, quelque soit la forme, 

 la couleur, et la rugosite de ces fruits. L'orange douce 

 a les vesicales de 1'huile essentielle convexes ; 1'orange 

 acide les a concaves ; les limes et toutes les varietes a 

 sue fade, ou indetermine, ont les vesicales planes. II 

 parait done que la forme de ces vesicales, ou la qualite 

 de I'huile essentielle qu'elles contiennent, est en rap- 

 port avec la qualite du sue renferme dans la pulpe, 

 puisque plus le sue est sucre, plus les vesicales sont con- 

 vexes, et plus il est acide, plus elles sont concaves." 



It is not clear whether Risso meant that the open- 

 ings of the oil-cells or the cells themselves are either 

 concave or convex. Anyhow, the mitha nimboo 

 (sweet lemon) of Furruckabad and other places, and 

 the kalan kaghzi of Lucknow, and other places, a 

 thin-skinned sour lemon would, I think, have puzzled 

 Risso. I look upon them as one thing, and, as far as 

 I can judge, they are indistinguishable externally, while 

 the juice of the former is pleasantly sweet, though not 

 distinctly sugary (what Risso would have called "fade"), 

 and the juice of the latter is very soiir. In short, not 

 improbably, the mitha nimboo may be a variety of 

 the sour form, in which the acid has never been 

 developed. It is hardly sweet, but acidless ; but 

 whether they are so nearly related or not signifies 

 little their surfaces are indistinguishable. Moreover, 

 in one stage of the sweet orange the suntara of 

 India its juice is sour, while in another the juice is a 

 mixture of subacid and sweet ; and when completely 

 ripe, it has little acid. Yet both in its ripe and unripe 

 states, the larger cells have their openings concave, 

 and the smaller ones are represented by minute miliary 

 convexities. The sadaphal which has scarcely a trace 

 of acid from beginning to end has also the two sets 



