Lemon

Lemon (Citrus Limonum), a fruit-bearing shrub closely related to the orange (q.v.), apparently truly indigenous in the north of India, carried to Palestine and Egypt by the Arabs, and to Italy by the Crusaders, and now naturalised in the West Indies. The fruit is oval, or ovate, and ends in a nipple-like point; the rind is thin, smooth, and not readily separable; and the juice is acid. There are numerous varieties. Lemons and lemon-juice are imported from Sicily and other parts of southern Europe, the fruits being in cases 4 feet long and about a foot wide and deep, containing 500 lemons, whilst the juice is in casks. One thousand five hundred lemons yield 26 gallons of raw juice; but it takes 2,500 to yield that quantity of concentrated juice. Five per cent. of alcohol may be added as a preservative. Besides their use fresh and candied and in making lemonade, lemons are used in the manufacture of citric acid.