Chap. 8.] 
THE TEEES OF INDIA. 
this number, which have begun to be naturalized among us, 
•will be treated of when I come to speak of the fruit-trees in 
general. For the present, I shall only make mention of the 
really exotic trees, beginning with the one that is applied to 
the most salutary uses. The citron tree, called the Assyrian, 
and by some the Median apple, is an antidote against poisons.*^ 
The leaf is similar to that of the arbute, except that it has 
small prickles running across it. As to the fruit, it is never 
eaten, but it is remarkable for its extremely powerful smell, 
which is the case, also, with the leaves ; indeed, the odour is 
so strong, that it will penetrate clothes, when they are once 
impregnated with it, and hence it is very useful in repelling 
the attacks of noxious insects. The tree bears fruit at all 
seasons of the year ; while some is falling off, other fruit is 
ripening, and other, again, just bursting into birth. Various 
nations have attempted to naturalize this tree among them, for 
the sake of its medical properties, by planting it in pots of 
clay, with holes drilled in them, for the purpose of introducing 
the air to the roots ; and I would here remark, once for all, 
that it is as well to remember that the best plan is to pack all 
slips of trees that have to be carried to any distance, as close 
together as they can possibly be placed. It has been found, 
however, that this tree will grow nowhere"^ except in 
Media or Persia. It is this fruit, the pips of which, as we 
have already mentioned, the Parthian grandees employ in 
seasoning their ragouts, as being peculiarly conducive to the 
sweetening of the breath. We find no other tree very highly 
commended that is produced in Media. 
CHAP. 8. (4.) THE TREES OF INDIA. 
In describing the country of the Seres, we have already 
2* See B. xxiii. c. 55. Fee remarks, that the ancients confounded the 
citron with the orange- tree. 
25 Fee remarks, that this is not the case. The arbute is described 
in B. XV. c. 28. 
26 In the time of Plutarch, it had begun to be somewhat more used. It 
makes one of the very finest preserves. 
27 At the present day, it is cultivated all over India, in China, South 
America, and the southern parts of Europe. Fee says, that they grow 
even in the open air in the gardens of Malraaison. 
^ B, xi. c. 115. Virgil says the same, Georg. B. ii. 11. 134, 135. 
Theophrastus seems to say, that it was the outer rind that was so used. 
