of the Pyrenees, leaving everywhere traces of their power and of their knowledge. The lemon, thus transported by the Arabs into every part of their vast empire where it would grow, was found by the crusaders in Syria and Palestine towards the end of the eleventh century.. By them it was introduced into Sicily and Italy; though it is probable that at the same period it was already multiplied in Africa and Spain. Arabic writers of the twelfth century speak of the lemon-tree as then cultivated in Egypt and many other places. Matthew Silvaticus, a writer of that time, says that the lemon was then spread over all Italy.

In the southern parts of Europe, where the lemon is abundant, there are many varieties.

The rind of the lemon is much smoother than that of the citron; the bark of the tree is less smooth.

The Lime, or sour lemon, is a small and shrubby tree, the fruit of which is much smaller than that of the citron or lemon, being only about an inch, or an inch and a half in diameter. The lime is not much cultivated in Europe; but it is a great favourite in the West Indies, being more acid and cooling than the lemon. In that country there is a sweet lime, intermediate between the lemon and the sour lime; and botanical writers are of opinion that hybrids or mules are produced between all the varieties, and probably also the species, of the citrons.

The Orange is a taller and more beautiful tree than either the citron or the lemon; but, like them, it has prickly branches when in its native country. The orange was originally brought from India.

The precise time at which the orange was introduced into England is not known with certainty, but probably it may have taken place not long after their introduction into Portugal, which was in the early part of the sixteenth century.

The first oranges, it is stated, were imported into

England by Sir Walter Raleigh*; and it is added that Sir Francis Carew, who married the niece of Sir Walter, planted their seeds, and they produced the orange-trees at Beddington, in Surrey, of which Bishop Gibson, in his additions to Camden's Bri tannia, speaks as having been there for a hundred years previous to 1695. As these trees always produced fruit, they could not, as Professor Martyn justly observes, have been raised from seeds; but they may have been brought from Portugal, or from Italy, (the place whence orange-trees have usually been obtained,) as early as the close of the sixteenth century. The trees at Beddington were planted in the open ground, with a moveable cover to screen them from the inclemency of the winter months. In the beginning of the eighteenth century they had attained the height of eighteen feet, and the stems were about nine inches in diameter; while the spread

* Biographia Britannica; Art. Raleigh.

of the head of the largest one was twelve feet the one way and nine the other. There had always been a wall on the north side of them to screen them from the cold of that quarter, but they were at such a distance from the wall as to have room to spread, and plenty of air and light. In 1738 they were sur rounded by a permanent inclosure, like a greenhouse. They were all destroyed by the great frost of the following winter; but whether wholly owing to the frost, or partly to the confinement and damp of the permanent inclosure, cannot now be ascertained.

John Parkinson, apothecary, of London, one of the most voluminous of our early writers on plants, who published his Practise of Plants' in 1629, gives some curious directions for the preservation of orange-trees, from which one would be led to conclude that the trees at Beddington, with their ample protection of a moveable covering in winter, had not been in existence then. "The orange-tree," says he, "hath abiden, with some extraordinary branching and budding of it, when as neither citron nor lemontrees would by any means be preserved for any long time. Some keepe them in square boxes, and lift them to and fro by iron hooks on the sides, or cause them to be rowled on trundels or small wheels under them, to place them in an house, or close galerie, for the winter time: others plant them against a bricke wall in the ground, and defend them by a shed of boardes, covered with seare-cloth in the winter; and by the warmth of a stove, or such other thing, give them some comfort in the colder times: but no tent or meane provision will preserve them." The orange trees at Versailles are, during the winter, wheeled into warm places under the terrace; and the same plan is to be pursued with respect to some fine orange-trees at Windsor, which have been lately presented to his Majesty by the King of France. At Hampton

Court there are many orange-trees, some of which are stated to be three hundred years old. They are generally moved into the open air about the middle of June, when the perfume of their blossoms is most delicious. Orange and lemon-trees have been cultivated in the open air in England. For a hundred years, in a few gardens of the south of Devonshire, they have been seen, trained as peach-trees against walls, and sheltered only with mats of straw during the winter. The fruit of these is stated to be as large and fine as any from Portugal *.

The Shaddock is much larger than the orange, both in the tree and the fruit. The tree is both lofty and spreading, and the fruit is about eight inches in circumference, some, indeed, much larger. The shaddock is a native of China and the adjoining countries, where the name of "sweet ball" is given to it. There are many varieties-some with the pulp white, others with it nearly red; some that are sweet,