ORANGE-TREE. 279 



so much caution necessary in eating oranges, as to refrain 

 from their use in the evening. 



The following passage may he found in a note in 

 Koster's Brazil : — " Labat says, ' On employe le sue cles 

 oranges aigres avec un succes merveilleux et infaillible A 

 guerir les ulceres quelque vieux et opiniatres qu' ils puis- 

 sent etre*.' The orange is cut into two pieces, and is 

 rubbed violently upon the wound." — Vol. ii. page 196. 



" The first China Orange," says Evelyn, " which ap- 

 peared in Europe, was sent a present to the old Conde 

 Mellor, then prime minister to the king of Portugal ; but 

 of the whole case sent to Lisbon, there was but one plant 

 which escaped the being so spoiled and tainted, that, with 

 great care, it hardly recovered to be since become the pa- 

 rent of all those flourishing trees of that name, cultivated 

 by our gardeners, though not without sensibly dege- 

 nerating. Receiving this account from the illustrious son 

 of the Conde, I thought fit to mention it for an instance 

 of what industry may produce in less than half an age." 



Mickle, in the History of the Portuguese Empire in 

 Asia, prefixed to his translation of the Lusiad, informs us 

 " that the famous John de Castro, the Portuguese con- 

 queror in Asia, was said to have been the first who brought 

 the Orange-tree to Europe, and to have esteemed this gift 

 to his country as the greatest of his actions." He adds, 

 " that Orange-trees are still preserved at Cintra, in me- 

 morial of the place where he first planted that valuable 

 fruitage." 



The Orange-tree is thought to produce more fruit, if 

 deprived of some of its blossoms. Rapin, in his Poem on 

 Plants, recommends that the nymphs should be allowed, 

 unchecked, to pluck the silvery blossoms, to adorn their 

 bosoms and their vases. " Let your wife, your children, 



* They employ the juice of sour oranges with wonderful and in- 

 fallible success in the cure of ulcers, however old and obstinate. 



