Did it have fruit? How tall/wide was it? Did you ask them what it was used for? What are the shape, size, texture fo the leaves? Can you post a picture?

Violet, it is not a fruit tree..more like a herb for soup. It's about 2-3 feet but can grow taller. It has small green leaves. At the moment, I don't have a picture.

Probably Citrus hystrix (aka Kaffir lime)? This citrus has spines by the way. I doubt it is this because you mentioned small leaves..but can you describe the leaves more? (eg..fuzzy leaves, compound leaves..etc) Did it have an infloresence of any sort?

I would think it's kaffir lime too if you say it smells like citrus. Otherwise, my other guess is thai basil?
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According to Tucker & DeBaggio's recent herb book, the lemon and lime flavored basils have some Thai Basil blood (er... "sap") flowing in them.

Ie., some of the Thai Basils have citrus chemotypes, rather than the normal "spicy" chemotype of most Thai Basils.

Is the as the above picture? Which one?

The bottom photo is ordinary basil (at least in Australia), Thai basil is a much smaller leaf and could be what dangtan09 is referring to. Kaffir Lime leaves are quite a big double leaf, and are a great addition to Thai cooking.

There are three types of Thai Basil:

Holy Basil-Bai Kaprao (Ocimum sactum)
Thai Basil Bai Horapha Ocimum basilicum (the one in the above photo)
Thai Lemon Basil - Bai mangluk (Ocimum canum)

Now in the US there are many "new" hybrids called Thai Basil, Siamese Queen Basil, etc.

Often the Thai Basil and Holy Basil are used 1/2 and 1/2 in Gai Kraproa, as the Holy Basil is less common here in the states and some farangs don't like the stronger fragrance and taste, so some restaurants only use the Thai Basil, but still call it by the Thai name for the dish with Holy Basil.

Mary-Anne

dangtran09,

Did you ever figure it out?

yeah what was it?
sounds almost like you ran into a lemon basil?