Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

wrote about the middle of the thirteenth cen

runt in acquisitione Hierusalem Antiocho et Laodicea ac Tortosa : Solinum autem et Gibellum, Ch-tury. His testimony is confirmed by writers of saream et Assur per se ceperunt."

This honorable testimony is confirmed by all historians, and chiefly by Morisotte, whose words I will presently give. It is well known, besides, that during the whole of these expeditions they ceased not to support with their fleets the efforts of the Crusaders, and that in the ninth Crusade, in 1243, they transported to Egypt the King, St. Louis, with thirty-two galleys and seven vessels, and had an important part in the taking of Damietta.

Here are the words of Morisotte: Captis Phonicia et Syria littoribus, urbibusque quocumque Suraceni fugere, quacumque erupere, ibi prasto Genuensis cum validis classibus fuere, nec qui Genuensibus resisteret post Saracenos inveniebatur, si Pisani, Venetique hostes defuissent. MORISOTUS. Hist., bk. 2, c. 23, p. 514.

According to all these facts, it is evident that the Genoese had, more than all others, facilities for seeing and for bringing to their beautiful shores the lemon and orange trees.

Those sailors who manned the war vessels were the same persons who, after giving some months to tillage, quitted their families to man merchant vessels to go into Palestine, sometimes as traders, sometimes as pilgrims, or disguised as Mussulmen with the caravans into the interior of Persia, and even to India.

Such people, at once farmers, warriors, traders, and adventurers, could not neglect a branch of industry so suited to the climate of the country they inhabited, and which was congenial to the taste for agriculture and for commerce forming the base of their characters. Above all, this conjecture accords so well with facts which we have stated, that we can hazard it without fear of paradox.

They were, besides, the only European people to whom the naturalization of this tree could be profitable, they being for a long time the only ones engaged in the commerce of the Agrumi. This trade was carried on chiefly by the gardeners of Nervi and San Remo.

Nervi has been celebrated for its seedsmen, who provided for a long time, and still supply, these trees to the orangeries of Europe; and to them we are principally indebted for the varieties multiplied by seed, and for the novelties which have gratified the curiosity and taste of amateurs. The trade in the fruits was monopolized by the inhabitants of St. Remo, who have for many years supplied the citrons used at the Passover by the Jews of Italy, France, and Germany. From their country have come the perfumes and essences, as well as the citric acid, used in the arts. From thence are obtained the lemons for the table, the different fruits for the confectioner, and the sweet oranges have been also for centuries an almost exclusive product of their beautiful valleys.

One may read, in proof of this, what is said by Olivier de Serres, Ferraris, Judoco Hondio, Merula, Matioli, Gallo, Alberti, Volcamerius, Commelinus, Giustiniani, Abram Hortelius, Antoine Mangini, and an infinity of others. Writers of all times have deposed in favor of the almost exclusive trade by the Genoese in the agrumi. We have seen what Silvaticus has said, who

|

the fourteenth century. The first is Brasilus, and the second is Blondus Flavius. The Geographical and Statistical Description of Italy, by Blondus, is, perhaps, the most antique work of this kind known in Europe since the revival of letters. (It dates from 1450.) This author, who was of Forli, and unacquainted with the part of Italy this side of Tuscany, had recourse to his friends for completing his description. He procured that of Liguria, of Brasilus. This learned Genoese, known by several memoirs relating to the history of his country, wrote then an epistle entitled Descriptio ore Ligustica, a work valuable for the exactitude, precision, and erudition with which it is written, and which Blondus copied almost literally.

In this description (which was also printed) he lauds Rapallo and St. Remo for the culture of agrumi and palm trees, with which those valleys were covered.

Giustiniani succeeded very closely these two authors. He wrote, in 1500, a history of Genoa, preceded by a description of that beautiful coast known as Riviera di Genova.

In this he notices the territory of St. Remo, on account of the vast number of these trees, from which the fruit was sent into all Europe.

This testimony is repeated in the works of Alberti, of Matioli, and of Gallo. The first wrote, in 1528, a voyage to Italy, made five years before. The second published, in 1544, his dissertation upon the works of Dioscorides, and the third gave, in 1560, a treatise upon agriculture, highly esteemed-entitled le dieci Giornate. These all say clearly that Liguria had been of old celebrated for its trade in agrumi. Many other writers attest to the same. See Hondio, in his Nova Italia hodierna Descriptio, p. 73, and Gualdo Priorato, in his description of Genoa, published at Cologne in 1668, pp. 20, 70, &c.

It would be useless to quote the words of Ferraris, of Volcamerius, and a host of others, where the same truth is repeated. I shall only observe that the number of these trees had become so prodigious in the territory of St. Remo, and the exportation of these fruits so considerable, that in 1585 the municipal council of that city thought it a duty to subject this commerce to special police laws. A magistrate was desig nated to direct it, and express rules were formed for sustaining it.

One sees by these rules that the yearly export of lemons alone amounted to several millions of fruits, and that St. Remo supplied nearly all France, Germany, and many other parts of Europe. I reserve for my fifth chapter this curious paper, which gives an idea of these fruits and their trade.

The extent and antiquity of this trade form, doubtless, a strong presumption for attributing to this people (of St. Remo) the acclimatization of this tree, the presumption acquiring still more force, when we consider their commercial position at the time when this event must have taken place; but I think I shall be able to present data still more decisive for establishing this opinion.

The sweet orange tree was not yet in Europe at the end of the fourteenth century; at the be ginning of the sixteenth it was already very

much spread there; it should then have appeared | law of M. Belloro-M. Nervi-Secretary of the early in the fifteenth century. It was precisely Mayoralty of Savona, where his talents and at this epoch that a taste for botany revived in knowledge are well known.) Italy; and at this time the trade and agriculture of Genoa were at the climax of their prosperity. But during all this interval we find no trace of this culture, except solely in Liguria. This fact is attested by two important documents, which I am about to make known.

The first is an account of expenses by the treasurer of Savona, dated 1471. The second is a bill of sale, made in 1472, at Savona, by a master of a ship of St. Remo, of his vessel laden with oranges.

Let us examine these two papers. The city of Savona had, in 1471, an ambassador at Milan. Wishing to make him a present, she sent to him citron and lemon comfits, and, afterwards, citruli. This double expedition, of which we find the account in the books of administration of Savona, dated 1471, is spoken of in a way to prove that the citruli were sweet oranges.

It is sufficient to know that the lemons and citrons, sent to Milan, were comfits, and that the citruli, on the contrary, were in their natural state.

This plainly shows that the citruli were edible, whilst citrons and lemons were not used in commerce, except after a modification by the confectioner, which brought out their aroma, and corrected their bitterness. (I owe the knowledge of this gift, just spoken of, to M. de Belloro, one of the most learned persons of Savona, who kindly made investigations upon this subject in the archives, of that city. Here is the passage, copied by myself, from the book of administration, bearing this mark-"1468, H." under the date of "May 27, 1471, p. 327:" "De mandato S. D. antianorum pro citrulis, misiss Mediolanum pro Lazaro Feo, et dictis pro Jacobo de Dego, Gabellotto, Gabelle fornarum anni præsentis, grossos decemnovem, cum dimidio libras tres, solidos octo, et denarios tres." Below-" Die prima junii, pro fructibus missis mediolanum, videlicet limonibus confectis, et citris, f. 7, 11." The difference in price, and even the expressions indicate that the citruli were fruits in their natural state.) This fact is still more strengthened by a contract of sale of cotemporaneous date, found in the archives of the same city. This contract contained a sale made by a master of a St. Remo vessel, to another of the same place, of a barque then at Savona, loaded with 15,000 citranguli, or cetroni.

(We find in the archives of the notaries of Savona, a bill of sale received by the notary Pierre Corsaro, dated February 12, 1872, by which Dominique Asconzio, family Antoine, of St. Remo, sells to Jean Baptiste Mulo, family Etienne, of same place, one lembo, cum citrangulis, sive cetronis, quindecim mille, now on board said vessel, for the consideration of two pounds per thousand-Genoese money-the whole for the sum of fifty pounds. The lembo is a name for a kind of vessel used at that time, which was valued, as we see, at twenty pounds. This price seems very small, but on comparing the value of the money of that day with that of the present, it will be found to be a very considerable sum. I am indebted for these facts to the son-in

The number, 15,000, of these fruits, is sufficient ground for concluding, First, that the culture of orange trees at St. Remo had reached a high point of prosperity; secondly, that these could not have been bigarades, but were sweet oranges; for what would they do with so many bigarades?

The confectioners were supplied by citrons and lemons. The bigarade also might be confected, but one could use for this purpose only the skin, which is thin; and it being impossible to put them into commerce for any other use, it would be extraordinary to find so large an exportation.

It is, therefore, natural to suppose that the 15,000 citranguli, or cetroni, were sweet oranges, of which the consumption is more considerable, and of which the sale would consequently be more easy and more profitable.

These conjectures seem to me reasonable enough for our deducing that Liguria, at the middle of the fifteenth century, had carried this sort of culture and commerce much further than all the rest of Europe, which could scarcely have occurred in so short an interval had not the Ligurians been the first to know and to cultivate the sweet orange tree.

ART. VII.-Of the Varieties and Hybrids of the Citrus-History of the Origin and Transmigrations-Their Multiplication.

The introduction of the sweet orange tree into Europe certainly preceded that of the most of the varieties and hybrids forming now the family of the Hesperides."

Doubtless a few of these races were formed in

the original countries where Nature had placed the species. In the ancient woods of India and China, the mingling of the pollen of many differing individuals would have given birth to the varieties with which those peoples afterwards embellished their gardens, and which, step by step, passed into the bordering provinces, and are at last spread over Europe. But a great number were formed only in the orchards of Syria and Egypt, after the naturalization of the species, which were mixed, the one with the other, by culture. Some varieties have originated only in the gardens of Europe.

The oldest variety known in the Occident is certainly the Adam's apple. It was cultivated in Palestine in the twelfth century, and Jacques de Vitry, who calls it by this name (pomum ádami), gives us a description so exact as to leave not a doubt of its identity with that we now possess. It is thought that it came from the Indies, where it appears very old, and is regarded as a subvariety of the pompelmous (aurantium decumanum). We cannot attribute the same origin to varieties cultivated at about the same time in Egypt. It would appear that those were formed in that country. Abd-Allatif, who describes them, says they were unknown in Irak and Bagdad, countries which served as passage for the lemon and bigarade (citrons ronds), and adds, that these species combine with each other, producing an infinite number of varieties. (See ABD-ALLATIF. Description of Egypt, bk. 2, p. 3, translated

by M. de Sacy.) This last observation, remarkable in a writer ignorant of the sexual system of plants, is a sure indication that these new races were formed in Egypt. It is certainly difficult to connect these varieties with those known to us. Some varieties, perhaps, have passed from Egypt into Spain, and thence into the rest of Europe, but they have surely disappeared in great part, with time and want of culture, and have no connection with ours, or only vague resemblances, classing them in the same rank upon the chain of varieties, yet not permitting us to regard them as identical.

I have always been astonished by the difficulty experienced in all the genera, when attempting to connect to our varieties those of the ancients; but since I have become persuaded of the true nature of these races, and of the laws ruling their existence and propagation, my astonishment has ceased, and I am convinced of the impossibility of attaining to this end.

A variety has a precarious existence, due to an accidental combination, and which cannot be perpetuated, except by art. Thus it disappears whenever the action of art is suspended by the effect of some crisis, re-appearing often under forms very analogous, but never identical; forms never complete, having always differences impossible to reconcile.

Because of this, one occupies himself without success, seeking in our orchards the varieties of the olive, the apple, the pear, &c., of which Pliny and Latin writers upon agriculture give us descriptions. These varieties_perpetuated themselves then only by culture. This art suffered in Europe by the invasion of the Barbarians, causing these varieties to disappear, and on the return of culture new forms appeared, resembling the old, yet which can never correspond exactly to them.

montibus, planis, cultis atque incultis locis, innu-
meras balsami plantas sponte natas spectari, pluri-
masque etiam in arenosis sterilibusque locis, qua
tamen vel nihil cel minimum suco producebant.
Multa tamen semina ferunt." PROSP. ALP. of
Bals. dial. chap. 12, p. 14. DE SACY, p. 93.
4. A Spanish Arab author, speaking of Mecca,
says: "Some persons say that the bascham
(balm tree) has not flower and fruit with their
parts. The truth is, however, quite the con-
trary. At least, if there are districts where such
is the case, there are others in which it is not
true. The same may be said of the sorbier (ser-
vice tree, Trans.) the papyrus, &c." ABOUL-
ABBAS NEBATI. Man. Ar. of the Imp. Lib. No.
1,071. DE SACY, p. 94.

5. The author of the Garaib aladiaib says: "One finds in Egypt, in Matareeyah (anc. Heliopolis, Trans.) balm pits, from whence water is taken to sprinkle the bushes of balm, which furnish a precious oil. It is to the pits that this quality is due, for there the Messiah was washed. There is not in all the world another place where the balm tree will grow. Almelic-Alcamel asked permission of his father Adel to sow the seed elsewhere. Having obtained it, he planted, but his bushes did not succeed, and one could draw no oil from them. Almelic-Alcamel demanded, and obtained still of his father, permission to conduct to his plant the water of Matareeyah, but he had no better success.' Ar. MSS. of the Imp. Lib. 791. DE SACY, p. 90.

[ocr errors]

6. Mandeville reports the following: Hos arbores seu arbusta balsami fecit quondam quidam de caliphis Egypti de loco Engaddi, inter mare Mortuum et Jerico, ubi domino volente excreverat, eradicari, et in agro prædicto (Cayr) plantari. Est tamen hoc mirandum, quod ubicumque alibi, sive prope sive remote plantantur, quamvis forte vireant et exurgant, tamen non fructificant. MAND. Chap. 8, p, 31. In Haktuy's collection; 1,589. M. de

From these passages result the following facts: The balm, or balsam tree (amyris opobalsamum, L.) in a wild state fruits, and reproduces itself by seed, and gives none, or very little, of this sap called balm. (Nos. 2 and 3.)

Perhaps for the same reason we seek in vain, in modern Egypt, the persea of Theophrastus, and the baumier of the ancients. These two vegetables-Sacy, p. 87. regarded by some as two species, the one lost entirely, and the other disappeared from that country-were, perhaps, but two varieties; and from want of care they have submitted to their natural fate. Yet they exist still in their type, and one could obtain them anew, if one could attain to naturalizing this type in an agricultural country, and on a grand scale.

Curious passages of several writers relative to the balm tree, all collected by M. de Sacy in his translation of the Description of Egypt by AbdAllatif, furnish me with proof of this fact.

I will commence by transcribing these passages, and afterwards give my reflections:

1. Abd-Allatif, in speaking of the balm tree, expresses himself in the following manner: "The tree which furnishes the balsam bears no fruit; they take cuttings of the tree, which, planted in the month of Schobat, take root and grow." Abd-Allatiff, p. 22.

2. "The wild male balm tree has a fructification, but yields no balsam. It is found in Nedjd (interior of Arabia, Trans.); in Tehama (on the coast, T.); in the deserts of Arabia, the maritime countries of Yemen, and in Persia; it is known under the name of bascham." Abd-All, p. 22. 3. Prosper Alpin speaks of it thus: "Omnes... uno ore affirmant prope Meccham et Medinam, in

In a state of culture it does not fruit, but gives, upon incision, a large quantity of balm. (No. 1.) But it does not suffice to take wild trees in the woods and cultivate them in order to obtain this change. The difference is due to the nature of the individual, which has one of the different properties. Even when a tree is found uniting the two properties, its descendants preserve not the property of their father. They fruit, but do not yield balm. (No. 5.) The tree which fruits is multiplied by seed; that which bears no fruit is multiplied by cuttings. The first (1 and 2) is never in gardens, because we pull it up as soon as it appears; the second is ordinarily only in cultivated places, as it requires the hand of man for multiplying itself; yet we sometimes find it among the wild ones; then it is taken to the garden and cultivated. (No. 6.)

Because of these accidents, which contradict common experience, fables have been created on the subject, and one attributes the power of yielding balm to the quality of the soil, another to miraculous causes. (No. 5.)

All this, which is but a repetition of passages reported by M. de Sacy, proves in an unanswerable manner, first, that there exists a balm-tree type which has flower and fruit, and reproduces itself from seed. Secondly, by fecundation varieties are formed, which most often have the ordinary trait of monsters, sterility. Thirdly, that this monstrous variety, following the example of other vegetable mules, is indemnified for this sterility by a singular property which, in this kind, is letting flow in greater abundance a humor probably destined to nourish fructification. Fourthly, that in nature this variety has existence only during the life of the individual, consequently it cannot perpetuate itself save by

art.

Fifthly. That according to all these facts, this variety could have been lost in Egypt, and might have re-appeared in the vicinity of Mecca; and in this place could have shown traits of the ancient variety, modified and changed by accessory accidents, thus causing it to differ from the descriptions of the ancients.

We can apply very nearly the same reasoning to the persea of Theophrastus. M. de Sacy has proved very conclusively that this tree is the lobakh of the Arabians. He has also proved that it is closely connected with the sidra (rhamnus spina cristi. Desf.) or nabka of the Egyptians.

Why might it not be a variety of that species, whose fruit is larger and more agreeable? Species never lose themselves in the regions where they are acclimated.

Nature has provided for their multiplication by numerous means which make up the deficiencies of art, and elude the destructive spirit | of man. If the persea had been a species, it would have, of itself, multiplied itself by its seeds, and the revolutions of Egypt would have only facilitated its propagation. It must, then, have been but a variety due to fecundation, and consequently could be perpetuated only by the cutting or the graft. In this event the character of its fruit would differ from those of its type as much as the butter-pear differs from the wild pear.

Thus all research to find a plant with fruit, answering exactly to that described by Theophratus, is useless; we must content ourselves with a slight similarity, chiefly with regard to the fruit, and admit that the variety of Theophratus may have disappeared, but that the species to which it belonged still exists.

From the complication of all these circum stances result the differences seen in these phe

nomena.

This digression may seem out of place, yet is useful in throwing light upon the principles of the theory advanced by me in the first chapter of this work.

In examining the descriptions of Abd-Allatif, we casily recognize the monstrous citron ("Gros Citron." Abd-All., bk 1, p. 31,)-the citron of sweet-fruit-("citron doux which is not at all acid," Ib.) the lemon-cedrat. (“The lemous, named by some, composite; among them are found fruit as large as a water-melon." Abd-All., p. 31.) Ebn-Djemi, quoted by Ebn-Beitar, says: "The composite lemon is a lemon graft upon a citron tree. We add, (continues Ebn-Beitar,) that the skin of this fruit has more of sharpness and bitterness than that of the citron, but less than that of the lemon; it also has a sweet taste, not in either of those fruits. Because of this, it possesses a nutritive quality not found in citron or lemon, and holds a middle place between those two acid fruits." This explanation is precise enough for us to recognize in this variety the lemon-cedrat or poncire. We also see in his balm lemon, which is but an inch long and “in the shape of an elongated egg," a race resemb ling the lime of Naples.

This lemon is certainly the same as the wild lemons found by Bellon, near Cairo, “which have fruit never larger than a pigeon's egg.' (Bel. c. 36, p. 236.)

Burmanni, in speaking of a kind of limonia which he found near Ceylon, connects it to the wild lemons of Bellon; but it is evident that the malus limonia of Ceylon, is a limonellier (Limonia, L.); and Bellon's lemons are true lemontrees of small fruit, such as the lime of Naples, and the balm-lemon spoken of by Abd-Allatif.

The monsters inclosing anotber lemon in their interior are but yearly accidents, which might have occurred in the time of Abd-Allatif, as now. ("Some citrons have inside another citron with yellow skin." p. 31.)

In the mokhattan, or sealed lemon, we see a variety very singular and difficult to recognize. Abd-Allatif says: "There is another sort of lemon called mokhattan, that is to say sealed, which is of a deeper and more bright red than the orange; they are perfectly round, and a little flattened above and below, as if forced in by pressing there a seal." This peculiar variety resembles none known to us. It appears to be a lumie or hybrid of the red-orange and lemon.

One might think it extraordinary that these disappearances have not taken place among varieties of many other plants-the banana, for According to this writer, it owes the epithet instance. But I would observe that it (the bumokhattan to the flattened appearance of its exnana) has received from nature a prodigious tremities. facility for reproducing itself by cuttings and The conical citron, of which he speaks, is ap suckers; consequently has the power of self-pres-parently but a modification of shape, which ervation whilst our fruit-trees require extraordinary care, such as grafting, or careful slip ping, which pre-suppose a degree of civilization, and a certain completeness in the culture.

:

Besides, there are species, which, more often than others, form varieties, and among such varieties there are some which are regularly formed in the ordinary state of blossoming, and others which are the result of an extraordinary combination, taking place very rarely.

might connect it with varieties cultivated by us; but one cannot determine that, by this single circumstance. ("There are also citrons having an absolutely conical form, beginning in a base, and ending in a point; but which, otherwise, in color, odor, taste of pulp and acidity, differ in no way from the citron," Abd-All) We have several varieties that affect this form; (the lemon percita is the opposite) and among others, the citron of Florence.

Ebn-Ayyas, in his large History of Egypt, | points out also a quantity of these acid fruits, (hamidhat) but gives no description by which they can be made known to us.

smooth and of a deep green, the fruit is round, and has an acid juice like the citron. The tree, also, closely resembles the citron tree; its flower is white and extremely sweet in odor." Ar. MSS. of EBN-BEITAR.) We also recognize the oranged poncire, in that which he calls sweet fruit.

The two first varieties of the yasamou are related to our citrus decumana, or Adam's apple; and the third, called toronja chinesca, appears to be our Chinese citron, (C. M. C. fructu monstruoso aurantianto, GAL. SYN.)

He names only the citron, the lemon, the orange, the cabbad, the hammadh Schoairi, and the red French lemon which was, it is said, taken to Egypt in the year 300 of the Hegira. The red French lemon is, perhaps, a variety of the citron. The Franks (a name given by Arabians to all people of Western Europe,) long had known the citron; it is not impossible that they had procured a variety in Sicily or Sar-orange doree, which he distinguishes from the dinia, which, carried to Egypt, had gotten the name of French, or the name may have come from some Frenchman having cultivated it first in Egypt. (See notes of M. de Sacy upon the first book of Abd-Allatif, p. 117.)

I shall not enter upon the examination of the hammadh schouiri and red lemon. It is very difficult, from the little said of them, to imagine to what variety they ought to be assigned; and I would merely say, with regard to the cabbad, that if it is the same which Vansleb calls kebbad, in his new book about Egypt, it should be classed with the Adam's apple, seeing that this author de- | scribes it as a tree bearing oranges of enormous size, and the Adam's apple, or citrus decumanus, has precisely analogous properties.

It is more easy to recognize the races reported by Ebn-el-Awam in his Treatise on Agriculture, where he speaks of the agrumi of Seville.

This Spanish Arab distinguishes four species, calling them citronier, oranger, laysamou, or yasamou, or Zambou, and limonier, which names the translator rendered in Spanish, as cidro naranjo, limon, and limero, llamado, (toronjo o arbode), zumboa or bostamboun, and which is but the Adam's apple.

(“The atrundj, the narendj, the yasamou, called lambau, and the lamoun jaune, are as one species, and are cultivated in nearly the same manner." EBN-EL-AWAM, p. 314; and elsewhere, "of the planting the bastamboun, which is the zamboa," p. 323.)

Search for the etymology of these names presents difficulties. It would be useless to seek in Arabic or Persian language the origin of yasamou, laysamou, or zambou. Their physiognomy shows that they belong to neither of those tongues, but seems to prove that they will be found only in the languages of China or of Tartary. The Portuguese have adopted the word zambou, modifying it to zamboa. The word toronjo, used by the Spaniards for rendering that of laysamou, has much affinity with narendj, of which it may be a corruption. The word bostamboun seems to be composed of the Arabic word boustan (garden), and the Persian word boun (utility, ornament). In adopting this etymology bostamboun might signify ornament of the garden, which would perfectly apply to orange trees, and perhaps particularly to that variety having fruit of extraordinary size.

Ebn-el-Awam describes afterwards the different varieties of each species, and we at once recognize the ordinary citron in that which he calls citron aigre. (Our bigarade the Arabs have sometimes called citron rond, sometimes citron aigre, and finally narendj. Ebn-Beitar says of it: “The narendj is a well known tree, the leaf is

|

I know not how to determine what is the

ordinary orange, and less still, that called fleur celeste; but I clearly recognize a species of lime of Naples in the "lemon of smooth skin, the size of a pigeon's egg." and a sort of large poncire in the lemon avirolado.

The authority of Ebn-el-Awam, appears to prove that these varieties born, in great part, in Syria and Egypt, passed soon into Spain, but not into France and Italy until long afterwards.

One of the causes rendering difficult the recognition of ancient varieties, is the vagueness of descriptions. In those times of ignorance the language of botany was yet unfounded, consequently a person attempting to describe a plant did not select the traits most constant and certain, but each described the parts and peculiarities which most forcibly struck him, according to his manner of seeing, and with terms and expressions which often only confused ideas.

The Arabs, for example, have sometimes designated the orange by the name of round citron, and this expression applies equally to a genuine citron which affects this form. But nothing has been more vague than the attempt to express the color of the orange, as it resembles in no degree any known color. It has been indicated by that which was thought to approach it nearest-thus one calls it jaune (yellow), another speaks of it as doree (golden), another as rouge (red), and, finally, some have well adopted the name of orange color.

But to picture the idea by describing the fruit, they have made use of very indefinite expressions, causing great uncertainty in these descrip

tions.

The same inconvenience arises when we try to know the orange rouge.

It would appear a suitable name, yet, being sometimes used for indicating ordinary oranges, we find ourselves in uncertainty when wishing to interpret the authors with exactness.

Some have attempted to picture the color of this fruit by the term rinense (wine-like). The Ligurians have named it the orange of bloody juice (arancio sanguigno).

One finds himself equally embarrassed when trying to express the color of the flowers of the citron and lemon trees. They are shaded with a mixed tint, called by one red, by another violet, and which is, really, of both these colors.

Perhaps it was but this peculiar color that Ebn-el-Awam wished to designate by the expression fleur celeste.

In that case the variety he speaks of is, prob. ably, a hybrid of the orange and lemon, like the one in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, called violet orange tree.

I throw out these conjectures merely to show

« AnteriorContinuar »