88 



THE LEMON, LIME AND CITRON. 



^vards of eight months. Instead of rot- 

 ting, ihey dried down to veritable lemon 

 jnummies, and the dessicated pulp still 

 left a sharp acid taste on the tongue. 

 This experiment demonstrated to my 

 satisfaction the keeping qualities of the 

 lemon. 



hundred Bonnie Brae. Mr. Higgins ob- 

 tained his stock from the seeds of rotten 

 lemons, all the best foreign varieties, hav- 

 ing- been saved and shipped to him by a 

 fruit dealer in San FrancisCv.. The Sicily 

 lemons (we use the term in contradistinc- 

 tion to Bonnie Brae) are generally large, 



GROUP OF BONXIE BRAE LEMONS. 



In answer to an inqnirv from me as to 

 the origin of the Bonnie Brae, Mr. Hig- 

 gins w^rote, under date of August 14th, 

 1884, as f()lh)ws: 



"I saved the seed of the Sicily lemon, 

 and from that seed I obtained all varieties, 

 from the commonest citron up to this fine 

 lemon, which we named after the place, 

 * Bonnie Brae.' You cannot tell the tree 

 by its looks from any other lemon tree 

 in the grove. It is not a lime in any sense 

 of the word." 



In the San Diego Union of March, 1882, 

 I find quite a full description of Mr. 

 Higgins's farsi, in which the following 

 occurs: 



"The lemon trees numbei* about four 

 hundred — three hundred Sicily and one 



thin skinned and juicy, and of a fine flavor. 

 But the Bonnie Brae is superfine. There 

 is as much difference beween it and the 

 ordmary lemon as there is between a com- 

 mon bronco and a thorougiibred horse. 

 Mr. Higgins can give no account of this 

 superior variety beyond the fact that the 

 fruit first appeared on a solitary tree in his 

 orchard. This lemon is more oblong than 

 the ordinary variety, has a smoother, thin- 

 ner skin, is seedless, has a larger percent- 

 age of juice and a richer flavor. This re- 

 markable lemon is called Bonnie Brae by 

 Mr. Higgins, after the name of his orchard 

 home. Such a fine specimen of the citrus 

 family has never been produced in any of 

 the semi-tropic orchards of the world. It 

 is an original product of San Diego coun- 



