Vol. VI., No. 32,] BULLETIN OF THE TORREY Boranicat Cxus. [New York, Aug., 1877. 
§ 171. An Orange within an Orange.—The editor sent me an 
orange with the request that, should it be sufficiently unusual, I 
would give an account of itin the BuLtetin. The orange had been 
peeled for eating, and upon breaking the carpels apart, to divide it 
into halves, another and much smaller fruit was found within. This, 
if not the rarest of phenomena, is certainly an interesting one, and 
some account of it may be acceptable to the readers of the BULLETIN. 
The genus Crtrus appears to have a remarkable tendency to pro- 
duce abnormal forms, and probably affords writers on vegetable 
teratology more illustrations than almost any other. Its leaves, 
flowers and fruit sport in various ways, and even its seeds sometimes 
contain several extra embryos. Several of the unusual forms of the 
fruit in oranges, lemons, citrons, etc. are continued in cultivation, 
on account of their curious or ornamental character. 
What is known as the “ Fingered Orange” is an illustration of 
that deviation from the normal condition called dialysis, or the sep- 
aration of parts that are ordinarily united. In this, the carpels are 
united below but separated above, and some specimens present the 
appearance of a hand with its fingers extended. Doct. Maxwell T. 
Masters (Vegetable Teratology, p. 74)‘ figures a specimen in which 
this separation continues quite to the base, thus making a twin fruit 
of two nearly equal, somewhat fusiform, parts. 
In the “ Horned Orange ” (and Lemon), perhaps more generally 
cultivated than any other sport, the abnormal condition is shown in 
the flower, in which the usual compound ovary is closely surrounded 
by aring of supernumerary carpels, which are really transformed 
filaments. In the developement and maturing of the fruit, these 
outer carpels become so fused together below as to present a smooth 
exterior, and they are completely consolidated with the ovary proper, 
but their upper portions remain distinct and, projecting more or less 
above the general surface, appear as “ horns.” 
In all these malformed citrus fruits, those parts which are exposed 
to the air and light, are covered with the usual yellow rind, but 
where the carpels are surrounded and protected by others, they are 
destitute of rind. The “ Horned Orange” and several other abnor- 
mal forms are figured by Risso & Poiteau in “ Histoire Naturelle des 
Orangers, etc.” indeed, one who has studied the fine colored plates 
of that elegant work is prepared for almost any anomaly the genus 
may present. 
The specimen sent by the editor illustrates that abnormal con- 
dition termed f/e‘ofaxy, an increase in the number of whorls (as 
distinct from folyphylly, a multiplication of the parts in the same 
whorl), and which is of more frequent occurrence in other parts than 
here, in the gynaecium. A second set of carpels has been produced 
within the usual ring of carpels, and as the intruders are surrounded 
by the normal set, they are without rind, and, being much crowded, 
are not perfectly regular in shape. 
This condition within the orange has occurred two or three times 
within my knowledge, but according to Moquin Tandon ( Teratologie 
Vegetale), it is sufficiently frequent for such oranges to be recognized 
in the Canaries as a popularly known class, and to be given a dis- 
