Spec. Plant. Willd. iii. 1426. Cl. 18. Ord.3. Polyadelphia Icosandria. Nat. Ord. Aurantiacae. Cr. 1391. Calyx five-cleft. Petals five, oblong. Anthers twenty, the filaments united into different parcels. Berry nine-celled. Species 1. C. medica. The Lemon-tree. Med. Bot. 3d edit. 528.

t. 189. Species 4. C. Aurantium. The Orange-tree. Med. Bot. 3d edit.

523. t. 188.

L Citrus medica.1 Var. β. C. Limon.

Officinal. Limones. Limonum Cortex. Limonum Oleum. Limonum Succus. Lond. Citri Medico Cortex : Oleum volatile: Succus, Edin. Citri fructus succus, tunica exterior, et ejus oleum volatile, Dub. Lemons: their rind, and its essential oil.

Theophrasti at Dioscoridis.

Syn. Citronier ( F.), Zitrone baum (G.), Limon (I.), Citri (S.), Lemon (Arab.), Lemu (H.), Jambera (Sans.), Elimitchum pullum (Tarn.), Jerook (Malay), Usi ( Celebes).

The lemon-tree is a native of Assyria and Persia, whence it was brought into Europe; first to Greece, and afterwards to Italy.1 It is now cultivated in Spain, Portugal, and France, and is not uncommon in our green-houses.2 It is a beautiful ever-green, of small growth, sending off numerous branches covered with a greyish bark. The leaves are alternate, of a shining pale-green colour, ovate, acuminate, about four inches long, and two inches broad, slightly indented at the edges, and supported on naked linear footstalks. The flowers, which appear the greater part of the summer, are odoriferous, large, and placed on simple and branched peduncles, arising from the smaller branches. The calyx is saucer-shaped, with the teeth pointed; the petals are oblong, concave, white, with a purplish tinge on the outside; the filaments, united at their base into four parcels, support yellow vertically-placed anthers; and the germen is superior, roundish, and having a simple style with a globular stigma. The fruit is ovate, pointed at each end, rough, punctured, externally of a pale-yellow colour, and internally divided into seven, nine, or eleven cells, containing four seeds in each, and filled with vesicles distended with a sharp acid juice.

The rind is double: the exterior part thin, yellow, and chiefly made up of a great number of vesicles filled with a very fragrant oil; the interior thicker and whiter than the exterior, and coriaceous.3

Lemons are brought to England from Spain and Portugal, and some from the West Indies, but the latter chiefly supplies the Lime, the C. aeris. It is smaller than the lemon, of an oval shape, thinner in the rind, and although as acid, yet milder than the lemon. Lemons are imported, packed in chests, and each lemon separately rolled in paper. The Spanish lemons are most esteemed.

Qualities. - Lemon-juice is sharp, but very gratefully acid. It consists principally of the citric acid, mucilage, extractive matter, a small portion of saccharine matter, and water. Before Scheele's process was known, many different unsuccessful plans were adopted for separating the citric acid;

1 Venit in Italiam post Virgilii et Plinii tempera, ante Palladii. Willd. S. P. Hi. 1426. The fertility of the lemon-tree is proverbial in Italy. A wager was laid in 1812, by Signor Antonio Georgeri of Alassa, with Marchese Calani of Spezia, that at Cresullo, half a mile from Massa, there was a lemon-tree which would mature, that year, fourteen thousand lemons. It exceeded the quantity. Latider's Conversations, vol. i. p. 122.

2 It was first cultivated in Britain in the Oxford garden about the year 1643-3Giprtner de Fructibus, vol. ii. p. 189.

which is now obtained in a crystallized form, and admitted into the London and Dublin pharmacopoeias.1 The simple juice, although well depurated of its extractive matter, yet soon spoils; and therefore the crystallized acid dissolved in water is generally used in its stead.

There rind warm, aromatic, and slightly bitter, qualities depending on the volatile oil it contains, which is given out to water, wine, and alcohol.

The oil, which is obtained by distillation, is extremely light, nearly colourless, and fragrant; and has the same taste as the rind, only in a greater degree. It is very volatile, yet does not readily rise with alcohol or with proof spirit.

Medical properties and uses.-Lemon-juice is refrigerant and antiseptic. It is given diluted with water and sweetened, forming the beverage called lemonade, to quench thirst, and abate heat, in febrile and inflammatory diseases. Given alone to the extent of a table-spoonful for a dose, it allays hysterical palpitations of the heart; and in combination with carbonate of potassa (f ss. of the juice to Э j. of the salt), taken in a state of effervescence, it is used with great success to allay vomiting, and determine to the surface. A still more useful and pleasant effervescing draught is made by putting a table-spoonful of lemon-juice, mixed with a small quantity of sugar, into a tumbler, and pouring over it half a pint of soda-water. On account of its antiseptic powers, lemon juice is successfully used in sea scurvy; and for this purpose large quantities of it, in a concentrated state, are distributed in the navy; but the continued use of it is said to be hurtful to the general health of the men, and to hasten the progress of phthisis where it makes its appearance. Dr. Wright observes, that its powers are increased by saturating it with chloride of sodium, and recommends such a mixture in remittent fever, dysentery, colic, putrid sore-throat, and as being almost specific in diabetes and lientery: but it must be recollected that chloride of sodium is itself a remedy for scurvy.

Lemon-juice is given also united with camphor, infusion of cinchona bark and wine, in the above diseases : and, mixed with ardent spirits and water with sugar, it forms punch, which is a useful cordial in low fevers.