CITRUS. 
628 
very refpeCtable place in the Materia Medica. The fort 
principally employed in medicine is the Seville orange, 
the juice of which is well known to be a grateful acid 
liquor, which, by allaying heat, quenching thirft, and 
promoting various excretions, proves of confiderable ufe 
in febrile and inflammatory diforders. It is alfo confi- 
dered as a powerful antifeptic, and of great efficacy in 
preventing and curing the fcurvy. The juice of the China 
or common orange poffeffes the fame qualities in an in¬ 
ferior degree. The acid of oranges by uniting with the 
bile, is laid to take off its bitternefs; and hence Dr. 
Cullen thinks it “ probable that acid fruits taken in, are 
often ufeful in obviating the diforders that might arile 
from the redundancy of bile, and perhaps from the acrid 
quality of it. On the other hand, however, if the acids 
are in greater quantity than can be, or are, properly cor¬ 
rected by the bile prefent, they leem by home union with 
that fluid, to acquire a purgative quality that gives a 
diarrhoea, and the cholic pains that are ready to accom¬ 
pany the operation of every purgative.” Not only the 
juice, but the rind or peel, of the Seville orange, is of 
confiderable medical efficacy; fince, befides its ufe as a 
ltomachic, it has been much celebrated in intermittent 
levers; and in teftimony of its efficacy in the molt obfti- 
nate agues, we find feveral authorities cited by profeffor 
Murray. It has alfo been experienced as a powerful re¬ 
medy in menorrhagia, and in immoderate uterine evacua¬ 
tions ; and for its good effeCls in thele diforders, we have 
not only the affections of foreign phyficians, but alfo 
thofe of doftors Whytt and Hamilton. It gives out its 
flavour and tafte readily to water, and is ufeful in all fla¬ 
tulences, in whatever form it be given; it alfo fits better 
on the ftomach than moll other corroborants. The leaves 
of the orange are not without their virtues, and in parti¬ 
cular, as alfo the flowers, have been celebrated in convul- 
five diforders; and have been fuccefsfully given in the 
dofe of a dram at a time in nervous and hylterical cafes. 
The virtues of citrus limon, or lemon, are alfo very 
confiderable. Its juice, as an antifcorbutic, is very gene¬ 
rally carried on-board ffiips deltined for long voyages. 
Taken to the quantity of four or fix ounces a-day, it has 
been found to cure the jaundice. Dr. Whytt lound it 
fuccefsful in allaying hylterical palpitations of the heart. 
The rind is a very grateful aromatic bitter, not lo hot as 
orange-peel, and yields in diftillation lefs quantity of the 
oil: it is fimilar in qualities, however, to that of the 
orange, and is employed in the fame intentions. Citrus 
medica, or citron, is of fimilar virtues alfo ; the fruit is 
more flavoured than that of the lemon, and the rind ads 
more as an emetic; it is the yellow rind which is ufed, 
and from it, efpecially fome of its varieties, the perfume 
called bergamot is extracted. Citrons are very rarely kept 
in the ftiops, though formerly much ufed in the Materia 
Medica. -The median apple, whether it were the citron 
or the orange, was celebrated anciently for correcting 
unlavoury breaths, as a cure for the althma, and for ex¬ 
pelling poifon. 
3t Citrus decumana, or Shaddock : petioles winged ; 
leaves obtufe, emarginate. The lhaddock was originally 
regarded by Linnaeus only as a variety of the orange, to 
which it certainly makes very near approaches. It differs 
in the fuperior fize of the fruit; in having the flowers 
growing more in bunches, and thofe bunches being fome- 
what tomentofe. It is a tree above the middle fize, with 
fpreading prickly branches. Leaves ovate, fubacute, fel- 
dom obtufe, very feldom emarginate, fmooth, fcattered ; 
petioles cordate-winged, the wings as broad as the leaves. 
Flowers white, very fweet-fcented, in copious upright 
terminating bunches. Corollas reflex. Stamens about 
twenty, nearly equal to the petals, collected into a many- 
cleft tube. Berry fpheroidal, frequently retufe at each 
end, eight inches in diameter, of an even furface, green¬ 
ish yellow, divided into twelve or more cells, containing 
ibras & red, others a white, pulp; the juice in fome fweet, 
3 
in others acid. The rind is very thick, white, fungous, 
bitter, ufelefs. Seeds ovate, fubacute, ttvo or three in 
each cell. 
There are many varieties of this tree; one of which, 
fuperior to the rell in the flavour and fmell of the fiuit, 
has a fmaller trunk, and fubglobular fruit, five inches in 
diameter, yellow on the outfide, white and very fweet 
within. In China it is called biamyuen, in Cochinchina 
huong ien, which fignifies fweet ball. Thunberg defcribes 
the fruit in Japan as being the fize of a child’s head ; and 
fays, that it may be kept many weeks on fliip-board, if 
it be hung up ; chat the juice is of a fubacid lweetnefs, 
and excellent for quenching thirft. It is a native of 
India, and is common both in China and Cochinchina; 
as it is alfo in Japan, where it was introduced from Ba¬ 
tavia. It is found alfo in the Friendly Klands. It was 
brought to the Weft Indies in an Eaft-India (hip by cap¬ 
tain Shaddock, from whom it has there received its name. 
The Dutch call it pompelmoes. The fruit has greatly de¬ 
generated fince it has been in the Weft Indies, by raffing 
the trees from feeds; the greateft part of which produce 
harfli four fruit, with a pale yellow pulp; whereas if they 
would have budded from a good fort, they might have 
continued it in perfection: but there are few perlons there 
who underftand the method of grafting or budding fruit- 
trees : and they are fo negligent of their fruits as to leave 
the whole to nature, feldom giving themlelves any far¬ 
ther trouble than to put the leeds into the ground, and 
leaving the reft to chance. In England it was cultivated 
by Mr. Miller in 1739. 
4. Citrus Japonica : petioles winged, leaves acute, Item 
flirubby. This is a fmall flrrub, and the fruit is no bigger 
than a cherry ; it ripens in December and January, and is 
very fweet and pleafant. It approaches to the citron in 
having the flowers axillary, but it has winged petioles 
like the orange ; from which, however, it differs in having 
only one or two axillary flowers, not panicled as in that. 
Native of Japan, where the fruit is ripe in December and 
January, and is very fweet and pleafant. 
5. Citrus trifoliata: leaves ternate, ferrate, with a mem¬ 
branaceous petiole; fpines axillary; flowers axillary, fo- 
litary. The fruit is bad, with a glutinous pulp. Stem 
nearly two yards in height; branches alternate, flatted, 
and angular, flexuofe, Ipreading very much, ftiff, very 
fmooth, thorny; thorns alternate, dilated and compreffed 
at the bafe, fpreading very much, acute, fmooth, yellow 
at the end, an inch in length; corolla white; ftamens 
double the length of the petals. This flnub forms ftrong 
hedges in Japan, with its long, ftiff, ffiarp, thorns. It 
flowers in April with leaflefs branches to May, when the 
leaves burft forth. The fruit is laxative. 
Propagation and Culture. All the trees of this kind 
may be raifed and treated in the lame manner as is here 
direCled for the orange. 
Where the trees are to be raifed for ftocks to bud 
oranges, you fhould procure fome citron-feeds which 
were duly ripened ; for the ftocks of this kind are pre¬ 
ferable to any other, both forquicknefs of. growth, as alfo 
that they will take buds of either orange, lemon, or ci¬ 
tron ; next to thefe are the Seville orange feeds. The 
belt leeds are ufually to be had from rotten fruits, which 
are commonly eafy to be procured in the fpring of the 
year ; then prepare a good hot-bed, of either horle-dung 
or tanners baik ; the lail of which is much better, if you 
can eafily procure it. When this bed is in a moderate 
temper for heat, you mull fow your feeds in pots of good 
rich earth, and plunge them into the hot-bed ; obferving 
to give them water frequently, and raife the glaffes in the 
great heat of the day, to give proper air, left the feeds 
lhould fuffer by too great heat ; in three weeks time 
your leeds will come up, and if the young plants are not 
Hinted, either for want of proper heat or moilture, they 
will be, in a month’s time after their appearance, fit to 
transplant into Angle pots; you mull therefore renew 
youf 
