Tanaka: Citrus Fruits (jf Japan 



249 



Unshii Mikan in Japan, the orange 

 of Wen Chou, province of Chekian, 

 China. The first vaHd name applied 

 to this orange was that proposed by 

 Okamura Shooken in his manuscript 

 work KeienKippii (Monograph of Cit- 

 rus) written about the year 1828. It 

 gives a good description accompanied 

 by an excellent illustration. The name 

 Unshii had before that time been used in 

 earlier works but it had been applied 

 to varieties quite different from the 

 common Satsuma orange. TheYamato 

 Honzo, or Japanese Herbal, of Kai- 

 bara Ekken, published in 1709, applied 

 the name Unshii to a variety w^ith small 

 thin leaves and fruit as large as the 

 Kino-kuni Mandarin, with red rind. 

 This description does not accord with 

 the characters of the true Satsuma. In 

 the Japanese-Chinese Cyclopedia, 

 called Wakan Saisa' Dzue, a work 

 written by Terajima Ryoan and printed 

 in 1714, a citrus fruit called the Unshu 

 is mentioned but its leaves are de- 

 scribed as resembling those of the Yuztt 

 and its fruit, of the size of the Kino- 

 kuni mandarin, and as having a thick 

 peel and acid pulp. This description 

 does not apply to the true Unshu of 

 Japan. The earliest occurrence of 

 the name Unshu in Japanese literature 

 is in a work called Teikin Oral ("Fam- 

 ily letterwriting") compiled by a Bud- 

 dhist bonze named Gen'e Hoin in the 

 14th Century. The name also occurs 

 in the Kagakushu, a dictionary of 

 primary learning compiled by another 

 bonze, Toruku Hatotsu in 1444, but 

 as there are no descriptions of the 

 fruits mentioned in these works it is 

 impossible to fix their identity. A 

 very old Unshu, or Satsuma orange 

 tree, which grew in the small village 

 of Fukutoma-mura, in the prefecture 

 of Fukuoka, died in the spring of 1920. 

 Its age was reputed to be 300 years or 

 ■ more. The oldest living plant which I 

 have seen was one in the prefecture of 

 Oita, growing to a height of 25 feet 

 with its branches spreading over an 

 area of about 40 feet in diameter. It 

 must have been at least 200 years old. 

 The vestiges of a similar tree which 

 had fallen in recent years were also 



obser\ed. These instances show that 

 the Satsuma orange is a variety which 

 has been known to the Japanese for at 

 least 300 years, although its cultivation 

 on an economic scale was not under- 

 taken until about 40 years ago. It is 

 entirely unknown in China. A local 

 tradition current in the prefecture 

 Fukuoka attributing its origin to the 

 Taiko Korean Expedition of 1592- 

 1597 is in all probability erroneous; 

 since the climate of Korea is too severe 

 for oranges of any kind. 



It might be supposed to be of hybrid 

 origin, like many other cultivated 

 fruits, were it not for the fact that the 

 Satsuma has not a single character in 

 common with any other known orange. 

 Kunembo, a botanical variety of the 

 King orange, and the Yatsushiro are 

 most nearly like the Satsuma in general 

 appearance, but botanically they are 

 quite remote from it. The Satsuma is 

 really a good botanical species, though 

 botanists may hesitate to give it_a 

 specific name until the mystery of its 

 origin has been solved. Like maize or 

 Indian corn, its ancestry has not yet 

 been fixed; but it seems advisable to 

 regard it as a distinct horticultural 

 species with a specific name of its own. It 

 seems to me after twelve years' experi- 

 ence with citrus fruits, that the only 

 possible way to treat the group botan- 

 ically is to regard a number of the 

 distinct forms as horticultural species. 



ORIGIN OF NEW TYPES OF CITRUS 

 FRUITS 



I come now to the discussion of the 

 origin of new types of citrus fruits. 

 The activities of the Ofifice of Crop 

 Physiology and Breeding Investigations 

 of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture have resulted in the devel- 

 opment of thousands of new forms by 

 means of artificial hybridization and 

 selection. It is therefore quite natural 

 to think that hybridization is an impor- 

 tant method of obtaining a desirable 

 novelty. Orange hybrids may some- 

 times lose the parental characters 

 entirely by assuming an intermediate 

 form; but among hundreds of plant 

 characters there must remain some 



