November i, 1887.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
325 
I believe them to be an aeidless variety of one of the 
lemons i.f India, Th< j are much appreciated by natives, 
ami letch a good price. They call tlieui ' Sherbeteo,' 
or ' Mitlia-uimboij,' ami also ' Anirutphal.' The best 
flavored sorts are grown in dry climates, such as those 
ol Mooltau and Muscat, Honibay is supplied' with this 
' Milha-uimboo,' both from Nagporo and from Muscat. 
From the latter place, two sorts are imported. Around 
one of the size of the Indian sweet lemon, and a larger 
pear-shaped one. The oidy specimen I saw of the latter 
was sLowu to me by Mr. Gubboy, of Ezra Street, 
Calcutta. It had a girth of 13.1 inches and a length of 
inches, f was told that in Bombay it was known by 
the name of " Muscat sweet orange," and was imported 
aboul January. These sweet lemons are well worth the 
attention of any one desirous of growing fruit for pro- 
fit ; natives appear to prefer them to auy other kind of 
citrus, and give a higher price for them. To the Euro- 
pean palate, uow< ver, the total absence of a sub-acid is a 
disqualification, though certainly not in the opinion of all. 
Mi. Moore, the Acting Commissioner of Customs, 
Hombay, has very courteously furnished me with 
the following statistics regarding the imports of 
oranges and sweofc lemons from Zanzibar and 
Muscat : — 
1881-85 1885-86 
Zanzibar Oranges ... Its. 1,743 Its. 836 
Muscat Sweet Lomons ,, 1,555 „ 1,095 
The figures for 1885-80 are from 1st April 1885 
to 22ud March 1880\ 
The sour lemons finally may be divided into 
'JBajouras, ' a sort ol citron lemons with a good 
deal of sour juico in them, lemons proper, and . a 
group of sour citrus known by the name of 'Guugolee' 
and ' Behari ' lemons. 
The former two groups I have not seen in any 
market except that of Pondicherry. They have there 
a lemon, which appears like the Malta lemons, but 
binallor. They call it ' citron ' iu French, as they do 
the lemou in France. 
I have grown the Malta lemon largely in Etawah, 
and have tried to bring it to the notice of natives. 
I have succeeded to a great extent. Before the 
knew of it they looked upon the Kaghzi nimboo, 
of which they make a rather nice pickle, as the 
best sour citrus tor domestic purposes. But since 
I brought before them the Malta lemon, they toll 
me that for pickle or other domestic purposes, if 
they could get the lemons, they would not look at 
the lime. Since I havo brought this fine sour citrus 
to the notice of the public as a medicinal fruit, 
and alsi for making lemon jelly, a great demand 
has arisen for lemon plants. In my opinion the 
lemon is a sound, the most useful acid fruit. It 
has a fragrant skin, not too thin so as to be use- 
less for candying. It has a pure and abundant acid 
juice, it is one of the best for preserves and for 
inediriu.il purposes, and it is difficult to find a 
variety of citrus more easy to cultivate and to 
propagate. When iu full fearing, moreover, it has 
the habit of produciug a ' Duturez ' crop, whieh comes 
to maturity very usefully and appropriately in the 
hot weather. There is no reason why so useful 
and so easily propagated and cultivated a tree shutild 
not in time be as largely grown as the lime, the 
orange, and other useful kinds of citrus. I seut 
lemon plants to Sibsagur, iu Upper Assam, and to 
Devikulam, in S.mth India, besides many other pluces. 
They travelled well, and are llouri.-hiug there. 
In the Punjab they have a large sour lemou, about 
two or three times larger than the Malta lemou. 
It is there called ' Gulgul. ' It is a vory good 
lemon, where a largo quantity of juice is wanted at 
one tunc, or for making lemou jelly or bottled 
lemon juico. They have a similar one in Kumaou, 
which l| tlic. called Knniaon lemon. It is alio 
found iu Sh irunpore, and I have beeu told that 
during the month of April it is largely sold iu 
Mussouric aii Hi, s.- vmoii, Mould keep well if Ion 
on the troei, a certain number 00 each tree, 10 
as not to prevent the spring Qowen from letting, 
Natives are always iu too great a hurry to gather 
and sell their fruit. It left on the trees till the 
hot weather, especially where there are extensive 
groves, these sour lemons would vastly increase in 
value, and be much more appreciated in the hot, 
than in the cold weather, when they are often a 
drug in the market. 
The 1 Guugolee ' and the ' Bbhari ' lemons are not 
very commo . They are either oval or pear-shaped — 
some are purse-shaped, like the large ' Behari ' lemon 
of Lucknow. From Jhansi, I received a very curi- 
ous citius, probably belonging to this group. It was 
thin-skinned, and with a diameter of 1} inches, it 
had a length of 3£ inches. There they app ar to 
call it 'Kaghzi nimboo,' but this might only mean 
that it is thin-skinned ; not haviug seen the tree I 
am in doubt whether this variety is a lemon or a 
true lime. 
Considering that many varieties of orange, citron 
and lemon are indigenous iu this country, in my 
opinion, the citrus trade of India is absurdly small. 
It would admit of great expansion with profit to 
the grower and tho consumer; and now with the 
network of Indian railways already made, and an- 
nually increasing, there are, I should think, few 
places to which some variety of citrus could not be 
carried in a short space of time. There is probably 
no part of India, from the Himalayas to Ceylon, 
and from Sylhet and Bhootan, to Siodh and Bom- 
bay, where either one variety or another might not 
bo largely and profitably grown. 
As I have shown, in the case of the Mandarin 
and Malta oranges, every soil and every climate 
will not suit all kinds of oranges, lemons, &c. This 
is a great advantage, as every soil and climate could 
then create a speciality of one or more varieties of 
citrus, which would be best suited to that locality. 
In this way, the varieties would not compete with 
each other, and thus flood the markets with the 
same kind at the same time. 
From what I have seen of the different varie- 
ties of citrus in India, I might here, perhaps, 
sketch a sort of geographical distribution of the 
best kinds, which would find favor with the^ public. 
Of course, this sketch is very imperfect. 
Gujranwiila and Jaunpore might grow, with ad- 
vantage, the late blood and other Malta oranges. 
Nepal — its sweet little ' Suntolah, ' and its fine round 
sour lemon. * Bhootan and the Eastern hills, the 
' Kamla lemboo', Delhi, Nagpore, and Ceylou their 
own fine special Suntara. That of Ceylon is the 
so-called ' green ' orange. Then the highlands of 
Bengal might perhaps grow the choice Mandarin 
orange, where it would be out of the influence of 
I hot wiuds. Burmah might bo found also suitable 
for this fine orange. Tanjoro might grow its fine 
' Maudir ' and Pondicherry its ' citron,' Aurangabad, 
Deccan, its fine warty ' Keoula,' the best of its 
kind I have been seen. Poona might make a 
speciality of, and improve, its flat ' Laroo,' another 
kind of ' Keonla,' and also its furrowed ' Mussembi,' 
of the Malta type. Bombay, or wherever it is grown, 
would do a service, if it made a speciality of its 
fine, thin-skinned round, red, and juicy pummelow, 
and supply half India with it. This unique pum- 
melow would probably also export well to England. 
From Mooltau and Siudh would come the best 
flavoured ' Sherbetee nimboo,' or sweet lemon. 
Although this can be grown iu other places, it is 
not so well flavoured. Encknow might make a 
speciality of its fine tanjo 'behari nimboo,' and 
its ' Kaghzi Kalan.' In this locality also grow well 
the Sylhet variety of 'Suntara' originally raised 
from seed and the 'Paenbagh ' orange. Lahore, 
then, has its prutty pear-shaped ' Kama. ' The 
large, Sour and juicy lemou, called ' Gulgul, ' grows 
well iu the Punjab, Kumaou and Sahiruupur, and 
on the borders of Nepal, and would probably grow 
well in other places, as I saw it growing well 
iu Benares. Finally, the Malta lemou and the 
different varieties of true limes appear to grow 
well all over India, and as they «r<< very iitctul 
both medicinally uid for v.i b do-nciie p, v ... .. 
it would lie a (Treat advantage to grow tttonl, not 
* Called Nepal lime 
