ANTIQUITY OF THE CITRON- TREE IN EGYPT. 



140 



The sources from which it came to Egypt may have been 

 various. It was known to Theophrastus in Media and Persia in 

 the fourth century B.C. 



The ancient Arab and Persian navigators traded between the 

 Persian Gulf and the Red Sea on the one side, and India, Ceylon, 

 and China on the other. The large number of varieties of the 

 Citron found in India shows a cultivation there of a very ancient 

 date. 



In studying the Oranges and Lemons of India and Ceylon, 

 I came to the conclusion that all the varieties originated in 

 Southern China ; that they first found a location in the Malay 

 Archipelago, then in India, then in Western Asia, then in 



Europe, and afterwards all over the world. But now we know 

 that the ancient Egyptians had the Citron among them long 

 before it was known in Greece or Italy. 



Grreco-Roman and Arab writers mention a great number of 

 fictitious medicinal properties atuibated to the Citron. But, 

 curiously enough, one of them mentioned by M. Loret appears 

 to be true. He says, " Broye et pris en potion dans du vin, est 

 bon pour les maladies de la rate." (Gargilius Martialis, " Medic 

 ex Oleribus et Pomis," xlv. 2.) 



I tried the Lemon in enlargements of the spleen and in 

 cachexia after intermittent fevers, prepared according to the 

 recipe of Dr. Maglieri, who saw it used by the Italian peasants, 

 and I found that it had a very satisfactory effect. 



Discussion. 



Mr. Philip Crowley said that he had grown the Citron in 

 England for many years in an ordinary stove temperature, and 



Fig. 17.— Fingered Lemon 

 (Penzig, Stadj suqli aqrumi, 

 fig. 8, pi. 9). 



Fig. 18.— From the 

 Babylonian Record. 



