THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 181 



trees : like the quince, the lemon makes all its roots at the surface of the soil, the 

 wild orange goes deeper, and consequently the tree is better able to resist the wind 

 and the vicissitudes of the season ; naturally there is more analogy between the 

 two woods, and the result of experiments is that the plants live much longer. An 

 orange tree grafted on the lemon may live about a hundred years ; after ihat time 

 it decays and perishes. An orange grafted on 'its wild congener may live over 

 three hundred years ; witness the Grand Bourbon in the Orangery at Versailles, 

 near Paris, which tree is now more than four hundred years old, and is grafted on 

 the Wild Orange. Sow the seeds early in the spring in a light but not too sandy 

 soil, and in pots (twenty-five to thirty per pot) ; put the pots upon a dung-bed 

 (lukewarm), and keep the soil fresh, but do not have any steam in the frame, and 

 to prevent this give a little air (one-half inch) to the front lights. When the seeds 

 have come up, encourage them lo grow to three or four inches high. Afterwards 

 put them in a warmer bed, and keep a damp warm atmosphere in the frame ; shade 

 them against the burning rays of the sun ; and when they are seven or eight inches 

 high, give them a little air, increasing it as they get stronger. Let them pass 

 through the winter in a greenhouse, where the temperature must not descend lower 

 than 40' Fabrenheit, and in early summer put them on another hotbed in the 

 open air plunged in leaf-mould or cocoa fibre. Leave them plunged on this hotbed 

 through the summer, and give them plenty of water, and from to time a little 

 liquid manure. About the end of August in the same year graft them by the same 

 method as that practised for roses in the winter, and put them on a hotbed, keeping 

 as much damp vapour about them as possible. Shade them during the sunshine, 

 cover at night and keep them close as long as the grafts are not well united 

 together ; they will be safe long before the early frost. Keep them in the frame 

 during the winter, and the next spring divide and pot them in rich light soil mixed 

 with a very little silver-sand to prevent the soil becoming hard ; put the pots on a 

 hotbed in a frame, and after they are rooted give them plenty of air. In the middle 

 of June^ make a hotbed in the garden, and put them on it without any covering 

 whatever, giving plenty of water during the hot weather, and give them three or 

 four times a little liquid manure to encourage active growth. Before the first frost 

 they must be housed, and they will do through the winter in a greenhouse where 

 the temperature is kept three or four degrees over the freezing point. 



During the spring of the following year pot the plants afresh, and place them 

 on a hotbed covered with a frame ; keep them closed until the roots begin to 

 shoot, and give air successively ; shade the frame against the burning rays of the 

 sun, and when frosts are no longer to be feared^ take the lights off entirely. When 

 they have done their growth, and the wood is sufficiently ripened, pot them afresh, 

 and leave them in a greenhouse for a week or two. In June make a hotbed in the 

 open air, covered five or six inches with dung-mould or cocoa refuse, and put them 

 in it. This is the last season daring which the oranges need be grown upon a hot 

 dung-bed. The greatest obstacle to the well-growing of the orange in England is 

 the persistence of the gardeners and nurserymen in treating it as a greenhouse 

 plant. 1 do not mean to say the orange should be lefc like our common shrubs, 

 but it is possible, with very little care, to grow them in England almost as well as 

 in northern France. Many writers on this subject give the south exposure as the 

 best for an orangery, and therein is the mistake. To insure the success of oranges 

 grown in boxes or in pots, they must not in any cases be allowed to grow in the 

 houses ; all their growth must be made out of doors ; and it is a matter of fact, that 

 if the orangery is to the south, no matter what the trauble you take to prevent 

 their starting, the plants will be beginning to shoot a long time before the weather 

 is mild enough to permit of their being placed in the garden. 



A good oranger}- should have a northern exposure, with plenty of windows to 

 admit the light, and every convenience to give full air when it is not frosty. It 

 will be very easy to heat the orangery in such a position, as the temperature 

 required is only two or three degrees over the freezing point. It must be remem- 

 bered that oranges are grown out of doors all the year round in parts of France and 

 Spain where it freezes every winter. If the plants, after all the care taken to 

 prevent their growth in the houses, begin to vegetate, and if the young shoots are 

 more than an inch in length, it would be far preferable to cut them back than to 

 let them retain a growth whicli is sure to be disfigured and spoiled in the open air. 

 The watering of the oranges must be very carefully done, as too much water 



