PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR THEIR FRUITS. 181 



which was a cedar, or a Thuya, of the totally different 

 family of Coniferse. 



The Hebrews must have known the citron before the 

 Romans, because of their frequent relations wdth Persia, 

 Media and the adjacent countries. The custom of the 

 modern Jews of presenting themselves at the synagogue 

 on the day of the Feast of Tabernacles, with a citron 

 in their hand, gave rise to the belief that the word haclar 

 in Leviticus signified lemon or citron; but Risso has 

 shown, by comparing the ancient texts, that it signifies a 

 fine fruit, or the fruit of a fine tree. He even thinks 

 that the Hebrews did not know the citron or lemon at 

 the beginning of our era, because the Septuagint Version 

 translates haclar by fruit of a fine tree. Nevertheless, 

 as the Greeks had seen the citron in Media and in Persia 

 in the time of Theophrastus, three centuries before Christ, 

 it would be stranoe if the Hebrews had not become 

 acquainted with it at the time of the Babylonish Captivity. 

 Besides, the historian Josephus says that in his time the 

 Jews bore Persian apples, malum loersicum, at their feasts, 

 one of the Greek names for the citron. 



The varieties with very acid fruit, like Limonum 

 and acicla, did not perhaps attract attention so early 

 as the citron, however the strongly aromatic odour 

 mentioned by Dioscorides and Theophrastus appears to 

 indicate them. The Arabs extended the cultivation of 

 the lemon in Africa and Europe. According to Gallesio, 

 they transported it, in the tenth century of our era, froni 

 the gardens of Oman into Palestine and Egypt. Jacques 

 de Vitry, in the thirteenth century, well described the 

 lemon which he had seen in Palestine. An author 

 named Falcando mentions in 1260 some very acid 

 " lum^ias " w^hich were cultivated near Palermo, and 

 Tuscany had them also towards the same period.^ 



Orange Citrus Aurantiuni, Linnaeus (excl. var. y) ; 

 Citrus Aurantium, Risso. 



Oranges are distinguished from shaddocks (C. decu- 

 man':/,) by the complete absence of down on the young 

 shcots and leaves, by their smaller fruit, always sphei'ical, 



Targioni, p. 217. 



