The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1884-10-08

of the sap. We see it in all the species
in our southern climate, and principally
in the stump or the roots of the olive,
the walnut, the box-tree, and in knots
and lunches OF woods most sought by
the cabinet-maker- 1t would be nothing
strange if these precious tables were
made of the ordinary cypress, which,
grown in Africa, has perhaps more color.
We can believe that at this period,
Mt. Atlas was still covered with those
old trees which date from the creation,
and whose roots have acquired in the
long course of centuries, remarkable PEE
culiarties due to old age.
B The forests of Madeira and of America
offer like examples; they have furnished
and still supply, trees of immense size
and rare beauty But they vanish with
time, and their description will be for
our posterity an object of admiration,
astOnisment and doubt.
Pliny says Mount Ancorarius, which
had been so famous for its trees, offered
none in his time. e
7 Perhaps the cyprus of Mount Ancora
RUS is OF the same species as that found
in Southern America, known as cypres
chd@ce, (cupressu disticha, L.)
This tree (Dupraz' History of Louis
lanai grows to great size, and has pro-
tuberances or exostoses, which, at inter
walls cross the roots, and grow above the
surface of the ground, like boundary
posts. This comedies with what Pliny
said of the African citre, in speaking of
Nonaio's table, which was nearly four
feet in diameter.
However this may be, it is certain that
the African citre has nothing in common
with our citron; this tree furnishes no
wood much desired by cabinet-workers :;
we never see it in the workshops of
Europe, where it does not attain su1fi-
cient size to make planks, and where the
wood of it could only be had after frost
had killed the tree, in which case it
would scarcely be fit for working
The few we know have qualities maxi
ing them as precious as the tables Of the
ancients. And we think that though the
citron tree may be more abundant III
Media, yet its wood is by nature tho
same as ours.
The orange tree has not enough trunk
to be seryiceable as wood. 1t owes to its
branches, which spread themselves, its
resemblance to the walnut; when de-
spoiled of these, it presents very little
wood fit for use. According to Herrera
the orange and lemon of Spain have but
little wood. The orange is sometimes
used for delicate inlaid work it is very
beautiful and durable. sFA . ~ gs =
Perhaps they also llse the wood in In
dia, bat in Europe I think furniture is
never made of it. l have worked some
small pieces, and find that it receives
polish, and that its clear yellow color is
pretty, but it is not remarkably so.
But the citre presents no other like
ness than its name, which has singular
identity with that of the citron; and
MyGm, whose name has no sort of con-
nection with either citron or lemon,
shows only some equivOcal features
which arrest attention, but, on eXamin-
alton, have in common with. the lemon.
Pliny, who is the only one to speak OF
the thy00e, made a vague description of
it, yet explicit enough to distinguish it
from the lemon. He says: "The plant
was sought by one, and rejected with
horror by another, because of its odor
and it's bitterness, and some use it as an
ornament to houses" PLINY, blk. Is,
G.. Is.
These characteristics do not belong to
the lemon 1t is, in truth, very proper
to adorn houses, either on the outside,
disposed against trellis, or within,
placed in vases for decorating apart
ments; but surely no person ever rejec-
ted with horror the lemon for its odor,
which is most sweet, or for the bitter
ness of the skin, which is corrected by
an aroma so agreeable, and which never
affects the pulp, the principal part of this
fruit. These two pecularities would
seem sufficient proof that the Mydm of
Pliny is not the lemon.