LEMON, Citrus limonum, a tree which has by many botanists been regarded as a variety of the citron (q.v.), and, like it, a native of the n. of India. Its leave arc ovate or oblong, usually serrulate, pale green, with a winged stalk; the flowers are streaked and reddish on the outside; the fruit is oblong, wrinkled or furrowed, pale yellow, with generally concave oil-cysts in the rind. In the common variety, which is very extensively cultivated in many tropical and sub-tropical countries, the pulp of the fruit is very acid, abounding in citric acid. There is, however, a variety called the sweet lemon, occasionally cultivated in the s. of Europe, of which the juice is sweet. It is citrus Janda of sonic botanists, and has both concave and convex oil-cysts in the rind. The acid juice of the common lemon is much used in the preparation of the well-known cooling beverage called lemonade, and is also administered in various forms in febrile and scorbutic complaints. It is much used by calico-printers to discharge colors, to produce greater clearness in the white part of patterns, dyed with dyes containing iron.
As a preventive of sea-scurvy, it is an important article of sea-stores. Citric acid and lemon-juice are likewise made from it in great quantities. The rind of the fruit (lemon peel), separated from thy; pulp, and kept in a dried state, is a grateful stomachic, and is much used for flavorirg. The produce of the lemon-groves of Italy, the Tyrol. Spain, 'Portugal, the s. of France, and other countries bordering on the Mediterranean sea, is largely exported to more northern regions. Sicily alone exports annually 30,000 chests, each containing 440 lemons. The lemon-tree is very fruitful; it is more hardy than the orange, and in some parts of the s. of England produces very good crops, being trained to a wall, and protected by a movable frame in winter.—The lemon is supposed to have - been' introduced into Europe during the Crusades. It is almost naturalized in the s. of Europe. It is so completely naturalized in some partsCf the s. of Brazil. that the flesh of the cattle which pasture in the woods acquires a strong smell of lemons, cattle being very fond of the fallen fruit.