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LEMON

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 413 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LEMON , the See also:

fruit of Citrus Limonum, which is regarded by some botanists as a variety of Citrus medica. The See also:wild stock of the lemon See also:tree is said to be a native of the valleys of See also:Kumaon and See also:Sikkim in the See also:North-See also:West provinces of See also:India, ascending to a height of 4000 ft., and occurring under several forms. See also:Sir See also:George See also:Watt (See also:Dictionary of Economic Products of India, ii. 352) regards the wild See also:plants as wild forms of the See also:lime or citron and considers it highly probable that the wild See also:form of the lemon has not yet been discovered. The lemon seems to have been unknown to the See also:ancient Greeks and See also:Romans, and to have been introduced by the See also:Arabs See also:Athens, and See also:Lemnos continued an Athenian See also:possession till the Macedonian See also:empire absorbed it. On the vicissitudes of its See also:history in the 3rd See also:century B.C. see Kohler in Mittheil. Inst. Athen. 261 The Romans declared it See also:free in 197 B.C., but gave it over in 166 to Athens, which retained nominal possession; of it till the whole of See also:Greece was made a See also:Roman See also:province. A See also:colony of See also:Attic cleruchs was established by See also:Pericles, and many See also:inscriptions on the See also:island relate to Athenians After the See also:division of the empire, Lemnos passed under the See also:Byzantine emperors; it shared in the vicissitudes of the eastern provinces, being alternately in the See also:power of Greeks, Italians and See also:Turks, till finally the See also:Turkish sultans became supreme in the See also:Aegean. In 1476 the Venetians successfully defended Kotschinos against a Turkish See also:siege; but in 1657 Kastro was captured by the Turks from the Venetians after a siege of sixty-three days. Kastro was again besieged by the Russians in 1770.

See also:

Homer speaks as if there were one See also:town in the island called Lemnos, but in See also:historical times there was no such See also:place. There were two towns, Myrina, now Kastro, and Hephaestia. The latter was the See also:chief town; its coins are found in considerable number, the types being sometimes the Athenian goddess and her See also:owl, sometimes native religious symbols, the caps of the Dioscuri, See also:Apollo, &c. Few coins of Myrina are known. They belong to the See also:period of Attic occupation, and See also:bear Athenian types. A few coins are also known which bear the name, not of either See also:city, but of the whole island. Conze was the first to discover the site of Hephaestia, at a deserted place named Palaeokastro on the See also:east See also:coast. It had once a splendid See also:harbour, which is now filled up. Its situation on the east explains why See also:Miltiades attacked it first when he came from the See also:Chersonese. It surrendered at once, whereas Myrina, with its very strong citadel built on a perpendicular See also:rock, sustained a siege. It is said that the See also:shadow of See also:Mount See also:Athos See also:fell at sunset on a See also:bronze cow in the See also:agora of Myrina. See also:Pliny says that Athos was 87 M. to the north-west; but the real distance is about 40 See also:English See also:miles.

One See also:

legend localized in Lemnos still requires See also:notice. See also:Philoctetes was See also:left there by the Greeks on their way to See also:Troy; and there he suffered ten years' agony from his wounded See also:foot, until 'Ulysses and See also:Neoptolemus induced him to accompany them to Troy. He is said by See also:Sophocles to have lived beside Mount Hermaeus, which See also:Aeschylus (Agam. 262) makes one of the See also:beacon points to flash the See also:news of Troy's downfall See also:home to See also:Argos. See Rhode, Res Lemnicae; Conze, Reise auf den Inseln See also:des Thrakischen Meeres (from which the above-mentioned facts about the See also:present See also:state of the island are taken); also See also:Hunt in See also:Walpole's Travels; See also:Belon du Mans, Observations de plusieurs singularitez, &c.; See also:Finlay, Greece under the Romans; von See also:Hammer, Gesch. des i )sman. Reiches; Gott. Gel. Anz. (1837). The chief references in ancient writers are Iliad i. 593, v. 138, xiv.

229, &c.; See also:

Herod. Ia. 145; Str. pp. 124, 330; Plin. iv. 23, See also:xxxvi. 13.

End of Article: LEMON

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