The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1884-10-01
CHAPTER ".
HISTORY OF THE CITRUS.

HISTORY OF TIE CITRUS.
, ART. II.-Incestigdtioas coucerni,,g Lem
on aud Orange Trees Unkno,cn to the
-1mcients-Im Improperly confounded Uith
the Apple Of Hesperides-A cclimated
recently IA Africa-Opinions concerning
their Origin.
Pliny's Natural History speaks OF two
plants seeming to the casual glance to
have points of resemblance with the
citrus-one is the citye of Africa, the 9TH
er the Mydm.
The following occurs as foot-note in
the original:
Among the writers who have spoken
OF the tables citse (citred mensa, 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-vitse, the savin the
acacia, or the almug of Scripture Nst
Kings, 10, 12.9
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
tybicd, Narron: citrus atldnticq, Martial;
and the citron tree Of Media, citrus med
icd.)
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 synonym of
apple of Media. All the writer's of the
ho
of Africa. Ne see this in Horace, Mar
tial, Petronius and Lucan.
Pliny is, perhaps, the first to use citrus
as a synonym of poa,nle de medie, but he
gives it also to the citre dtlantigue, and it
is because of an error in some transla-
tions we see GrbOr cedri. The more ex-g
act editions have drbor citri.
1t is difficult to determine what has
caused this confusion. 1t is not to he
attributed to any similarity between the
&fplants, when the descriptions left us by
the ancients prove that they were really
two very different species.
We havealready seen what Theophras-
tus, Virgil and Pliny have said of the
citron. l will now examine what Pliny
says of the citre dtlGntigue ''The citre,"
he says, (book 13,) is tree resembling
the wild female cyprus in leaf, in color,
and in general appearance" The cy-
press, 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 c9pres male. They designate
under the name of cypress femeVe, 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 a 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 search for 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 pyranlidal form, very smooth,
which distinguishes it from juniper and
arbor-vit9.
We must then ascertain III there exists
II species of cyprus whose wood is beau
tiful enough to make these precious ta-
hles, costing, as Pliny says, one million
6eur hundred sesterces $50 ,N0O.)f T
ON rejecting upon the description Of
this furniture by the Latin naturalist, it
appears to me that its beauty depended
mot 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.
Plinv saws tha ta alagas AVprp mn a6Q of tha
roots or the knots of the trees, and adds
that they were esteemed because Of the
veins OF different colors, or of irregular
and eapricious 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 theseswayesi and veins arein the
roots OF most OF these trees, and chiefly
in protuberanccs or exostoSes, produced
perhaps by arrangement in the course