CITRUS. 
626 
difficult to determine what is a variety, and what a fpe- 
cies in this genus. The trees in the eaftern countries, 
their natural place of growth, vary not only in the lize 
and (hape of the fruit, but alfo in the leaves, as appears 
abundantly from the figures in Rumphius. Many of 
thofe which are efteemed to be varieties only in Europe, 
and are given here as fuch, in their native woods preferve 
their differences, fuch as they are ; and there engrafting 
and inoculating thele trees is unknown, but they are left 
in a (late of nature. 
Species. 1. Citrus medica. Its varieties are, citrus me- 
dica, or fweet citron : fruit, with a thick rough rind. Ci¬ 
trus tuberofa, or common citron : fruit, with a rough 
knobbed rind. Citrus limon, or common lemon : leaves 
ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, fubferrate. Citrus acris, or 
four lemon, or lime : leaves ovate, entire ; branches lotne- 
what thorny. Citrus racemofa, or cluttered lemon: 
leaves ovate-lanceolate, fubferrate j fruit in clutters ; pe¬ 
tioles linear, in all the varieties. In its wild Itate this 
tree grows to the height of about eight feet, ereCt and 
prickly, with long reclining branches; leaves ovate-ob¬ 
long, alternate, fubferrate, fmooth, pale green ; flowers 
white, odoriferous, on many-flowered terminating pe¬ 
duncles ; fruit, a berry, half a foot in length, ovate, with 
a protuberance at the tip, nine-celled, or thereabouts 5 
the pulp white, commonly acid ; the rind yellow, thick, 
liardifli, odoriferous, irregular; fruit, efcuient, both raw 
and preferved. Properly there are two rinds, the outer 
thin, with innumerable miliary glands full of a moll fra¬ 
grant oil; the inner thick, white, and fungous; the par¬ 
titions confift of two very thin diaphanous membrana¬ 
ceous plates, connected.at the axis, and inferted into the 
rind at the periphery ; the cells are filled with a bladdery 
pulp. In each cell are a few feeds, commonly one or tv$o, 
lometimes three or four. 
The Englilh gardens are fupplied with feveral varieties 
of the citron from Genoa, which is the great nurfery for 
the feveral parts of Europe of this, as well as lemons and 
oranges.' The gardeners who cultivate them there are 
as fond of introducing a new variety into their collec¬ 
tion, as nurfery-men in England are of obtaining a new 
pear, apple, or peach. The fruit of the citron is feldom 
eaten raw, but is generally preferved, and made into 
fweet-meats; which being kept till winter and fpring, 
■when there is a fcareity of fruit to furnilh out the defert, 
is the more valuable; but, unlefs the feafon be warm, 
and the trees well managed, the fruit rarely ripens in 
England. The fairelt fruit growing here was in the gar¬ 
den of the duke of Argyle at Whitton, where the trees 
were trained againft a louth wall, through which there 
were flues for warming the air in winter, and glafs covers 
to put over them, when the weather began to be cold. 
Thus the fruit was as large, and as perfectly ripe, as it is 
in Italy or Spain. The citron is a native of all the warm 
regions of Afia. Being introduced into Europe from Me¬ 
dia, it had the name of malus medica. It feems to have 
come into Italy after the age of Virgil and Pliny, but be¬ 
fore that of Palladius, who appears firft to have cultivated 
it with any fuccefs there. According to Haller, the Me¬ 
dian apple, defcribed'by Theophraftus, is certainly a fort 
of orange ; which fruit, according to Athenseus, firft tra¬ 
velled into Greece from Perfia. If the Median apple be 
the orange, the trifles fucci of Virgil, and the acres medulla 
of Palladius, mult have been much corrected by culture; 
the latter authors, Theophraftus and Pliny, both fpeak of 
it as not eatable, though ,tliey celebrate its medical quali¬ 
ties far above its defert. 
‘The lemon-tree. The lemon differs from the orange ma¬ 
terially, both in the naked footftalks of the leaves, and in 
the,{hape and colour of the fruit; but there is fcarcely 
any diltinCtion between this and the citron. The rind of 
the fruit, indeed, is generally thicker and more knobbed 
in the citron than in the lemon ; it is alfo longer and 
more irregular. Mr. Miller adds, that the bark of the 
citron-tree is fmoother, and the wood lefs knotty. 
Manv varieties of the lemon are preferved In fome of 
the Italian gardens, and in both the Indies there are feve¬ 
ral which have not yet been introduced to the European, 
gardens; but thele may be multiplied without end from 
feeds. 
The moft remarkable varieties in the Englifli gardens 
are, 1. The fweet lemon, plain and variegated. 2. The 
pear-fhaped lemon. 3. The imperial lemon. 4. The le¬ 
mon called Adam’s apple. 5. The furrowed lemon. 6. 
The childing lemon. 7. The lemon with double flowers. 
8. Browne mentions the St. Helena lemon as having been 
then lately introduced to Jamaica, and much cultivated 
there, on account of its large fruit, which frequently 
yields above half a pint of juice. 9. In China, and other 
parts ot the eaft, they have a remarkable variety of lemon 
or citron, which has a folid fruit, without any cells or 
pulp, and divided above the middle into five or more 
long round parts, a little crooked, and having the' ap¬ 
pearance of the human hand with the fingers a little bent; 
whence the Chinefe call it phat thu, or fingered lemon. It 
is a monftrous fruit, a mere curioflty without any ufe. 
The common and fweet lemon are brought to England 
from Spain and Portugal in great plenty ; but the iatter 
is not much efteemed. The pear-lhaped lemon is a fmail 
fruit, with very little juice. The fruit of the imperial 
lemon is fometimes imported from Italy, but not from 
Spain or Portugal; probably, therefore, it is not propa¬ 
gated in either of thofe countries. The Portuguefe had 
many of the moft curious forts of orange, lemon, and 
citron, trees, brought from the Indies formerly, which 
feemed to thrive almoft as well there as in their native 
foil, and yet they have not been increafed. There are a 
few trees Hill remaining in fome negleCted gardens near 
Lilbon, almoft unnoticed by the inhabitants. The lemon 
was cultivated in the botanic garden at Oxford, in 1648. 
The four lemon, or lime, grows in it§ native country 
to the height of about eight feet, with a crooked trunk, 
and many diffufed branches, which have prickles on them; 
leaves ovate-lanceolate, almoft quite entire; flowers few 
together, on terminating peduncles; corolla oblong,white, 
with a purplilh fpot j ltamens twenty in feveral parcels; 
berry an inch and a half in diameter, almoft globular, 
with a protuberance at the tip; the furface regular, (hilling, 
greenifh-yellow, with a very odorous rind; within nine- 
celled, or thereabouts, abounding in a very acid juice, 
but having very few fubovate feeds. It is a native of 
Afia, but lias long been common and much efteemed in 
the Weft Indies. Browne fays, that in Jamaica it is a 
bufliy flirub, much railed there for the fake of its fruit, 
and not unfrequently planted for fences 5 that, when it 
grows luxuriantly, it is feldom under twelve or fourteen 
feet in height, and fpreads gently about the top, but that 
it is often Hunted, and of a fmaller ftature. They have 
alfo a fweet lime, which is generally a more upright tree, 
and bears a fruit, which, in fize as well as form, feems to 
hold a mean between the lime and the lemon. The juice 
is very infipid, but the bark and fibres of the root have 
much of that bitter peculiar to the lime. There is 
no doubt but that any one who would be at the pains 
of purfuing the fubjeCl in the native abode of thele 
fruits, would deteCt varieties connecting all that are 
here delivered as fpecies; not only the citron with the 
lemon and lime, which are certainly no more than varie¬ 
ties, but tbefe alfo with the Ihaddock and the orange, 
which are hardly to be confidered as fpecificaliy diftinCt. 
Mr. Miller affirms, that he h^s never known the common 
lemon vary to the lime when railed from leeds, nor the 
lime vary to the lemon ; but that he has always found 
them continue their difference in leaf and branch; he 
therefore fuppofes them to be fpecificaliy different. The 
lime is not often brought to England, nor is it much 
cultivated in Europe ; but in the Weft Indies the fruit 
is preferred to the lemon, the juice being reckoned more 
wholefome, and the acid being more agreeable to the palate. 
z. Citrus aurantium, the orange; petioles winged; 
leaves 
