180 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



the expression " in hortis sylvestribus," which might be 

 translated shrubberies. Speaking of his Letnon aussu 

 (vol. ii. pi. 25), which is a Citrus medica with ellipsoidal 

 acid fruit, he says it has been introduced into Amboyna, 

 but that it is commoner in Java, " usually in forests." 

 This may be the result of an accidental naturalization 

 from cultivation. Miquel, in his modem flora of the 

 Dutch Indies,^ does not hesitate to say that Citrus medica 

 and 0. lAmonum, are only cultivated in the archipelago. 



The cultivation of more or less acid varieties spread 

 into Western Asia at an early date, at least into Mesopo- 

 tamia and Media. This can hardly be doubted, for two 

 varieties had Sanskrit names ; and, moreover, the Greeks 

 knew the fruit through the Medes, whence the name 

 Citrus medica. Theophrastus ^ was the first to speak of 

 it under the name of apple of Media and of Persia, in a 

 phrase often repeated and commented on in the last two 

 centuries.' It evidently applies to Cittnis medica; but 

 while he explains how the seed is first sown in vases, 

 to be afterwards transplanted, the author does not say 

 whether this was the Greek custom, or whether he was 

 describing the practice of the Medes. Probably the citron 

 was not then cultivated in Greece, for the Romans did 

 not grow it in their gardens at the beginning of the 

 Christian era. 



Dioscorides,* born in Cilicia, and who wrote in the 

 first century, speaks of it in almost the same terms as 

 Theophrastus. It is supposed that the species was, after 

 many attempts,^ cultivated in Italy in the third or fourth 

 century. Palladius, in the fifth century, speaks of it as 

 well established. 



The ignorance of the Romans of the classic period 

 touching foreign plants has caused them to confound, 

 under the name of lignum citrevm,, the wood of Citrus, 

 with that of Gedrua, of which fine tables were made, and 



• Miqjiel, Flora Indo-Batava, i. pt. 2, p. 528. 



• Theophr^iStns, 1. 4, c. 4. 



• Bodaeus, in TJfieophrastus, edit. 1644, pp. 322, 343; Eisso, TraiM du 

 Citrus, p. 198 ; Targioni, C^nni Storici, p. 196. 



• jjioanorides, i. p 166, ' Targjqni, Cennj Stond. 



