The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1884-10-08
CHAPTER ".
HISTORY or ME cIrRus.

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HISTORY OF TIE CITRUS.
ART. II.-Iacestgations concerning Lem
oa a,td Orange Trees Jnknowp to tie
1acde@ts-baproperl confounded witk
the apple Of Hesperides-Acclimdte
recently IA 1frica-Opinions concerning
their Origin.
Pliny's Natural History speaks Of two
plants seeming to the casual glance to
have points OF resemblance with the
cjtrus-one is the citre of Africa, the 9TH
er the thyam.
The following occurs as foot-note in
the original
Among the writer's who have spoken
of the tables citre (citred mensd, Peton, }
of which the ancients made so great ac-
count, some have thought that they were
OF the wood of the citron, others of the
juniper, the arbor-vite, the savin, the
acacia, or the almug of Scripture. (1st
Kings, 10, 12.)
But nothing else than the identity OF
name and exorbitant price of these ta-
bles among the Romans could have Civ
EN- rise to these two opinions, equally
unfounded.
1t is very true that the word citrus has
been indifterently employed by the Lat
ins, to designate the African citre Citrus
lybica, Narron: citrus otlantica, Martial !;
and the citron tree of Media, citrus aeed-
ica.)
We have Of this many examples, not
admitting OF doubt; nevertheless, it APP
pears that this name belonged originally
to the ,cttre of Africa, and was given to
the citron long after as a synonym OF
apple of Media. All the writers OF the
.Augustan era have applied it to the citrt
of Africa. We see this in Horace, Mar
tial, Petronius and Lucan.
Pliny is, perhaps, the first to use citrus
as a synonym of ponaDle de medic, but he
gives it also to the citre dtIdntigue, and it
is because of an error in some transla-
tiOns we see GrbOr cedri. The more ex-
act editions have arbor citri. asa
1t is difficult to determine what has
caused this confusion. 1t is not to be
attributed to any similarity between the
plants, when the descriptions left us by
the ancients prove that they were really
two very different species.
We have already seen what Theophras-
tus, Virgil and Pliny have said of the
.citron. | will now examine what Pliny
SAYS of the oitre atlantigue: "The citre, !"
he saws, (book 13,) is a tree resembling
and in general appearance. The cy-
pless, among botanists, has not trees
male and trees female; it is monecian
plant, carrying the sexes upon one foot,
but there is variety known among cul-
tivators as the female tree, having spread
ing branches. 1t seems the ,ancients
called this cspres male. They designate
under the name of cypress fenaelle, the
ordinary cyprus, regarded by us as the
type of the species, and in our countries
called male cyprus.
Millar says that the cyprus with
spreading branches is peculiar species ;
but all accustomed to cultivate it, con-
slider it as variety, and can affirm
that ] have seen this spreading cyprus
grow among pyramidal cyprus, in seed
beds, where the seed had been gathered
from cyprus, very close and smooth.
This is one of the facts which have
driven me to searchlfor the cause of these
alterations to be seen among all plants
But, whatever may be said of this vari-
ETY., it is always certain that the citre OF
Africa resembles the cyprus, and that it
has a .pyramidal form, very smooth,
which distinguishes it from juniper and
arbor-vite.
We must then ascertain if there exists
~ SpCClCo VI Auc WMOoC MOOO 10 pOetu-
tifll enough to make these precious ta-
bles, costing, as Pliny says, one million
four hundred sesterces ($56,000.)
ON rejecting upon the description of
thisfurniture by the Latin naturalist, it
appears to me that it's beauty depended
not so much upon the natural quality OF
the tree, as upon accidents which accom-
pany, nearly always, the part Of its wood
of which they were made.
Pliny says the tables were made of the
roots or the knots of the trees, and adds
that they were esteemed because of the
veins of different coIors, or of irregular
and cspricious waves with which they
were mottled, and which gave them a
resemblance to the skin OF tiger, or
panther, or even to the tail of the pea
cock.
\ Now these waves and veins are ia the
roots of most of these trees, and chiefly
in protuberances or exostoses, produced
perhaps by a derangement in thescoufSe