ORANGES AND LEMONS. 15 



are opposite, while those of the mature plant are 

 alternate. This happens also in Beech, Scarlet 

 Runner, and other plants. 



From Professor Penzig I have the curious and 

 interesting fact that seedling Orange-trees sometimes 

 occur with trifoliate leaves. 



Why does the number eleven so frequently occur 

 in the carpels of the Orange '{ In such flowers as 

 Cuphea we find eleven stamens, because the twelfth, 

 which we see in Lythrum, is here suppressed to make 

 room for the style. But the number eleven is not 

 common in the essential organs of a flower. 



In some parts of Europe gardeners believe that 

 the best remedy for a diseased Orange-tree is to dig 

 it up and replant it with the roots in the air and the 

 branches underground. Max Miiller in his " Auld 

 Lang Syne," page 185, gives an instance of this treat- 

 ment which was by no means successful. Those 

 topsy-turvy trees in the " Orangerie " at Dessau must 

 have presented a curious appearance. There is a 

 legend that the famous Orange trees at Dresden were 

 brought there as logs, rootless and branchless, and 

 were thrust into the earth the wrong end upwards. 

 De Vere asserts that the common maple is not 

 destroyed if thus reversed. 



The Orange-tree, both the sweet and the bitter 

 species, is peculiarly liable to the attacks of the leaf- 

 cutting ants. In the province of Canton it is usual 

 to place in the trees colonies of harmless ants, which 

 drive off the leaf-cutters and thus prevent the 

 destruction of the foliage. The Lemon and the 

 Mandarin are not attacked (Professor Geddes). 



The little oblate Mandarin (Citrus nobilis, Fig. 5) 



