CHAPTER VII 

 THE ORANGE AND ITS KIN 



CITROUS fruits, which take their descriptive 

 adjective from the citron, include also the orange, 

 lemon, lime, and pomelo, or grape fruit. The 

 leathery, yellow skin, pitted with dots that con- 

 nect with oil glands, and yield a pungent, aromatic 

 fragrance, is a family trait always recognized. 

 The pulp that surrounds the seeds is enclosed in 

 papery divisions that part easily, making the fruit 

 easy to handle after the skin is slipped off. The 

 trees are evergreen, not large, but very productive; 

 the foliage glossy, and peculiar in being compound, 

 with but one leaflet. The flowers, waxy and 

 white, and very fragrant, appear while the fruit 

 is ripening. 



First in this great family of semi-tropical fruits 

 stand the orange. Native of Asia, the wild orange 

 was cultivated early, and carried into India and 

 China with the drift of emigration that set east- 

 ward, while it also moved westward into Mediter- 

 ranean regions, and established itself in the sunny, 



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