The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1884-09-24
CHAPTER ".
HISTORY OF THE CITRUS.

HISTORY OF THE CITRUS.
ART. H.-Inrestigation concerning Lem
on and Orange Trees Jnkn0wn TO the
-Ancients-Improperly contounded rith
the 1pple Of Hesperides-Acclimdted
recently Ia Afica-OpiniOns concerning
their Origin.
When the lemon and orange trees were
brought into Europe, the citron had been
naturalized several centuries, but as this
event occurred in times of ignorance and
barbarism, it has remained buried in
the shade which covers the history of
that period.
When the study of science and litera-
ture began to revive and to diffuse light
in Europe, these two species of plants
were no longer new; they had become
so multiplied that traces of their trans
migration remained. Because of this
most writer's have confounded their his
tory with that of the .citron, and have
thought that they, like the citron, had
been known in Italy since the first cen
turies of the Roman empire.
The fable of the Hesperides has helped
to confirm this error. The golden color
of the orange, and even its name, have
aided this confusion of the fruits in the
mind, which was also very congenial to
the taste for the marvellous reigning at
that period. Thus has this fruit been
accepted by all the world as the golden
apple OF the daughter of Atlas.
In vain have linguists said that the
Greek word translated apple could as
well be rendered .fock, and that the fable
refes to the sheep with golden fleece car
ried off by Hercules. In vain has it also
been said that the golden apples of the
poets might be coins, which, by their
color, assisted this allegory; the most
celebrated critics have persisted in be-
lieving them to be oranges
The Hesperides we're placed by some
geographers in an African island, thought
to be no other than the Fortunate isles
(Canaries,) now covered by great
quantity of oranges !; and by others, upon
the west coast of Africa, whose warm
climate is specially suited to the culture
of this tree; all this gave rise to the be-
lief that, i'll their voyages on this coast,
the Egyptians and Greeks, having found
orange groves, had from this the fable of
Hercules and the enchanted gardens of
the Hesperides.
1t is easy to show the folly of this
opinion. The fable speaks of Hercules
stealing golden apples in this wonderful
garden, yet makes no mention of a tree
as delicious for shade as it is agreeable
by the perfume of its flowers.
Ovid said its branches and leaves were
of gold and it is easy to be convinced
by the manner in which Homer and
Hesiod speak, that this tree owed its ex-
istence to the imagination of poets who
had invented golden apples but to en-
bellish and brighten their picture by the
idea OF the precious metal. The Hes
40, l..
coast OF Africa. They were, perhaps,
upon the sea-coast of the Cape de Nerd
islands, or else in the Canaries, which
were known to the ancients under the
name OF Fortunate isles. Now, in these
places, which certainly have been visit
ed by Anonus, and perhaps by other
voyagers before and since him, not only
is the orange not indigenous, but it was
not found except where it had been car
ried by Europeans. If we examine the
description made by Anonus, in his Per-
iplus, of the coast he had visited, and
that which Scyllias wrote of the gardens
OF the Hesperides, we shall find no
mention III either OF this tree, although
Scyllias has described exactly all that
he found. The Hesperi&es, according
ITO Strabon, were in an island of Libyia
Gieorg. I'd bk., p. S4), and Scyllias de-
scribes the garden (in PeHiplo, p. 46).
Is it to be presumed that ahese writer's
had seen it and were not impressed by
the sight, as wece travellers who prece-
ded them? | have noticed the same
silence among the first voyagers who,
under Prince Henry of Portugal, discov-
cred all this coast / have 7ttentively
read the narrations of Alvisa da Cada-
mostG, the history of BarTos, the voyage
OF Nasco de CANA, and many others,
and have not found a passage which
could refer to the orange this side the
Cape of Good Hope.
Notwithstanding these travellers have
not forgotten to speak of those they saw
in Ethiopia, or country of Petre Jean.
They remark at Medeira the tree which
they call eedye, also the lotus, already
mentioned by Scyllias. They tell us the
shores OF the Cape de Verde and neigh
boring isles are pleasantly ornamented
by trees always green, but which they