The Florida agriculturist., 1884-09-17

| at first thought that the orinion of the
| learned Benedictines should0e set aside,
because the writer upon tile dtron taught
us that he himself had Possessions in
Naples and Sardinia; but fter little
reflection, see that it is e;sy to recon
cile their opinion with this'f;ct.
The Roman conquests hadmade of the
world but single familySt was then
not impossible for an inhahiant of Poic-
tiers to. have domains in ssardinia and
Naples. Moreover, have plserved that
Palladius often speaks Of 9pulia, who
wrote, according to Vossius about the
year 21S, under the Emperp Macrinus !;
he would, then, be posterior TO this phi
losopher. This fact migIitla ace our ag-
ricultural writer in the thiE century of
the Christian era, but as hs name does
not occur in any writingsib that time,
and as his Latin savors ofHhe decay OF
taste, readily believe that he is the
Palladius of Poictiers wh0lved in the
fifth century, according to theauthors of
the literary history of FraaeQ
In adopting this conjectun otherwise
well founded, we shall fixftle transmit
grafton of the citron into M;Y between
the third and fourth centuiE9f our era
But many other proof confIDme in this
opinion.
Florentinus, a Greek writelon agricul-
ture Of the Sd century, speakof the cit
ron as a tree cultivated not 0ry in warm
districts, but also in climatG where it
needed shelter.
In his tenth book he expresses himself
thus of the citron: The :itron-tree
should be planted near walls b as to be
protected on the north. InEinter it is
necessary to cover it withshounds of
straw and the vines of gouds. Rich
persons who live in magniEence and
luxury plant the citron unIr porticos
open to the south, based uph walls, and
they water it abundantly. In summer
they open the portico so bat the sun
can penetrate it to enlive and warm
| these plants. They TIem at the
approach of winter" I1
4 The citron, then, was alressk ks1lAi'sA1~ssSss
in the pleasure gardens oSSlhe great.
| and in Naples, where the ricles and eff
feminacy Of the court and pinces had
concentrated splendor and extvvagance !;
mildness of the climate was stfavorable
countries-neighbor and unied under
and so multiplied that it was Ot possi
Rome, to be cultivated in the grdens of
of Sicily, of the Campagnag d Rome,
and of Tusculum.
We must think it probable, ten, that
|, nj, al i,, ~ 4
Palestine at the time of Diosco1des and
J,osephus, passed into Italy aout the
third century, and that in the time of
Palladius it was grown not onlyin parts
of Italy, whose climate wouldallow it
to grow in the open air, but alo in dis
tricts less warm, where the luslry and
magnificence of Roman grantees built
country houses, embellished ~ art, at
great expense.
would not dare to assert tilt the cit
ron was at this time cultivated in Liguria
and Provence. These distries, which
owe so little to nature and somuch to
industry, had not begun to flourish until
after the barbaric invasions.
Maratime commerce created he great
er number of the small cities, onament-
ing since many centuries the step rocks
of Liguria; they date, for the most part,
after the eighth century, and tleir agri-
culture, which resulted from tlbir COM
mercial success, did not begin tIprosper
until the ninth century of our eh.
Liguria was in her greatest}Figor at
the tenth century, but she was 10 small
at the time of which we are tpeaking
that we cannot believe an exddc plant
was cultivated there which wouhl denote
a certain degree of civilization rot to be
found in Liguria at that time.
The culture Of this tree made back
ward steps in the part of Italy where the
climate had not permitted it tobecome
naturaliZed.
The barbarians, who effaced I'll traces
of luxury in overturning the dslightful
houses of the rich Romans, would de-
stroy this vegetable wherever ii exacted
care and expense for its existence, but
it might still prosper in the isles of the
Archipelago, in Sicily, in Sardiiia, and
in large part of the KingdoraI Of Ma
pies, countries remaining under the do
minion of the Greeks, and where polit-
ical catastrophes had not power to exer-
else their ravages upon its culture, it
being there no longer tree of luxury,
but naturalized plant, existing by the
cares of Nature.
1t was, then, from these countries that
the Ligurians took the citronin the ninth
or tenth centuries, since at that time
they covered the Mediterranean with
their vessels and began to contend with
the Venetians for the commerce of the
East