130 THALAMIFLOR^, 



beautiful objects during the montlis about Cliiistmas, laden with 

 their golden-hued fruit, which for richness of flavour and for 

 sweetness cannot be surpassed. In that district a bitter or a 

 sour Orange is rarely to be met. It is deserving of remark, 

 indeed, that the sweet Orange is produced in its greatest perfec- 

 tion in districts wliich, like the parish of St John, belong to the 

 limestone formation : whereas, they are very inferior, being 

 more or less sour or bitter, even when raised from seeds of 

 the sweetest sorts, when grown where any of the other I'ocks 

 prevail. 



Little or no care is bestowed in this country on the cultiva- 

 tion of the Orange. As the fruit, notwithstanding this, is pro- 

 duced in the greatest abundance, and of so fine a quality, it must 

 appear surprising that it is not made an article of exportation, 

 as few of our objects of cultivation would give a more profitable 

 return. Were the fruit carefully hand-picked from the tree, 

 on a dry day, and, after being slightly papered, packed in com- 

 mon flour barrels on the spot, there cannot be a doubt but that 

 they would bear the voyage even to England, and arrive there 

 in- a marketable condition. We are anxious to establish the 

 Clove and the Nutmeg, when we have already a tree, which 

 would, were it more generally and carefully cultivated, give us 

 an article of exportation, for which the demand is constant, and 

 would in any part of the world command a market. Few 

 trees are longer lived than the Orange, those of the Orange 

 groves of Spain having survived six hundred years ; and few are 

 more productive, some individuals having been known to pro- 

 duce in one year six thousand Oranges.* 



The Sweet Orange, according to Dr Turner, contains malic 

 acid ; and we may ask, might not an ejEFervescing liquor like 

 cider be obtained from the juice? As a fruit, it is inferior to 

 none : " the pulp is cooling and refreshing in fevers, inflamma- 

 tion, and scurvy, and alterative in phthisis and dyspepsia."-]- 

 The bitter orange is employed in making, the well known con- 

 serve, marmalade : the peel in an aromatic bitter : the roasted 

 pulp is an excellent application to foetid sores ; and the negroes 

 employ it, as a substitute for soap, in washing their coarse linens. 

 From the flovrer a distilled water is prepared. 



6. Citrus decumana. The Shaddock. 



Leaves elliptic rounded at both ends subemargin- 

 ate crenulated glabrous above puberulous especially 

 along the nerves beneath, petioles alate, stamens 

 30-35, fruit very large with the rind thick. 



• Southeim Agriculturist, Vol. iii. p. 63S. 8vo. Charlestou, 1830. 

 f Rennie's New Supplement to the Pharmacopeias, p. 40. 



