1 6 2 Fruits and Fruit- Trees. 



one of the most charming of botanical spectacles. The 

 refreshing verdure of the orange-tree, persistent all the 

 year round, places it in the front rank of decorative 

 foliage -plants. When in full bloom, the enveloping 

 atmosphere is charged with odour; when the fruit is 

 ripe the golden spheres hang "like lamps in a night 

 of green." Both flowers and fruit have their highest 

 tide of plenty and loveliness, yet both may usually be 

 found side by side at all seasons, and in all stages 

 between the white-tipped opening bud and golden 

 maturity. This is the reason why orange-blossom is 

 employed for the bridal chaplet. In the wreath of 

 orange-blossom, a fair proportion of green leaf being 

 introduced, the ideas are presented, emblematically, of 

 delightful intrinsic qualities in the wearer, of perennial 

 or evergreen happiness to come, and of a home or fire- 

 side circle, by-and-by to arise, all in good time; the 

 graceful grown daughter, before long to be a bride 

 herself, fulfilling the tender promise of the early spring, 

 which itself has never departed, but is sweetly renewed 

 again and again, in the successive darlings that are 

 fondled upon the rejoicing knee. The dedication seems 

 to date from the time of the Crusades, and to have 

 originated with the Saracens. By these it was introduced 

 into Spain. Thence it travelled into France, and so into 

 England. None of our old poets refer to the wreath of 

 orange-blossom, so that as regards our own country the 

 use of it would seem to be comparatively modern 

 another proof that chaste and elegant poetic truths, like 



