A DRY BLOOD-ORANGE STRAIN 



A. D. SiiA.MKL^ Riz'crside, Cal. 



T] 1 1{ Jvul)y blood oran,s^c variety 

 ( citrus si)iciisis Osbcck ). was in- 

 troduced into California from 

 Florida. The trees of this vari- 

 ety have been long known to produce 

 variable fruits, but so far as known, no 

 systematic study of these bud varia- 

 tions was made until those begun by 

 the writer in the season of IDKi-IHlT. 

 A very productive and commercially 

 profital)le ten-acre orchard of this va- 

 riety located near Corona, Cal, was 

 selected for the purpose of carrying on 

 individual tree and fruit studies. The 

 trees arc alxmt twenty- four years old 

 and are in tine physical condition. In- 

 dividual tree records of production are 

 ])eing secured from all of tlic trees in 

 this orchard, and detailed ])erf()rmancc 

 records made from a few select trees. 

 It is not the ]iurpose of the writer to 

 describe the work at this time. It is 

 his desire, however, to call attention to 

 one of the many interesting cases of bud 

 variation existing in this orchard. yVs 

 a whole there has l;ecn found to be 

 more frequent instances of striking ])ud 

 variations in the trees of this variety 

 than in those of any other citrus va- 

 riety studied thus fai. 



SPORT ATTR.\CTF,D ATTENTION 



During the first tree census ol)ser- 

 vations in the Ruby blood orchard, 

 amongst the very many variable fruits 

 discovered, one in particular has made 

 a lasting impression in the mind of the 

 writer, his associates, and the visitors 

 to this interesting orchard. It was first 

 discovered as a large limb sport in a 

 typical Ruby blood tree. This lar'^-e 

 limb protruding from near the top of 

 the tree attracted attention because of a 

 different appearance in foliage charac- 

 teristics from that of the remainder of 

 the tree. In part, this difiference was 

 caused by the narrower and more lance- 

 olate .shaped leaves than is characteristic 

 of the normal Ruby blood leaves. 'J'he 

 174 



branches of this limb also possessed a 

 .somewhat dilVerent habit of growth 

 than that of the branches on other limbs 

 of this tree. The fruits borne by the 

 limb sport did not appear, at first 

 glance, to be particularly dififerent in 

 general appearance from the ordinary 

 Ruby blood oranges. 



AN KNTIRELV DRV ORANGE. 



When one of the limb-sport fruits 

 was cut open, very striking diiTerences 

 were found from the characteristics of 

 the normal Ruby blood orange. The rind 

 was found to be very thick, about double 

 that of the normal fruits. Instead of 

 having a rich blood-like color, the fruit 

 from the linil)-si)ort was straw-colored. 

 Instead of bursting with an abundance 

 of juice, as was the case witli normal 

 fruits borne by other limbs on this tree, 

 there was no juice in this fruit. Stren- 

 uous eflforts to squeeze out even a little 

 juice failed to find a single drop. In 

 other words it was a dry orange. 



All of the fruits, seventy-six in num- 

 ber, borne by this limb were cut. Ex- 

 cept in the case of five fruits, where one 

 or a few cells contained blood red juice, 

 all of them pro\-ed to be similar to the 

 first one cut. An example of the dry 

 orange from this limb in comi)arison 

 with a normal Ruby blood fruit from 

 this tree is shown in Fig. 8. While 

 the color difi'erences cannot be ade- 

 cpiately shown l)y a photograph some 

 idea of the differences in color, thick- 

 ness of rind, character of rag and other 

 characteristics can be seen in this illus- 

 tration. 



I'urthcr studies of the trees in this 

 orchard revealed the fact that there 

 existed many limb sports bearing dry 

 oranges. About one hundred such 

 limbs were found in the ])reliminary 

 study of the orchard. In some cases 

 the limbs were large and bore many dry 

 fruits. In other instances the limbs 

 were small and bore onlv a few dry 



