柑橘
The Mandarin orange,also known as mandarin or mandarine,is a small citrus tree with fruit resembling the orange.The fruit is oblate,rather than spherical.Mandarin oranges are usually eaten plain,or in fruit salads.Specifically reddish orange mandarin cultivars can be marketed as tangerines,but this is not a botanical classification.
The tree is more drought tolerant than the fruit.The mandarin is tender,and is damaged easily by cold.It can be grown in tropical and subtropical areas.
The Mandarin orange is but one variety of the orange family.The mandarin has many names,some of which actually refer to crosses between the mandarin and another citrus fruit.Most canned mandarins are of the Mikan variety (derived from migan in Chinese),of which there are over 200 cultivars.One of the more well-known mikan cultivars is the "Owari",which ripens during the late fall season in the Northern Hemisphere.Clementines,however,have displaced mikans in many markets,and are becoming the most important commercial mandarin variety.
The mandarin is easily peeled with the fingers,starting at the thick rind covering the depression at the top of the fruit,and can be easily split into even segments without squirting juice.This makes it convenient to eat,as utensils are not required to peel or cut the fruit.
柠檬
The lemon is the common name for Citrus limon.The reproductive tissue surrounds the seed of the angiosperm lemon tree.The lemon is used for culinary and nonculinary purposes throughout the world.The fruit is used primarily for its juice,though the pulp and rind (zest) are also used,primarily in cooking and baking.Lemon juice is about 5% (approximately 0.3 mole per liter) citric acid,which gives lemons a tart taste,and a pH of 2 to 3.This makes lemon juice an inexpensive,readily available acid for use in educational science experiments.Because of the tart flavor,many lemon-flavored drinks and candies are available on the market,including lemonade.
The exact origin of the lemon has remained a mystery,though it is widely presumed that lemons first grew in India,northern Burma,and China.In South and South East Asia,it was known for its antiseptic properties and it was used as an antidote for various poisons.It was later introduced to Persia and then to Iraq and Egypt around AD 700.The lemon was first recorded in literature in a tenth century Arabic treatise on farming,and was also used as an ornamental plant in early Islamic gardens.It was distributed widely throughout the Arab world and the Mediterranean region between AD 1000 and AD 1150.
Pickled lemons,a Moroccan delicacyLemons entered Europe (near southern Italy) no later than the first century AD,during the time of Ancient Rome.However,they were not widely cultivated.The first real lemon cultivation in Europe began in Genoa in the middle of the fifteenth century.It was later introduced to the Americas in 1493 when Christopher Columbus brought lemon seeds to Hispaniola along his voyages.Spanish conquest throughout the New World helped spread lemon seeds.It was mainly used as ornament and medicine.In 1700s and late 1800s,lemons were increasingly planted in Florida and California when lemons began to be used in cooking and flavoring.
