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

! the regions they had conquered, or to the
adjoining countries.
Fond Of medicine and agriculture, in
which they have Specially excelled, and
of the pleasures of the open country, in
which they have Always delighted, they
continued to profit with eagerness from
the advantages offered by their settle
ments and the hot climates which they
inhabited.
Indeed, it is to- hem that we owe the
! knowledge OF maty plants, perfumes,
and Oriental arolpatics, such as musk,
nutlnegs, mace ana cloves
! 1t was the Arabs who naturalized i'll
| Spain, Sardinia, and Sicily, the cotton
tree OF Africa, and sugar-cane of India
and in their medicines we for the first
! hear OF the CHEMICAL change known as
| distillation, which appears to have ORR
ginated in desire TO steal from nature
the perfumes of flowers and aroma OF
fruits.
| 1t is, then, not surprising that we are
indebted to them for the acclimatization
of the orange and lemon trees, in Syria,
Africa, and some European islands.
1t is certain thatthe orange was known
to their physicians from the commence
ment of the fJurth century of the Hegi-
ra. The Damascene has given, in his
Antidotary, the recipe for making oil,
with oranges and their seeds (oleun, de
citrdnguld, ct oIcdm dc citranqutorun,
seminibus. Mat. Silv., f. So, and Avi-
cenna, who died in 42S of the Hegira
(1O50(, has added the juice of the big
arade to his syruppf alkedere, set succi
acetositdtis citri (otrodI ct Succi dcetosi-
tatis citranguE narendD."
| These two Arabians seem to have first
employed 1t in medicine. have exam
ined with care the authors Of this nation
who preceded these, and find in no other
the least hint in relating to these species.
Mesue, even, who speaks of the citron,
says not word of orange or lemon.
have observedy on the contrary, that
Avicenna, in giving his recipe for making
syrup of alkedere, in which he puts
juice of the Digarade, announces it as a
composition Of hisspw1l invention.
This circumstansa Would indicate thai
this fruit had beesAfsal9Nn bat u shor
4 time in Persia bufsil 3LiIlices that it Wai
cultivated to proye tIi4t il might, at once,
pass into Irak (prols bly Irak Arabee, in
Asiatic Turkey, comprising Bagdad,
Trdias.), and into Syria. These countries
which joined, Were also connected by
political ties, which facilitates commu-
nication, and their inhabitants were
! more civilized then than before or since.
A passage by Massoudi, reported by
the learned NJ de tSacy in the notes to
his translation of Abd-Allatif, writer
of the twelfth century of our era, seems
to confirm our ideas upon this subject,
and to determine this event. 1t accords
with all the data just given, and with
historic facts that we have collected.
He expressed himself thus: "Theround
citron (otrodj modawar) was brought
from India since the year three hundred
of the Hegira ii was first sowed in
Oman, (part of Arabia, Irdns.,) from
thence carried to Irak, part of Old Per
STA, Trans. Syria, Becoming very COM
mon in the houses @of Tarsus and other
frontier cities of Syria, at Antioch upon
the coasts OF Syriaj in Palestine and i'll
Egypt. One knewit not before, but it
lost much OF the sweet odor, and fine
color which it hadiin India, because it
had not the same lclimate, soil and all
that which is peculiar to that country"
The lemon Appeared perhaps little
later in these different countries, for we
see no mention Oft either in the Da-
mascus or in Avicdnna, but its descrip-
ton meets our eyd in all the works of
Arabian writers oftthe twelfth century
especially in EbnR eitar, who has given
to it an article in Ms dictionary of SIM
pie remedies. Tho Latin translation of
this article was Published in Paris i'll
1902 by Andres BaIunense. The Impe-
rial library contain several manuscripts
of this dictionary.