222 Oranges and Lemons of India. 



pummelo in South India. But I think most of them 

 are more likely to be corruptions of the Dutch Pom- 

 pelmoes. 



In Ceylon the pummelo is called jambole. Dr. 

 Trimen states that this word is not Singhalese, and 

 that another name for it is rata-naran, meaning 

 " foreign orange." Rumphius, in the chapter on 

 the pummelo, says : " Some in Malay call \\.jamboa, 

 from the Portuguese samboa, which properly denotes 

 the Pomp-sires, or Pomum-adami of the Spaniards. 

 It is not, therefore, improbable that both the name 

 jambole and the tree itself were introduced into 

 Ceylon by the Portuguese. 



Many of the pummelo-like amilbeds of India may, 

 for all we know, have been also introduced by seed, 

 or otherwise, from the Malay archipelago. They are 

 all sour ; and Rumphius describes various kinds of 

 citrus, which are lemon-yellow, large and sour. The 

 name amilbM, the Pundits say, comes from amlavetasa, 

 amla meaning sour, and vetasa (?). 



The birthplace of the pummelo, like many other 

 kinds of citrus, was probably Southern China or 

 Cochin China. Loureiro, in his Flora of the latter 

 place, says of the C. decumana that " There are 

 many varieties which grow in forests." The pulp is 

 either red or white, sweet or acid. Rumphius, in 

 describing the pummelos of the Malay archipelago, 

 says : " These trees, in these East Indian regions, 

 are not common, and they are considered as having 

 been at one time brought from higher regions," mean- 

 ing probably more northerly regions. Alphonse de 

 Candolle seems to think that its birthplace was the 

 islands of the Pacific, under the supposition that the 

 pummelo is a distinct species and should somewhere 

 have its wild form. 



