History of Rare Plants

Two botanical woodcut illustrations of citrus branches. The left illustration, labeled "Malum aureum," shows a branch with leaves, small flowers, and three rounded citrus fruits. The right illustration, labeled "Poma Adami," shows a thicker branch with larger, textured, and more oblong fruits, along with large leaves and a single flower at the top right.

Toronjas, Zamboas.

THOSE which are commonly called Adam’s Apples, the French call Poncires, the inhabitants of Baetica Toronjas, and the Portuguese Zamboas. The tree itself is sometimes shorter, very similar to the Citron, yet for the most part it equals the taller Golden Apple tree in height. It has short thorns, leaves like the Lemon, a white and fragrant flower, and a round fruit, three times larger than the golden apple, turning yellow when ripe, with an uneven and thick rind, and a thick, spongy flesh which is eaten by some together with the rind; the juice is contained in short vesicles, as in the golden apple (for in the other kinds the vesicles or little bladders containing the juice are somewhat oblong), and it has sub-round seeds. Some call it the Assyrian apple.

MOREOVER, besides the Orange with the edible rind, I understood from another index which the most learned man Master Simon de Tovar sent in the year 1596, that ten kinds of Citron-apples are found among the inhabitants of Seville; for I received from him the seeds of that which the Spaniards call Zamboas, then Limones de carne, Limones de figuras, Limones preñados, Limones poncies, Limones ceutíes, Limones dulces, Limas dulces, Limas agrias, and Limones de Yulte, or Limas del Emperador, because, he says, this plant is said to have been first brought into Spain from Hungary by the Emperor Charles V; the credibility of which opinion seems to be increased by the fact that, beyond all other kinds of Citron-apples, this one is most enduring of the cold. Furthermore, its fruit is edible and endowed with a much sweeter taste than the Caxel orange, and its juice indeed approaches most closely to an acid-sweet, and is therefore the most pleasant of all the acid kinds of Citron-apples.

Furthermore, the leaves of all these are perpetually green, and pierced with many holes, as it were, if held up to the Sun, like the leaves of Saint John’s Wort, adhering to the petiole by a certain joint: only the leaves of the golden apple have appendages, as it were, following the joint.

HORSE CHESTNUT. ### CHAP. V.

History of the Horse Chestnut.

The illustrious Matthiolus described the Horse Chestnut in his commentaries on the first book of Dioscorides: yet because it has not yet been seen among our people, or certainly very rarely, and it has flourished remarkably for me, I have seen fit to add its history.

I UNDERSTAND this tree to be of vast size, which indeed I left in Vienna when departing in the year 1588; within twelve years, it had grown to the thickness of a human thigh and a height of two fathoms or more, and had spread a wide canopy. I have found it to be most enduring of the cold, and to delight in shade and water like the Plane tree. In autumn, when it has shed its leaves, it immediately bears something like a catkin at the ends of the small branches, turgid as if it were in labor, and sprinkled with a thick and viscous humor in which gnats and insects of this sort get stuck; and it remains thus throughout the whole winter until, at the beginning of spring, and quite prematurely, the buds open into leaves