BUDDED TREES OR SEEDLINGS. 67 



that it is the safest for the orange and lemon buds. Its 

 roots are large, strong, and healthy, and intended by na- 

 ture to minister to the needs of a large, majestic tree. It 

 is rarely affected by the gum or any other root disease, and 

 both orange and lemon buds have a close and strong affin- 

 ity for this stock. 



The lemon also does well as stock for the orange, al- 

 though some claim that here, as well as with the lime and 

 citron, the stock exercises an influence upon the fruit, 

 and it is apt to be coarse flavored, with a pungent, acid 

 flavor. These .same growers admit, however, that the 

 sweet orange raised on lime, grape fruit, and lemon stock, 

 is of larger size and in greater quantity than that raised 

 from the orange stock. 



Of all the citrus stocks named the citron enjoys the least 

 favor, and we think deservedly so. 



The lemon seedling is a good thrifty grower, but will 

 not thrive in so great a diversity of soil and situation as 

 the others. 



The lime makes a strong, rapid stock, and will flour- 

 ish with less care and in poorer soil than any of the 

 others. Owing to its rather dwarfish habit it would be 

 better to bud it with one of the half-dwarf varieties of 

 the orange such as the St. Michael or the Mandarin thus 

 avoiding the danger of the top outgrowing the trunk. 



The size and quantity of fruit borne on lime and 

 lemon stock is largely increased over the original, but it 

 is claimed by some that the quality is rather deteriorated. 

 As, however, it has been proven by our most eminent 

 botanists that the stock does not in any way influence the 

 character of the fruit borne by the scion, except in so far 

 as a thrifty stock makes a thrifty tree, and vice versa, we 

 can not but believe the asserted effect of the lime and 

 lemon on the orange to be fanciful, not sustained by fact. 



