swingle: a new genus of kumquat oranges 165 



BOTANY. — A new genus, Fortunella, comprising four species of 

 kumquat oranges. Walter T. Swingle, Bureau of Plant 

 Industry. 



The kumquat oranges are of very small size, usually less than 

 an inch in diameter. The two species commonly cultivated 

 differ from other oranges in having a relatively thick, fleshy^ 

 sweet and edible peel and in having only 4 to 7 segments, con- 

 taining a small amount of acid pulp. Besides the round and 

 oval-fruited species common in culture, there is a third species 

 recently introduced into culture from China, and a fourth 

 occurring wild on the Island of Hongkong. 



HISTORY OF THE KUMQUAT ORANGES 



The kumquat oranges, though described by early Chinese 

 writers on agriculture, remained practically unknown to Euro- 

 peans until recent times. The kumquat is mentioned in many 

 early Chinese works and described in some detail by Han Yen 

 Chi in his treatise on the oranges, written in 1178. Later works 

 of both Chinese and Japanese authors treat of it fully, often 

 with fairly good illustrations. 



The first vague notice of the kumquat oranges in European 

 literature was published by Ferrarius in 1646 in his Hesperides 

 and was based on reports made to him by the Portuguese Jesuit, 

 Alvaro Semedo, who lived 22 years in China. His successors, 

 Steerbeck, Volckamer, Risso and Poiteau, and other authors of 

 monumental illustrated works on the citrous fruits, add nothing 

 to our knowledge of the kumquat. 



Rumphius in 1741 described and figured the round kumquat 

 in his Flora Amboinense. This was the first good account of 

 any kumquat orange to appear in European literature. In 1780 

 Thunberg assigned the name Citrus japonica to the round 

 kumquat, and in 1784 described it more fully in his Flora Japon- 

 ica, still later (in 1800) publishing a fairly good figure of it in 

 his Icones Plantarum Japonicarum. Loureiro, in 1790, in his 

 Flora Cochinchinensis named the oval kumquat Citrus margarita, 

 and also described the round kumquat under the name Citrus 

 madurensis. 



