GOLDEN-FRUITED ORANGE-TREE. 65 



temperature of 10 to 15. In February, 1S23, as well as in the same month in 

 1839, the trees also suffered in their extreme branches, from the effect of frost. 

 On the morning of the 9th of January, 1765, the thermometer stood at 26, at St; 

 Augustine, and the ground was frozen to the depth of an inch, on the banks of the 

 St. John's. This extreme cold proved fatal to the orange, and many other trees. 



Propagation and Management. The orange may be propagated by seeds, 

 cuttings, layers, and grafting, or inoculation. The object of raising plants from 

 seeds, is either to obtain new varieties, or stocks for grafting. They do not 

 readily bear fruit, and often arrive at an age of twenty or twenty-five years 

 without flowering. Mr. Henderson, of Woodhall, in England, well skilled in 

 the culture of the citrus tribe, considers cuttings as the quickest mode of obtain- 

 ing plants in that country, and gives the following directions : " Take the 

 strongest young shoots, and also a quantity of the two-year old shoots ; these 

 may be cut into lengths of from nine to eighteen inches. Take the leaves off 

 the lower part of each cutting to the extent of about five inches, allowing the 

 leaves above, that remain, untouched ; then cut right across, under an eye, and 

 make a small incision in an angular direction on the bottom of the cutting. 

 When the cuttings are thus prepared, take a pot, and fill it with sand ; size the 

 cuttings, so that the short ones may be all together, and those that are taller in a 

 different pot. Then, with a small dibble, plant them about five inches deep 

 in the sand, and give them a good watering over head, to settle the sand 

 about them. Let them stand a day or two in a shady place, and if a frame be 

 ready with bottom-heat, plunge the pots to the brim. Shade them well with a 

 double mat, which may remain till they have struck root ; when rooted, take 

 the sand and cuttings out of the pot, and plant them into single pots, in the 

 proper compost. Plunge the pots with the young plants again into a frame, and 

 shade them for four or five weeks, or till they are taken with the pots ; when 

 they may be gradually exposed to the light. From various experiments, I found 

 that pieces of two-year old wood struck quite well ; and in place, therefore, of 

 "putting in cuttings six or eight inches long, I have taken ofi^ cuttings from ten 

 inches to two feet long, and struck them with equal success. Although I at first 

 began to put in cuttings only in the month of August, I now put them in at any 

 time of the year, except when the plants are making young wood. By giving 

 them a gentle bottom-heat, and covering them with a hand-glass, they will gene- 

 rally strike root in seven weeks or two months." When the wood of the orange- 

 tree is fully ripened, and the sap is at rest, grafts and cuttings may be kept in the 

 dark for two or three months together, provided the air be kept dry. 



Within the tropics, where the circulation of the sap is nearly uniform through- 

 out the year, the orange may readily be propagated by the following method : 

 Select a vigorous branch of any tree of the variety wished to be propagated, with 

 flowers and fruit upon it, if desirable, and bind roimd it, at its junction with 

 the trunk, or limb from which it grows, a funnel-shaped mass of fine, rich 

 mould, firmly kept in its place by pieces of tin, bark, cloth, or other substance. 

 This mass should constantly be kept moist, and new mould or earth added, if 

 necessary, until shoots protrude from the branch and take root. As soon as 

 these roots are sufliciently developed, the branch surrounded by mould may be 

 sawed off close to the trunk or limb from which it proceeds, and transplanted, 

 without disturbing the mould, into a box of light, rich, natural soil, or to some 

 other place congenial to its growth. We have obtained vigorous trees in this 

 manner in Cuba and Brazil, in six or eight weeks' time, that would bear trans- 

 portation. 



If grafting or budding be adopted in the propagation of the orange, the proper 

 period for performing these operations is. when the sap is m brisk motion, which 



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