serves some trees which date from the years 1150 and 1200. Such is the Roman orange tree, already spoken of, and which is said to have been planted by St. Dominic.

Ferraris tells us that it has sour fruit, (acrium pomorum,) and that the rejeton or sprout of it, existing still, is of this species; " for I have myself examined and tasted the fruit."

This opinion, as to the acidity of the orange, is also confirmed by all remaining to us of our ancient writers relating to this tree.

To the testimony of De Vitry is added that of Simon Januarius, Silvaticus, Specialis, Falcandus, and many others.

Nicolas Specialis, in his history of the siege of Palermo, calls it the tree of sour apples (acripomo rum arbores); and Hugo Falcandus, in his history of Sicily, describes it in the following manner: Videas ibi, et lumias acetositate sua condiendis cibis idoneas, et arangias acetoso nihilominus humore plenas interius, que magis pulchritudine sua visum oblectant quam ad illud utiles videantur.

Finally, from the tenth to the fifteenth century, we find not a single passage in history which can relate to the sweet orange; and writers who have made mention of this tree, (the orange), directly or indirectly speak of it as a kind of sour fruit more agreeable to sight by its beauty, than to taste, by its juice.

Nevertheless, the sweet orange has existed since many centuries in China. All travellers certify to this fact; and the large sylvan groves of them found in Japan, Cochin-China, in the vicinity of Canton, and in the Pacific islands, prove that this plant originated there.

We cannot reasonably believe that this species has been obtained by a careful culture in countries so little civilized, and in savage isles where the vegetable kingdom shows only the traces of simple nature. Neither can we admit that the sweet orange is the type of a species, the degradation of which, by neglect, has originated the bigarade or sour orange.

This phenomenon (of which no other vegetable offers a single specimen) should have had, necessarily, results very different from those given to us by history, and by the actual condition of these plants in various parts of the world.

Extraordinary culture could affect only individuals submitted to its action; but in wild places the orange tree itself would always be preserved in its natural state, and nothing could have caused the type to disappear entirely. For, if individual trees abandoned to nature had degenerated to the point of presenting a difference so great as that existing between the sweet and sour oranges, these two species would surely have been found mingled in the fields, and show a gradation of debasement, or amelioration, proportionate to the state of culture, richness of soil, and influence of climate.

But, on the contrary, all data given us by history upon this matter unite to convince us that these two species of orange trees, as well as the two species of citron trees, created separately by Nature, have existed a long time isolated, and have each had a father-land. ~ The citron is found only in Media.

Travelling botanists have also recognized the fact that in parts of India where one meets the

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orange in an indigenous state, the citron is there only by culture.

The lemon did not pass into Persia, Syria, and Egypt until after the Arabs had extended their conquests beyond the Indus and the Ganges into regions before unknown, or separated from Western Asia by their political state, their manners, and their religion.

The bigarade appeared shortly before the lemon, and probably it was not found indigenous, by the side of the sweet orange, as in that case the sweet fruit would surely have been preferred; at least it would have been associated with the bigarade, and would have followed it very soon into the regions where it has been propagated.

Yet we have seen that the sweet orange tree was still unknown in Europe at the close of the fourteenth century, and it seems not to have been cultivated until towards the middle of the fifteenth century.

It is not easy to determine the different regions where the species were placed originally by nature. Luxury and civilization have mingled them in a way to make them appear indigenous in all hot countries, where their culture is cotem porary with the establishment of agriculture, and the civilization of the inhabitants.

It is only by visiting as a philosopher the interior of countries least cultivated, that one could find the trees in that sylvan and isolated state, which we call natural.

The most reliable data, however, succeed in supplying us with proof that this species has existed a long time only in the southern provinces of China, and upon the coasts and isles of the Pacific.

The Indians, in fact, call this fine species by the name of China orange, and I have remarked that at Amboyna and Banda, where it is very common, they acknowledge that to China they owe the choicest and sweetest varieties. (See Rumphius.) It is there, certainly, that all trav elers meet with the sweet-fruited orange as an indigenous plant; it is from thence, according to tradition, that it passed into India; it is from thence that recently have been received the greater number of the singular varieties now cultivated at the Moluccas, in India, and in America. It is known in all these countries under the name of China orange, and it was also by this name known in Europe before the crowd of varieties spread from one district to another, and taking the name of the region whence they came, had confounded the nomenclature of the Hesperides.

In every case it is clearly demonstrated that the original climate of the sweet-fruited orange tree was not that of the bigarade tree, and that each of the four species of the genus citrus had a country whence they have been brought by the industry and luxury of man.

This fact, which we could prove also respecting other genera of plants, is it not an effect of a general law of Nature? Is it not a principle followed by Providence in the distribution of all beings? The Creator has made the genera for the earth, and the species for the climates.

He has spread equally over all the globe, the greatest number of vegetables; but He has originally modified them into many differing species,

according to the various climates where they should live.

Man, alone, has disturbed this distribution. King of Nature, he has assembled under the same sky a crowd of differing beings, which were not assigned to live together. He has thus enriched the climate inhabited by himself, and has assimilated to his system of society the animals and vegetables.

But all this has taken place by degrees, and is the result of a long course of ages. We shall now inquire regarding the time and manner of naturalizing the sweet orange tree in Europe.

ART. V. Observations upon the Acclimation of the Sweet Orange-Opinions of Various Writers Examination of their Opinions.

It is certainly difficult to follow the history of he transmigration of ordinary plants, which spread themselves slowly and in times of obscurity; but it is surprising that we find no traces of the passage of the orange tree of sweet fruit, which. because of its qualities and the epoch at which we suppose it must have been brought to Europe, ought to have been an object for the admiration of gardeners, and the observations of botanists.

This investigation presents nevertheless, a crowd of difficulties.

An opinion, prevailing among the greater part of writers, has attributed this acquisition to the Portuguese. Valmont de Bomare, in his Dictionary of Natural History, gives details so precise upon this fact, that for a long time I believed it to be incontestable.

He says that at Lisbon, in the Count St. Laurent's garden, there exists the first tree from which have come all the orange trees now ornament ing the gardens of Europe. Valmont de Bomare, and the other writers who have reported this fact, speak of the orange in general; but I think their expressions should be received as applying only to the sweet orange -it would be unreasonable to connect them with the bigarade. This naturalist cites no authority to sustain his assertion, and it appears as if taken from the Dictionary of Trevoux, who is also silent with respect to the source whence he obtained it.*

It seems that the name of Portugal, applied generally to the sweet orange, has accredited the opinion respecting the origin of this tree. But we must observe first, that this name was not known in Europe till about the middle of the seventeenth century, and that previous to that time this species was known under the simple name of orange douce, (sweet orange.) Secondly, that from the use made of this name among writers, or among the people of the country where it is received, we see clearly that they have given it only to a variety carried, perhaps, by the Portuguese into Europe, and which may be the red-fruited orange. Indeed, in Arabia even, they use the name of Portugal to designate

*The oranges of China are thus named, because those wei saw for the first time had been brought thence. The first and only tree from which it is said they all come, is still preserved at Lisbon, in the house of Count St. Laurent ;

and it is to the Portuguese that we are indebted for this excellent fruit. For that reason they are also called oranges of Portugal-DICT. OF TREVOUX, ART. ORANGER.

a sort of orange, just as they use the name of Italy to express two kinds of citron trees. We have but to read Niebuhr's Voyage to Arabia, where in remarking these denominations, he says it is believed that the Arabs received from Europe one species of orange and two of citrons. (Niebuhr, bk. 1, sec. 39.) Apparently, the orange of which he speaks is the narendy Bortughal, and the citrons are the Idalia Hoelu, and the Idalia Maleck, of the Flora Egyptiaco-Arabica of Forskal.

The opinion of Bomare has been shared not only by Hunter in his voyage to China, and by the most of European writers upon agriculture, but also by learned botanists, such as Loureiro. (See first volume of Memorias de Lisboa, page 152.) And I have read, not without surprise, in the Botanique Historique of Madame de Genlis,that we can even name the person to whom we owe the acquisition of the orange (Jean de Castro).

Assertions thus positive give to the opinion of Bomare an air of truthfulness, which seems to render it unassailable; but having brought together the dates of the various proofs which I have collected for and against this opinion, I have seen that it is in contradiction to well established facts, and thus deprived of foundation.

The Portuguese did not reach China until 1518. Jean de Castro, born in 1500, could not return fore, if the orange were carried from China by from his first voyage until about 1520. Therethe Portuguese, and specially by Jean de Castro, this species should not have appeared in Europe until after the years 1518 or 1520, a fact impossible to prove.

brought from India by the Portuguese, who It would be more probable to suppose it penetrated there in 1498. In this case it might be possible for the Count de St. Laurent to have in his garden the first tree seen in Europe. But this hypothesis, whatever appearance of truth it may have, can be combatted with success.

Vasco de Gama, who first doubled the Cape of Good Hope in 1498, said, in his relation of his voyage, arranged by a Florentine who was in his vessel, that in India there were many orange trees, but all with sweet fruit-Souri melarancie assai, ma tuttle dolci.-RAMUS, bk. 1, p. 121.

It does not seem, from these expressions, that the sweet orange was to him an unknown species; they would appear to denote solely that the bigarade, then very common in Europe, was not cultivated there.

It would be very astonishing, supposing the sweet orange a species unknown among us, if this navigator had not made a remark upon it, and, if he brought the first seed of it to Europe, that he said not a word of it in his relation.

All voyagers of that epoch are equally silent. I have not found a single word to indicate this fact in any of the original voyages collected by Ramusio, nor in any of the cotemporaneous histories, which I have read attentively. On the contrary, I have remarked that none of these travellers showed surprise at sight of this fruit, as they did on seeing many others.

But that which radically destroys this hypothesis is, that we have data to prove the fact of the general cultivation of the sweet orange in the south of Europe before this time.

We find a crowd of writers at the beginning of the sixteenth century who treat of the sweet orange, and not one among them regards it as a new species. They all speak of it as a very ancient tree, whose origin was unknown.

I shall cite Matioli, who printed his translation of Dioscorides in 1540, and who could not have been ignorant of the origin of this species, if it dated from the beginning of this century. His successful study of plants, and the earnest researches he made upon this subject, do not permit us to presume that he could make a mistake in a matter so important and so new. We might say the same of Augustin Gallo, his cotemporary, who enlarges upon the culture of the orange and chiefly of those at Salo, on Lake Garda.

gators, while hindering their search for objects of taste, would scarcely dispose them to share with a tree the provision of water, so precious and so necessary for all concerned in voyages uncertain and dangerous.

Spite of all these obstacles, I would still admit that the spirit of curiosity of these adventurers might urge them to transplant into Europe, across so many dangers, a tree of India.

All these suppositions, however, will not dissipate the difficulties which we meet in reconciling this hypothesis with facts which I am about to point out.

It was necessary to give to this plant a certain number of years before the Count of St. Laurent (who was, I will assume, disposed to give grafts of it to all the world) could multiply it in his

Navagero, Venetian Ambassador to Charles Fifth, published his Spanish voyage in 1525. He therein describes the prodigious trees of the Huerta del Rei (kitchen garden of the King) at Seville, which may still be seen, and which are all of sweet fruit.

But nothing proves more strongly how this species was spread in Europe, about the beginning of the sixteenth century, than Leandro Alberti's voyage to Italy. This learned monk, who wrote in 1523, speaks largely of immense plantations of orange, lemon, and citron trees, which he saw in Sicily, Calabria, upon the borders of the river Salo, in Liguria, and in many other places.

He expressly says that a great number of varieties were cultivated, chiefly of sweet fruit.

If the tree owned by the Count St. Laurent were the first to appear in Europe, would it have been possible to propagate it so promptly, and in such abundance, that in twenty-five years it should people the most distant countries with thousands of trees?

At first one would suppose if this species had been brought from India by the Portuguese, they would have followed the easiest methodthat of bringing the seed and sowing it at Lisbon. But if we presume that it came as a plant, the hypothesis would then present a crowd of difficulties, rendering it nearly impossible.

Voyages from India were, at that time, very long and very dangerous, being made in small vessels inferior to those in use now.

Crossing the equator was but little favorable to the preservation of vegetables, and the desire of gain, which exclusively occupied those navi

* Gallo did not publish his work on agriculture till 1569, but he speaks of the sweet orange as of a plant whose culture dated from time immemorial, and says that at Salo the old cultivators of ninety years of age could not remember the planting of the trees existing in his time. I have remarked the same in works of physicians, and chiefly in the narrations of voyagers.

+ Leandro Alberti, who travelled in Italy in 1523, speaks of the sweet orange tree in a very precise manner, which leaves no room for doubt. "We see there," speaking of Salerno, "citrons, lemons, and orange trees of all the species. Some have sweet, some have sour fruit, and, finally, others, producing fruits of a medium taste." Dolci, agrestine, e di mezzo sapore. (p. 192).

He expresses himself in like manner in his description of Liguria, the river Salo, and Calabria, observing that one could walk by the side of orange gardens for more than two miles of road. He regards them, however, as plants known there since time immemorial, and of which the culture was widely spread.

wards time was necessary for some plants to pass into Liguria, to increase there, and from thence to be propagated in Sicily, in Naples, in Sardinia, and upon the shores of Lake Garda. It is, finally, needful to accord a certain number of years to these grafts for growth, and for sufficient increase to form those magnificent groves which, in 1523, covered the gardens of Italy. All these operations could not have taken place in an interval of twenty-five years-an insufficient time for propagating any plant whatever in any single country.

But I would still suppose the possibility of this propagation. There still remains another problem to solve. How could such rapid and prodigious growth escape the knowledge of so many cotemporaneous agricultural writers, who must have witnessed it, as well as of the botanists who flourished at this time, and of the many intelligent travellers who have gathered the smallest details upon the culture of these trees, and concerning the countries which they have overrun?

We cannot admit such progress in the propagation of the sweet orange without assuming that the cultivators of all countries had a passion for multiplying it, as well as good fortune in transporting it, added to a profound knowledge of the best manner of grafting, and the most reasonable methods of cultivating it, as well as a general knowledge of commerce.

All these circumstances should have made it a noticeable plant, and rendered it an object of attention to botanists and writers of the time.

We are forced, then, to conclude that the sweet orange tree was taken to Europe long before the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, and consequently could not have been introduced by the Portuguese, much less by Jean de Castro.

But how did it come into Europe? This is the question with which we are about to occupy

ourselves.

ART. VI.—Transmigration of the Sweet-fruited Orange Tree-Conjectures upon the Time of this Event.

The Crusades have enriched Western Europe with the most of the Asiatic plants, acclimated by the Arabians in the different countries under their dominion, during the best days of their power.

But these warlike apostles, who, during the early centuries of their Hegira, had formed colonies so numerous in the region beyond the Indus, were stopped in their career of conquest, and maintained with these countries a commerce only proportioned to the luxury of the West. This luxury was itself very limited in centuries when the people lived with a simplicity of manners natural to those scarcely emerged from barbarism.

Europeans knew very little of the productions of Asia, except the manufactures of Syria and Persia, which were as yet introduced only among the great. The people, who were then either slaves or soldiers, had but very few wants.

It was not until after the first religious enterprises in Palestine that the Europeans, who had made great advances towards civilization, and who, during their conquests, had acquired a taste for the merchandise of the Indies, sought with avidity the productions of that rich country.

Often it was necessary to become Mahometans in order to be accepted in the caravan, and it was only in caravans that the Arabs themselves could pass from the Mediterranean sea to the Indian oceau.

They were exposed to an infinity of dangers of every sort, for these voyages offered such, whether they traversed Arabia to Mecca and Aden, or the route of the Persian gulf by Asia Minor, or, finally, that of the Red sea, the most perilous and difficult.

But the enthusiasm for voyaging so filled the minds of Europeans that they would brave all dangers to penetrate into these regions, and the adventures of Marco Polo, Nicolas de Conti, Jerome of Santo-Stefano, and many others, are monuments of the courage and obstinacy of these adventurers. (It is surprising that Marco Polo, who reached China and India, has never spoken of the orange tree. I have carefully read the relation of his voyage, and found but one place where he speaks of the pomme de para

Europeans, just beginning to turn their attention in this direction, would buy the few articles of which they felt need in the markets of these people, and on hard conditions.

Difference in religion, and consequently in manners and ideas, rendered it nearly impossible for them to penetrate into the regions of the East. The Arabs, masters of these means of intercourse, not being stimulated by emulation or competition, measured their speculations but by the sales they could make in Europe.

Shorn of their ancient power, and forced, by lack of vessels, by the nature of the country, and by the insufficient police among them, to voyage by caravans, they would buy their merchandise only in the markets of India, where it was carried by the natives.

The Crusades brought about a revolution in the commercial system of these regions. By augmenting among the people of the West the love of luxury and of opulence, they indirectly multiplied the business relations and the industry of all concerned in gratifying these desires.

They opened to Europeans the entrance to Asia, and thus furnished to an active, enterprising people the means of knowing and of extending the trade of India.

From the first the colonies of Christians in Palestine gave facilities for penetrating into those countries, and afterwards the reciprocal want of articles of merchandise to which they were accustomed, added to the love of gain, of which they had tasted the advantages on both sides, maintained among these peoples ties and relations, even amidst the difficulties and fetters presented by the differences in religion, and by political rivalries.

We therefore behold a crowd of adventurers going into the interior of Asia, and on their return to Europe spreading knowledge of those lands and their productions.

The obstacles to, and dangers of, these voyages were very great; but what cannot be done by the human soul possessed with a thirst for gold and passion of discovery?

is necessary to observe that this adventurer did not write during his voyage. He could not have done so in those countries, and if he could have written, it would have been impossible to save his manuscript and bring it to Europe. We know that in order to carry his wealth he reduced it to precious stones, which he sewed into the folds of his tunic. Besides, we know that his narration was writ ten at Genoa whilst he was a prisoner, and where, in recounting his adventures, be managed to obtain consideration, which sweetened his captivity. He had not, even then, narrated them except in the societies of Venice, where they did not give an unreserved belief to all offered them of the marvellous. They called him, derisively, Marco Milioni, because of his continual description of riches. We need not, then, be astonished by his forgetting to speak of the orange tree, which he certainly saw in his travels.)

During a long time the adventurers were led only by the spirit of commerce; but finally there was allied to a desire of gain the taste for discoveries, and that passion for plants and foreign arts which have enriched Europe with the secret of glass-making and silk stuff manufactures; with ranunculuses, lilies, Arabian jasmine, and many other flowers, brought into our gardens in the course of the fifteenth century. (Every one knows the great progress in the study of plants made in Europe during the fifteenth century. We have but to consult the learned work of Sprengel, upon the history of botany, to see the large number of plants which passed from Asia into Europe at this epoch. I shall confine myself to citing here one fact, little known, which goes to show the passion of the people of the Occident for the vegetation of the Orient. We read in a little Italian treatise on flowers, printed in Tuscany towards the close of the sixteenth century, that the jasmine of Arabia (nyctanthes sambac, L.), carried from the East to the Medicis, was not cultivated except in the gardens of the Villa Castello, at Florence, where it was guarded jealously as a plant peculiar to this pleasure house. In truth, the plant has not long been elsewhere than in those gardens,