swingle: a new genus of kumquat oranges 167 



in the bud, and the small prominently glandular-dotted fruits 

 all resembled most strikingly the round kumquat now commonly 

 cultivated in this country. 



Later on other specimens of this plant were studied in the 

 herbaria at Kew Gardens and the British Museum, London, 

 and the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris; and through the 

 courtesy of the Superintendent of the Botanical and Forestry 

 Department of Hongkong viable seeds of this species were sent 

 to the writer in 1912. A study of the germination, as well as 

 of the foliar, flower, and fruit characters, showed that in reality 

 this plant is a very primitive kumquat. Thereupon the various 

 forms of the common kumquat in culture in Florida, California, 

 and Algeria were studied, as well as the material in the principal 

 herbaria of Europe and America. As a result of this study 

 the writer is convinced that the kumquats should be placed in 

 a new genus midway between Atalantia and Citrus. 



The kumquats are the most primitive living true citrous 

 fruits. The Hongkong kumquat, the only species known in the 

 wild state, is the most primitive of the kumquats and consequently 

 the most primitive of the true citrous fruits. That is to say, it 

 is of all known existing species the most nearly like the ancestral 

 form from which the kumquats and the species of Citrus 

 originated. 



On account of their many and important differences from Ata- 

 lantia and from Citrus it is proposed to create a new genus, 

 Fortunella/ to include the kumquats. 



* Fortunella, Swingle, gen. nov. Cilro affinis, foliis unifoliolatis, staminum 

 numero petalorum quadruplo. A Ciiro differt floribus solitariis vel in panic- 

 ulis paucifloribus dispositis, numero loculorum ovarii niimero petalorum aequali 

 vel pauIo majore, ovulis collateralibus in loculo geminis, stigmate cavernoso 

 ob glandulis oleiferas profundas, foliis venis non prominentibus subtus palli- 

 dioribus punctis glandulosis viridibus numerosissimis instructis, alabastro in 

 sectione plus minusve polygono, fructu mesocarpio crassiore, carnoso et eduli. 

 Rami juniores novelli virentes triangulares, vetustiores teretes. Cotyledones 

 in germinatione ut in Cilro hypogeae, folia prima ovata subsessilia opposita. 

 Frutices vel arbores humiles. — Species typica, Fortunella margarita (Citrus 

 margarita Lour.). Colitur Cantone Sinarum. 



