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CHAP. 7. (3.)—HOW THE CITRON IS PLANTED.

The cherry and the peach, and all those trees which have either Greek or foreign names, are exotics: those, however, of this number, which have begun to be naturalized among us, will be treated of when I come to speak of the fruit-trees in general. For the present, I shall only make mention of the really exotic trees, beginning with the one that is applied to the most salutary uses. The citron tree, called the Assyrian, and by some the Median apple, is an antidote against poisons.1 The leaf is similar to that of the arbute, except that it has small prickles2 running across it. As to the fruit, it is never eaten,3 but it is remarkable for its extremely powerful smell, which is the case, also, with the leaves; indeed, the odour is so strong, that it will penetrate clothes, when they are once impregnated with it, and hence it is very useful in repelling the attacks of noxious insects. The tree bears fruit at all seasons of the year; while some is falling off, other fruit is ripening, and other, again, just bursting into birth. Various nations have attempted to naturalize this tree among them, for the sake of its medical properties, by planting it in pots of clay, with holes drilled in them, for the purpose of introducing the air to the roots; and I would here remark, once for all, that it is as well to remember that the best plan is to pack all slips of trees that have to be carried to any distance, as close together as they can possibly be placed. It has been found, however, that this tree will grow nowhere4 except in Media or Persia. It is this fruit, the pips of which, as we have already mentioned,5 the Parthian grandees employ in seasoning their ragouts, as being peculiarly conducive to the sweetening of the breath. We find no other tree very highly commended that is produced in Media.

1 See B. xxiii. c. 55. Fée remarks, that the ancients confounded the citron with the orange-tree.

2 Fée remarks, that this is not the case. The arbute is described in B. xv. c. 28.

3 In the time of Plutarch, it had begun to be somewhat more used. It makes one of the very finest preserves.

4 At the present day, it is cultivated all over India, in China, South America, and the southern parts of Europe. Fée says, that they grow even in the open air in the gardens of Malmaison.

5 B. xi. c. 115. Virgil says the same, Georg. B. ii. 11. 134, 135. Theophrastus seems to say, that it was the outer rind that was so used.

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

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