230 Oranges and Lemons of India. 



Portugal orange (Aur. verrucosum), viz., the bit-cam 

 and the seng-cam. Could the seng of the latter have 

 had any connection with the sung of sungtara f 



We have, finally, the other synonym kamala, or 

 kamla-lemboo. It may not be impossible that kam y 

 the Chinese generic name for oranges, may have 

 entered into the construction of this word.* The 

 keonla orange of the plains, or as some call it kawnla, 

 is, however, not the kamala of the Khasia hills. The 

 latter is the suntara (aur. sinense) of Rumphius. The 

 keonla of the plains has a redder, and more chagrined 

 exterior, usually mammillate, and it sweetens very late. 

 Its typical leaf moreover is different, and has also a 

 different scent. Both the suntara and the kawnla, 

 belong to the same group. Whether the keonla of the 

 plains corresponds to any of the other citrus of the 

 Khasia hills enumerated in Mr. Jerman Jones's letter, 

 I do not know. 



To recapitulate then, we find that the suntara 

 orange of India, is totally distinct from the orange of 

 Cintrain Portugal, and cannot have been introduced 

 under that name by the Portuguese ; that it has been 

 known on the slopes of the N.E. border from time 

 immemorial, and must have been either indigenous 

 there, or have been introduced across the Eastern 

 border, in very ancient times, or from the Malay 

 archipelago, by way of the Malay peninsula. Its 

 birthplace, however, is more likely to have been 

 either China or Cochin China. Loureiro in his Flor. 

 Cochin-chin., does not describe any orange which 

 coincides with the suntara orange of India. But Mr. 

 Gubboy, who resided in Hong-kong, informed me that 

 there they have an orange, called loose-jacket. This 



* Possibly, also, it may have got its name from the river Kamala, 

 near which it is said to grow. 



