272 



vate the citrus before the Christian era, for 

 the beauty of the tree and it's medicinal qua- 

 lities ; 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 

 th(3 Romans were acquainted with the Per- 

 sian and Median pome-citron; but he never 

 mentions it as a fruit to be eaten : the ker- 

 nels, 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 Hespe- 

 rides ; and as the ancient Europeans could not 

 propagate it, was said to have been taken 

 back by Minerva. The fable states, that Her- 

 cules, 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 it's being guarded by a 

 dragon, is both natural and just. 



About the eleventh or twelfth century 



