The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1884-10-15
CHAPTER IN.

CHAPTER IN.
ART III-Search forthe Ndticc Country
of the Lemon and Orange Trees-Ori-
ginaIly from I,1did-Possage into Ara-
bid, Syria and Egypt-Brought to En-
rope by the Etymology Of
their Namcs-ProgreSs of their Culture
Origin Of Orangeries.
The orange and lemon trees were un
known to the Romans, therefore they
could only have been indigenous in
country where this great people had
never penetrated. We all know the vast
extent of this empire, yet commercial
relations extend themselves always far
beyond political bounds. If these trees
had been cultivated in places open to
the traffic of the Romans, their fruits
would have become at once the delight
of the tables of Rome, given up to luXu-
ry. They could not then have been cul-
tivated at this period, except in the re-
mote parts of India, beyond the Ganges.
The north of Europe and of Asia, it is
true, were equally unknown to the Ro-
mans, but their climates were not at all
suited to these plants.
The interior and west coasts of africa,
although in great part deserts and desti-
tute of the moisture necessary to the
orange, enclosed nevertheless, fertile
districts where it might have thriven.
But the state of culture of the tree at
the present time in that country, and the
historic facts proving to us that it was
not naturalized there till long after,
make us certain that it was entirely un-
known there as well.as in Europe.
1t is true, that at the time of discove-
ry of the Cape of Good Hope, the Por-
tuguese found many citrons and bigar-
ocfn - A fvsiO
and i'm the part of Ethiopia where -Ro-
mans had never penetrated; but they
found these trees only in gardens, and
i'll state of domesticity, and we do not
know but the Arabs, who had cultivated
them in Egypt, in Syria, and in Barbary,
had penetrated into these countries in
the first years of their conquests.
There remains, then, for us, only to
seek the native country of the orange in
Southern Asia-that is to say, in those
vast countries known under the gem
eral name of East Indies. But these
regions were i'll part known to the
Romans, who, since the discovery of the
monsoons made by Hippalus, carried
their maratime commerce as far as M,,zi-
no (Massera; an island off the south
east coast of Arabia, Irans.) by way of
the Red Sea, the navigation of which
employed great number of vessels, and
whose commerce, according to Pliny,
should have been valued at fifty million
sesterces ($2 900, 900, To- per annum.
Their fleets had penetrated even to
Portuns GebenitGraal, which appears to
be present Ceylon; and although these
VOYAGES cost them five years OF fatigue
and danger, nevertheless, the thirst for
gold and the luxury of Rome, had null
tiplied to the last degree the vessels en-
gagged in this trade.
We must believe, then, that the lemon
and orange did not exist in all that part
of the country this side the Indus, and
perhaps not even in all the part lying
between that river and the Ganges
otherwise these fruits would have been
extolled by the Roman merchants
where the citron was so much valued;
and we should find at least some mem
ton made of them in narratives and
VOYAGES descended to us from those an
eient times.
II we consult the description of the
coasts of India from the river Indus to
the Euphrates, which we have in the
VOYAGE of Nearchus, one of AleXander's
captains; that of the Troglodytes, and
coasts of the Indian Sea, by Arianus;
the voyage of Iambolus, reported by
Diodorus, of Sicily, where he gives de-
scription of an isle of the Indian Sea,
unknown before him, where he had been
thrown by storm; or, finally, the Indi-
an voyage by Pliny, we find not the least
indication of either orange, or even cit
ROM yet Nearchus carefully notes the
plants found in his course, and speaks
OF palms, myrtles and vines; of wheat;
and generally of all the trees of Asia,
except the olive. Arianus enlarges upon
the vegetable productions of those dis
tricts, giving the descriptions of those
found in public roads. Iambolus saw,
in the unknown island, which appears to
have been Sumatra, grain that we re-
cognize as maize; which has been intro
duced into Europe since the passage
round the Cape of Good Hope.
\ We must then admit that the lemon
and orange trees could not have origina-
ted but in the regions beyond the Ganges,
and that, in the early centuries Of the