THE ORANGE. 59 



question unanswered without conceding that they were 

 realh' sweet Oranges. Galesio's assumption seems all 

 the more unwarranted since Matthaeus Silvaticus of Sa- 

 lerno, in his "Opus pandectarum medicinae" completed 

 in 1317, calls the ^bitter Orange "Citrangulum". This 

 same name was also used before his time hv tlie trans- 

 lators of Arabic works to render the word "Narindj". 

 Again, the name "Portogallo'', hv which the Orange is 

 still commonh- known in Itah', points to the important 

 part pla\ ed b\' the Portugese in the distribution oL" the 

 better kinds of sweet Orange. The Chinese origin of 

 the sweet Orange is shown b\' the German name "Apfel- 

 sine", originally "Sinaapfel" or Chinese Apple. This 

 German name was adopted b\' the Russians, although 

 immediate neighbours of the Chinese — a proof, as Victor 

 Helm says, of the complete reyolution in the world's 

 traffic, which since the time ol V^asco de Gama no 

 longer passed through Asia from East to West, but 

 along the less direct highwa\' of the Ocean. 



The name "Orange" comes from the Sanscrit 

 "Nagarunga" or "Nagrunga". The Arabs have altered 

 this to "Narunj", the Italians to "Naranzi" or "Aranci", 

 the Spaniards to -'Naranja", the Portugese "Laranja", 

 and lasth' the French to "Orange"'. The name "poma 

 aurantia", golden apple, used in the Middle Ages, 

 resembles that of "Orange" only in sound. But "poma 

 aurantia" gave rise to the German "Pomeranze" and the 

 Polish "Pomarai'icza". 



The Cjolden Apples of the Hesperides, which, 

 according to legend, Hercules brought from the West, 



