216 



LEMON. LIMON. CITRUS. 



Natural order, Bicornes. Of the class Polyadelphia 

 Icosandria. 



" Bear me, Pomona, 



To where the lemon and the piercing lime, 



With the deep orange, glowing through the green, 



Their lighter glories blend." 



THIS fruit derives "its name from the Greek word 

 Xs//xcov, which signifies a meadow, because the leaves and 

 the fruit, before they are ripe, are of the colour of a 

 spring meadow. 



The lemon and the citron-tree are natives of Asia, from 

 whence they were brought into Greece and Italy. They 

 appear to have been well known to the Romans in the 

 days of Pliny, although they had failed*"in the cultivation 

 of them ; as that author informs us in his 13th book, 

 chap, iii., where he says, speaking of foreign trees, " I 

 will begin with that which is of all others the most 

 wholesome, the citron-tree, called the Assyrian-tree, and 

 by some the Median-apple : the fruit is a counterpoison, 

 and singular antidote against all venom ; the leaves," he 

 says, ". are like the arbutus, and it hath thorns. The 

 pome citron is not good to be eaten as a fruit, but is very 

 odoriferous, as are the leaves, which are used to be put 

 in wardrobes among apparel, to give a perfume, and to 

 keep off moths and spiders. This tree bears fruit at all 

 times of the year, for, when some fall, others begin to 



