The Laboratorium : This Story is False

“Clementine,” the citrus fruit, received its name through an interesting linguistic crossover. The old nursery rhyme “Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St. Clements” proved irresistable to the three London-born English citrus botanists who bred the first clementines. The familial connection between clementines and oranges is clear enough, but, linguists conjecture, “oranges” was only added to the phrase to provide a counterpart for the “lemons” that rhymed with the “Clements” that gave clementines their name.