Chapter LAXIMANA to LEWCHEW of L by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

century introduced into Bengal with success. The dried fruit, usually ticketed as lychee, is now common in London shops.

c. 1540.—“… outra verdura muito mais fresca, e de melhor cheiro, que esta, a que os naturaes da terra chamão lechias.…”—Pinto, ch. lxviii.

1563.—“R. Of the things of China you have not said a word; though there they have many fruits highly praised, such as are lalichias (lalixias) and other excellent fruits.

“O. I did not speak of the things of China, because China is a region of which there is so much to tell that it never comes to an end.…”—Garcia, f. 157.

1585.—“Also they have a kinde of plummes that they doo call lechias, that are of an exceeding gallant tast, and never hurteth anybody, although they should eate a great number of them.”—Parke’s Mendoza, i. 14.

1598.—“There is a kind of fruit called Lechyas, which are like Plums, but of another taste, and are very good, and much esteemed, whereof I have eaten.”—Linschoten, 38; [Hak. Soc. i. 131].

1631.—“Adfertur ad nos præterea fructus quidam Lances (read Laices) vocatus, qui racematim, ut uvæ, crescit.”—Jac. Bontii, Dial. vi. p. 11.

1684.—“Latsea, or Chinese Chestnuts.”—Valentijn, iv. (China) 12.

1750-52.—“Leicki is a species of trees which they seem to reckon equal to the sweet orange trees.… It seems hardly credible that the country about Canton (in which place only the fruit grows) annually makes 100,000 tel of dried leickis.”—Olof Toreen, 302-3.

1824.—“Of the fruits which this season offers, the finest are leeches (sic) and mangoes; the first is really very fine, being a sort of plum, with the flavour of a Frontignac grape.”—Heber, i. 60.

c. 1858.—

“Et tandis que ton pied, sorti de la babouche,
Pendait, rose, au bord du manchy (see MUNCHEEL)
À l’ombre des bois noirs touffus, et du Letchi,
Aux fruits moins pourpres que ta bouche.”

Leconte de Lisle.

1878.—“… and the lichi hiding under a shell of ruddy brown its globes of translucent and delicately fragrant flesh.”—Ph. Robinson, In My Indian Garden, 49.

1879.—“… Here are a hundred and sixty lichi fruits for you.…”—M. Stokes, Indian Fairy Tales (Calc. ed.) 51.

LEMON, s. Citrus medica, var. Limonum, Hooker. This is of course not an Anglo-Indian word. But it has come into European languages through the Ar. leimun, and is, according to Hehn, of Indian origin. In Hind. we have both limu and nimbu, which last, at least, seems to be an indigenous form. The Skt. dictionaries give nimbuka. In England we get the word through the Romance languages, Fr. limon, It. limone, Sp. limon, &c., perhaps both from the Crusades and from the Moors of Spain. [Mr. Skeat writes: “The Malay form is limau, ‘a lime, lemon, or orange.’ The Port. limão may possibly come from this Malay form. I feel sure that limau, which in some dialects is limar, is an indigenous word which was transferred to Europe.”] (See LIME.)

c. 1200.—“Sunt praeterea aliae arbores fructus acidos, pontici videlicet saporis, ex se procreantes, quos appellant limones.”—Jacobi de Vitriaco, Hist. Iherosolym, cap. lxxxv. in Bongars.

c. 1328.—“I will only say this much, that this India, as regards fruit and other things, is entirely different from Christendom; except, indeed, that there be lemons in some places, as sweet as sugar, whilst there be other lemons sour like ours.”—Friar Jordanus, 15.

1331.—“Profunditas hujus aquae plena est lapidibus preciosis. Quae aqua multum est yrudinibus et sanguisugis plena. Hos lapides non accipit rex, sed pro animâ suâ semel vel bis in anno sub aquas ipsos pauperes ire permittit.… Et ut ipsi pauperes ire sub aquam possint accipiunt limonem et quemdam fructum quem bene pistant, et illo bene se ungunt.… Et cum sic sint uncti yrudines et sanguisugæ illos offendere non valent.”—Fr. Odoric, in Cathay, &c., App., p. xxi.

c. 1333.—“The fruit of the mango-tree (al-’anba) is the size of a great pear. When yet green they take the fallen fruit and powder it with salt and preserve it, as is done with the sweet citron and the lemon (al-leimun) in our country.”—Ibn Batuta, iii. 126.

LEMON-GRASS, s. Andropogon citratus, D.C., a grass cultivated in Ceylon and Singapore, yielding an oil much used in perfumery, under the name of Lemon-Grass Oil, Oil of Verbena, or Indian Melissa Oil. Royle (Hind. Medicine, 82) has applied the name to another very fragrant grass, Andropogon schoenanthus, L., according to him the [Greek Text] scoinoV of Dioscorides. This last, which grows wild in various