ORANGE. 267 



medicinal qualities ; but, as it has already been observed 

 in the history of the lemon, they could not succeed in 

 the time of Pliny, who says, (Book xvi. c. 32) " The 

 Assyrian pome-citron-tree will not bear fruit out of Syria." 

 The same author, in his 12th book, c. 3, informs us that 

 the Romans were acquainted with the Persian and Median 

 pome-citron ; but he never mentions it as a fruit to be 

 eaten : the kernels, he states, were in particular employed 

 by the Parthians, to sweeten the breath. In his 13th 

 book, chap. 15, we are informed, that the Romans had 

 tables made of the citron wood, which they procured from 

 Mauritania and Cyrenaica, in Africa. 



Some authors are of opinion, that the orange was the 

 golden apple of the Hesperides ; which, as the ancient 

 Europeans could not propagate it, was said to have been 

 taken back by Minerva. The fable states, that Hercules, 

 to obtain information of this garden, seized Nereus, god 

 of the sea, in his sleep, who directed him to Africa. If 

 he had to cross the deserts of that country to obtain this 

 fruit, the allusion of its being guarded by a dragon, is 

 both natural and just ; the fruit was therefore called Aurea 

 mala Hesperidum. 



About the eleventh or twelfth century several varieties 

 of the orange were cultivated in the neighbourhood of 

 Reggio, from whence they were extended over Italy, 

 and from hence they were taken to Spain and Portugal, 

 being found much hardier than was at first expected ; 

 therefore the sweet orange, soon after it was introduced, 

 became plentiful in these countries, where there were 

 already abundance of stocks to graft on. Gerard notices 

 in his work, which was published in 1597, that orange 

 and lemon-trees grew on the coast of Italy, and in the 

 islands of the Adriatic ; and on the coast of Spain they 

 were, says he, in great quantities, as well as in certain 

 provinces of France, which lie upon the midland coast. 



