hesperidium

First recorded 1865–70; from New Latin, from hesperid-, a combining form used in botany meaning “derived from citrus fruit” + -ium ( def ). Hesperid- derives from Latin Hesperides, from Greek ��������í���� (the plural of the peculiar feminine adjective ��������í��, equivalent to ������é�����Dz� “western”), denoting the daughters of Evening who guarded the golden apples, the garden where these golden apples grew, and the island where the garden was ( Islands of the Blessed ( def ) ). It is uncertain whether the golden apples were apples or a kind of citrus fruit, in particular, the orange. The Swedish botanist Linnaeus ( def ), alluding to the Hesperides, gave the taxonomic name Hesperideae to the botanical order that contains the genus Citrus; Hesperus ( def )