PROBABLE NATIVE HOME OF ALEYEODES CITEI. 45 



very evident from observation of their present condition in the 

 latter places, even if we had no more conclusive evidence. Oranges 

 do very poorly owing to the great humidity of these tropical islands. 

 The trees for the most part are stunted, while the crop of fruit is inva- 

 riably very light, of small size, and usually ripens without the green- 

 ish sldn changing to an orange color, as it does in more temperate 

 climates. In short, orange trees in the eastern Tropics appear to 

 be struggling imder conditions so ill-suited to their best develop- 

 ment, whereas m a semitropical climate they flourish with great 

 prolificness, that it is very evident that they originated in the latter 

 regions. 



In India proper oranges do not occur wild. Although grown in 

 all parts of this large country their distribution has resulted after 

 introduction. In the Kliasia HUls of Central Assam oranges occur in 

 a half vdld state mtermingled with the other trees of the forest. 

 They are grown in the extreme northeast of Assam where the Indian 

 Empire is adjacent to southern China. Information was received from 

 an engineer in the Indian service who had traveled extensively along 

 the eastern border of the Empire to the effect that he had seen oranges 

 growing wild in the forests of the North Shan States of Upper Burma. 

 This latter region, which is contiguous with orange districts of China, 

 is only about 300 miles east of that part of Assam in which the writer 

 saw oranges in a half wild state. Oranges are known to occur in 

 southern China, Siam, and Indo-China. From this knowledge, 

 coupled with the writer's own observations, it can be seen that 

 oranges are grown in a more or less scattered condition throughout 

 southern Asia, where climate allows. Eliminating the varieties found 

 in various botanical gardens and on the estates of wealthy natives, 

 and the limited amount of commercial production, the remaining trees 

 in all countries are for the most part seedlings of the tangerine group. 

 In the valleys along the southern slopes of the Himalayas as weU 

 as in the Kliasia Hills of Assam this is almost exclusively the case. 

 When it is considered that oranges in the eastern part of India are 

 almost exclusively tangerine seedlings, and that these are found grow- 

 ing about most of the native houses as well as being in a half wild state 

 in a part of this region — a condition that does not occur anywhere 

 to the westward — we feel safe in concluding that oranges were first 

 introduced into India through Assam and thence have spread through- 

 out the rest of the Empire. The western region was later affected 

 by varieties introduced from Europe, for it is in this part of India, 

 including the northwest, that budded varieties of citrus trees pre- 

 dominate. 



The writer has seen the white fly on citrus trees ui the KHiasia 

 HiUs of Assam, in the lower parts of the Himalayas in Sikkim, and 



