(jolden-feuited orange-tree. 63 



houses, in the manner still practised at Versailles, the Tuileries, and some other 

 collections in Europe, and in America. 



The largest trees in Britain are said to be those at Smorgony, in Glamorgan- 

 shire; they are planted in the floor of an immense conservatory, and produce 

 fruit in abundance. It is said that these plants were procured from a wreck on 

 the coast in that quarter, in the time of Henry VII. 



In the south of Devonshire, and particularly at Saltcombe, one of the warmest 

 spots in England, it is said there are gardens containing orange-trees, which 

 have withstood upwards of one hundred winters in the open air. The fruit is 

 represented as being as large and fine as any from Portugal. 



In East Florida, the orange. grows spontaneously in the neighbourhood of New 

 Smyrna. In noticing that town, in 1791, Bartram observes, "I was there about 

 ten years ago, when the surveyor run the lines of the colony, where there was 

 neither habitation nor cleared field. It was then a famous orange grove, the 

 upper or south promontory of a ridge nearly half a mile wide, and stretching 

 north about forty miles. # ^ * * All this was one entire orange gi^ove, 

 with live oaks, magnolias, palms, red bays, and others." He also makes fre- 

 quent mention of extensive groves of wild oranges, in Florida, as far north as 

 latitude twenty-eight degrees. Dr. Baldwin, in 1817, in speaking of Fish's 

 Island, says, " Here are the remains of perhaps the most celebrated Orange 

 Grove in the world. Some trees still remain that are thirty feet in height, and 

 still retain a portion of their golden fruit." In the same year, in describing the 

 beauties of the St. John's he says, " You may eat oranges from morning till 

 night, at every plantation along the shores, while the wild trees, bending with 

 their golden fruit over the water, present an enchanting appearance." These 

 trees are not regarded as originally natives of the new world, but were intro- 

 duced by the Spaniards, at the time they settled Florida, or by a colony of 

 Greeks and Minorcans, who founded New Smyrna, in 1769, while that country 

 was in the possession of the English. Audubon, as late as 1832, observes, 

 " Whatever its original country may be supposed to be, the wild orange is, to 

 all appearances, indigenous in many parts of Florida, not only in the neigh- 

 bourhood of plantations, but in the wildest portions of that wild country, where 

 there exist groves fully a mile in extent." This wild fruit is known in Florida 

 by the name of the bitter-sweet orange^ which does not differ materially from 

 the Seville orange, and probably originated from that variety. The occurrence of 

 these trees, wherever they grow, is a sure indication of good land. 



For many years past, no small degree of attention has been paid to the culture 

 of the common edible orange, at St. Augustine, and on the river St. John's. The 

 number of trees owned by different individuals, prior to 1835, varied from ten to 

 fifteen hundred. Perhaps no person in Florida had more than the latter number 

 in full bearing condition, at the time of the great frost, which occurred on the 

 9th of February, of that year. There were many trees then to be found in St. 

 Augustine, which exceeded forty feet in height, with trunks from twenty to 

 twenty-seven inches in diameter, and which, probably, were more than a cen- 

 tury old. But there are many persons in that vicinity, at the present time, who 

 are extensively engaged in the business. The late Mr. Kingsley left upwards 

 of six thousand bearing trees, in 1843, all of which are on the St. John's. In 

 addition to these, there are also on the same river, more than one hiuidred 

 orange groves, which, it is estimated, contain twenty thousand trees. At St. 

 Augustine, it is said, there are, at least, thirty thousand standard trees, four 

 thousand of which are owned by Mr. J, Douglass, about the same number by 

 Mr. V. Sanchez ; and by Mr. J. Drisdale, and the lady of the late Dr. Anderson, 

 fifteen hundred each. Notwithstanduig the injuries wliich the trees have su tiered 

 by the depredations of insects, for a few years, as well as by the discouragement 



