216 Oranges and Lemons of India. 



(siintara) orange was known only in one place in 

 Bengal.* 



Colonel Yule, in his " Glossary/' has the following: 

 Abulfeda says A.D. c. 930, "the same may be said 

 of the orange tree (Shajr-ul-naranj], and of the round 

 citron, which were brought from India, after the year 

 (A.H.) 300, and first sown in 'Oman.' Thence they 

 were transplanted to Basra, to Irak, and to Syria. . . . 

 but they lost the sweet and penetrating odor, and 

 beauty that they had in India, having no longer the 

 benefits of the climate, soil, and water peculiar to that 

 country." Mas'udi II., 438-9. 



By "sweet and penetrating odor" Abulfeda probably 

 refers to the very aromatic rind of the Seville orange. 



In South India (Tanjore) they have an orange called 

 nartun. This I found is no other than the Seville 

 orange. Colonel Yule in his Glossary, p. 490, has the 

 following : " In Tamul dictionaries most words 

 beginning with nar have some relation to fragrance ; 

 as narukeradu, to yield odor ; nartum pillei, lemon- 

 grass ; nartei, citron ; narta manum (read marum), the 

 wild orange tree, &c." I think, therefore, one would 

 not be far wrong in concluding that the Seville orange 

 in South India was either indigenous or had been 

 naturalized there from prehistoric times. It is worth 

 mentioning that at Mangalore, on the Western Coast, 

 I found the Seville orange called karna, which Mr. 

 Growse informs me means bitter. Neither at Tanjore 

 nor at Mangalore had this orange the name of narang 

 or naranj. 



Rumphius, in chap. 41, vol. ii., describes the Seville 

 orange under the name of Aurantium acidum. It does 

 not, however, appear to have been very common in the 



* The sengtereh of Baber's own memoirs appears to be a dif- 

 ferent thing. 



