Eureka Lemon
EUREKA

A dominant market lemon in California orchards, the Eureka became recognized with each decade from the 1860s onward for its durability, its bracing acidity, and its shippability.  It remains in widespread cultivation.

"The Eureka variety originated in Los Angeles, Calif. In 1858 Dr. Halsey, a physician of that city, received from New York City a box of Sicilian lemons. From seeds of these fruits he grew a number of trees in a small nursery which he owned on Alameda Street, Los Angeles, near the present site of the Southern Pacific Railroad depot. In 1860 Mr. Andrew Boyle purchased from Dr. Halsey several hundred of these seedling trees. They bore very lightly until 1870 and 1871, at which time three or four of them were found to produce smooth, thin-skinned fruits very different from the thick-skinned and coarse-textured fruits produced by the other trees. In 1877 Mr. W. H. Workman, son-in-law of Mr. Boyle, gave to Mr. Thomas A. Garey, a prominent horticulturist of Los Angeles, buds taken from one of the seedling trees which was bearing smooth, thin-skinned lemons." Mr. Garey propagated these buds, and the trees grown from them were found to bear lemons of superior quality. A large stock of the trees of this variety was then grown and distributed under the name of Garey's Eureka.” Later, by common consent, the name of the variety was shortened to Eureka" [Citrus Improvement: A Study of Bud Variation in the Eureka Lemon (1920), 3]. 

Propagation by bud grafting revealed that the variety had mutable epigenetics and a good deal of variety was found in plants derived from asexual propagation methods. The standard tree had a spreading habit with a modest droop to the limbs.  The moderate-sized leaves were oval, but sometimes verged on being roundish.  Capable of bearing several crops annually, the productivity of the trees was robust.  The thin-skinned fruit was smooth in texture, yellow, with a slight orange underblush.  

Image: U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection. Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD 20705, Ethel Schutt, 1913.

David S. Shields