exoedi 



Appendix. 289 



expedition took possession of Bahmanabad, Alor, and Mool- 

 tan, and so on, until the Cape route was discovered by the 

 Portuguese, and things took a different course. 



(NOTE. From Reinaud's account, it will be seen that from 

 a very remote period, Western Asia and Eastern Africa had 

 commercial intercourse with India, the Malay archipelago, 

 and China. This intercourse offered innumerable chances 

 for many varieties of citrons being carried from China and 

 Cochin China to the Malay archipelago, to India and Ceylon, 

 and to Persia, Arabia, and Egypt. Then they could have 

 been carried only by means of the fruit and the seed. Sown 

 again at each place they became more or less naturalized, and 

 improved or otherwise, by change of climate and soil, and in 

 turn, new varieties arose through propagation by seed, till 

 the citrons reached Southern Europe, and fell into the hands 

 of professional gardeners, when probably other means of 

 propagation were discovered, and the numerous varieties, 

 enumerated by Risso and Poiteau came into existence there. 

 The discovery of the Cape route brought new varieties into 

 Europe. Later on Europeans disseminated this useful genus 

 in the West Indies, and also in America and other places. 



There cannot be much doubt that the islands of the 

 Malay archipelago offered suitable homes for the different 

 varieties of citrus, and there can hardly be a doubt that 

 many kinds now in India, or their a'ncestors, originally came 

 from those islands. Many of the originals may possibly 

 have become extinct, owing to better kinds having been 

 raised from seed. The four words (probably there may be 

 many more) viz. limboo or limoo, capas, kussumb and 

 creese or krissen (vide App. No. 66) being common both 

 to India and the Malay archipelago, indicate that inter- 

 course between the two parts must have been more or less 

 great. The word usoh of the Khasia hills, and anssi or usse 

 of the Malays, and possibly the tido, of udo de/ii, in Ceylon, 

 point to the same conclusion. With the exception, perhaps, 

 of the citron, and some of its descendants, which may have 

 been indigenous in India, or may have come across the 

 Eastern border, and the siintara orange, which may also 

 have come directly from Yunnan, or Cochin China, across 

 the Eastern border, there is no reason to suppose that all 



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