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Citrus (ancient name of a fragrant African wood, afterward transferred to the Citron). Rutaceae. Citron. Lemon. Orange. Small evergreen, more or less spiny trees or shrubs, grown for their edible fruits, and also attractive in foliage and flower.
Leaves glandular-dotted, persistent, apparently simple (in reality unifoliate compound lvs.), borne on more or less winged or margined petioles, which are usually articulated with the blade and at their attachment to the twig: spines usually present, borne singly at the side of the bud in the axils of the lvs.: fls. clustered or rarely solitary in the axils of the lvs., or in small lateral or terminal cymes or panicles, white or pinkish purple in the bud; petals 5 (rarely 4 or 6) thick, strap-shaped, not clawed at the base, imbricated; stamens numerous (16-60, usually 20-40) at least four times as many as the petals, polyadelphous, cohering toward the bases in a few bundles; ovary 8-15-celled, with a prominent usually deciduous style containing as many tubes as there are cells in the ovary: fr. a hes- peridium, globose, oval or oblate-spheroid, the segms. filled with juicy pulp composed of stalked pulp-vesicles; seeds 1-8 in a cell, oval or oblong, ¼-¾in. long, with a pergameneous testa and thick fleshy cotyledons, usually with adventive embryos arising as buds from the nucellar tissue of the mother plant. Natives of Trop. and Subtrop. Asia and the Malayan Archipelago.— Half a dozen species are commonly cult. and have given rise to very many varieties as well as numerous hybrids, making the delimitation of the species exceedingly difficult. See Citrange, Citron, Etrog, Grapefruit, Lemon, Lime, Limequat, Orange, Pomelo, Tangelo.
The nomenclature here followed is based on the writer's treatment of the species of Citrus in "Plantae Wilsonianae." The fewest possible number of changes have been made consistent with presenting a clear account of the genus. A careful study of Citrus and the genera most nearly related to it has shown that the trifoliate orange differs in so many and such important characters that it seems necessary to recognize it as a separate genus (Poncirus). The same is true of the kumquats and the Australian limes.
C. bergamia, Risso. Bergamot. A small tree: lvs. oblong-oval, with long, winged petioles: fls. small, white, very fragrant: frs. pyriform, 3-t in. diam., thin-skinned, pale yellow when ripe; pulp acid; seeds oblong, many. Extensively cult. in Calabria for the essential oil which is expressed from the peel and used in making Eau de Cologne and other perfumes.—C. histrix, see Papeda.—C. japonica, see Kumquat.—C. taitensis, Risso. Otaheite Orange. A dwarf plant, having lemon-like fls. and lemon-shaped fr. orange in color with a mawkish taste. Commonly grown by florists as an ornamental pot-plant. Rarely used as a stock for dwarfing common citrous frs. This plant is not a native of Tahiti as the name would indicate, but is probably of hybrid origin.—C. trifoliate=Poncirus trifoliata.
Walter T. Swingle.
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