178 OEIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS, 



Neither he nor modem botanists saw it wild in the 

 Malay Archipelago.^ In China the species has a simple 

 name, yu ; but its written character ^ appears too com- 

 plicated for a truly indigenous plant. According to 

 Loureiro, the tree is common: in China and Cochin-China, 

 but this does not imply that it is wild.* It is in the 

 islands to the east of the Malay Archipelago that the 

 clearest indications of a wild existence are found. 

 Forster* formerly said of this species, "verj' common 

 in the Friendly Isles." Seemann ® is yet more positive 

 about the Fiji Isles. " Extremely common," he says, 

 " and covering the banks of the rivers." 



It would be strange if a tree, so much cultivated in 

 the south of Asia, should have become naturalized to 

 such a degree in certain islands of the Pacific, while it 

 has scarcely been seen elsewhere. It is probably indi- 

 genous to them, and may perhaps yet be discovered 

 wild in some islands nearer to Java. 



The French name, pompelTnouse, is from the Dutch 

 pompelmoes. Shaddock was the name of a captain who 

 first introduced the species into the West Indies." 



Citron, Lemon-^Citrus medica, Linnaeus. 



This tree, like the common orange, is glabrous in all 

 its parts. Its fruit, longer than it is wide, is surmounted 

 in most of its varieties by a sort of nipple. The juice 

 is more or less acid. The young shoots and the petals 

 are frequently tinted red. The rind of the fruit is often 

 rough, and very thick in some subvarieties.^ 



Brandis and Sir Joseph Hooker distinguish four 

 cultivated varieties : — 



1. CUrus medica proper {citron in English, cedra- 

 lier in French, cedro in Italian), with large, not 



' Jliquel, Flora Indo-Batava, i. pt. 2, p. 526. 

 ' Brebsclmeider, Study and Value, eto. 



• Lonreiro, Fl. Cochin., ii. p. 572. For another species of the genu-, 

 he says that it is cultivated and non-cultivated, p. 569. 



• Forster, Be Plantis Esculentis Oceani Atistralis, p. 35. 



• Seemann, Flora Vitiensis, p. 33. 



' Plnkenet, Ahaagestes, p. 239; Sloane, Jamaica, i. p. 41. 

 ' Cedrat d gros fruit of Duhamel, Trait4 des Arlres, edit. 2, vii. p. 6?, 

 pi. 22. 



