Morphology of the Citrus. 205 



of the fruit had a resinous, acrid, and uninviting taste. 

 In certain stages the fruit may have been nothing 

 more than a protected receptacle or womb for the safe 

 development of the seed the part intended by nature 

 to carry on the life of the species. The juice vesicles, 

 as we see them now, may not have been developed 

 till long after. 



It is not improbable that the wild original man may 

 have largely helped in the development of the thick 

 skin of the citrons proper. In Mangalore, where they 

 have large varieties, I was told that the outer bitter 

 rind was shaved off by means of a knife, and the thick 

 white .and sweetish skin eaten raw. The thick skins 

 of other large Citrus are also eaten elsewhere. It is 

 probable, therefore, that these large citrons, with little 

 or no pulp juice, may have been selected for genera- 

 tions for the sake of their sweet edible skin alone. 

 Natives of India are very fond of eating carrots, large 

 radishes, and cucumbers in their raw state, and the 

 thick sweet citron skin is probably nicer than any of 

 the above. The wartiness of certain citrons is pro- 

 bably the effect of rich soil- and abundant moisture, 

 producing an excess of skin growth. Generally speak- 

 ing, the thicker the skin the less juice the pulp has. 

 The pummelo has often a thick bitter skin, and plenty 

 of pulp, but it is not noted for abundance of juice. On 

 the contrary, the vesicles are coarse and often concrete 

 and jutceless. The most juicy pummelo I have seen 

 is the thin-skinned red pummelo of Bombay. That 

 the original wild Citrus fruits may have had a thick 

 warty skin may be probable, for we often see warti- 

 ness cropping up in cultivated varieties, possibly as a 

 reversion to ancestral characters such as certain 

 varieties of the Seville orange ; the Aurungabad 

 orange (pi. 125, fig. a] ; the nmssembi of Poona (pi. 



