ORANGE. 



9f 



he laid before the Institute his method of deciphering 

 the cuneiform inscriptions and received the grand prize 

 of 20,000 francs. Oppert also studied carefully the 

 topography of ancient Babylon, and presented to the 

 geographical department of the Institute a plan of that 

 city. In 1857 he was made professor of Sanskrit in 

 the school attached to the Imperial Library. In 1869 

 he began to teach also in the College de France and 

 in 1874 was made full professor there. Among his 

 works are Etudes as/n/riennes (1858); Grammaire 

 tanscrite (1859) ; Illstoire dcs empires de Chaldee et 

 tfAsxyrie (1866) ; Babylone et lex Babylonians (1869) ; 

 Melanges penes (1872) ; Lepeiiple et la langue des Medes 

 (1879); Fi-'if/ni'iitK i-nmiioffoitiijues (1879) ; Pragma/it* 

 int/thologiques (1882); L' ambre jaune chez les Assyriens 

 (1880). 



His brother, ERX.ST JACOB OPPERT, born at Ham- 

 burg in 1832, went to China in 1851 as a merchant, 

 and made several visits to Corea, the results of which 

 were published in A Forbidden Land, London (1879). 



Another brother, GUSTAV SOLOMON OPPERT, born 

 in 1836, was employed for some time in the Bodleian 

 Library, and became professor of Sanscrit in the Uni- 

 versity of Madras in 1872. He has published treatises 

 On the Classification of Limf/nnnex (1879) ; On the 

 Weapon* of the Ancient Hindus (1880) ; Contributions 

 to the llist'n-i/ of Southern India (1882). 



ORANGE is the fruit of Citrus aiirantium, and 

 perhaps of other species of Citrus, 

 > 810 f 834 though long-continued cultivation has 

 Am Rep j ' rendered the specific relations of the 

 varieties of oranges somewhat doubt- 

 ful. The genus Citrus and its allied genera were for- 

 merly classed as the orange family, Aurantiacat, but 

 they are now considered to form a subdivision of the 

 Rutaceae, or the rue family. The members of the 

 genus Citrus are shrubs and low trees, often spiny, 

 with aromatic, evergreen leaves. The flowers are very 

 fragrant. There are not many species in the genus, 

 and they are all natives of the tropics. The fruit is 

 large, thick-rinded, and separated by partitions into 

 numerous divisions, its few seeds being surrounded by 

 large, juicy cells. The wood is hard, heavy, and close- 

 grained. The leaves, the flowers, and the rind of the 

 fruit abound in aromatic oils, while the juice of the 

 fruit pulp contains citric acid. 



The orange derives its specific name from Latin 

 tun-inn, gold, in reference to its color. The common 

 English name is a mollification <>t' the same, coming 

 from the French. The flower of this species has five 

 white petals, of oblong form, the anthers 20-an- 

 drous, with their filaments grown together, so as to 

 form various pencils. The flowers grow in little clus- 

 ters on the sides of the branches. The fruit is a nine- 

 to twelve-celled berry, globose or flattened at the ends, 

 with a thin or rough golden yellow or tawny rind, and 

 sweet or bitter-sour pulp. The rind is of spongy tex- 

 ture, with little glands which secrete an acrid volatile 

 oil, with a strong, pungent taste. C. Bigaradia is a 

 prominent variety of (;. aiirantium, and is notable for 

 the fragrancy of its flowers, from which is made the 

 delicate and costly perfume. Neroli oil. The sweet 

 orange is not so fragrant, anil as a perfume-yielder is 

 of less value than C. Bignradia. This specific name 

 but indicates a variety, as there is no specific distinc- 

 tion between the bitter and the sweet orange. 



Under favorable circumstances the orange-tree is 

 usually twenty-five or thirty feet high, and is graceful 

 in all its proportions, the trunk being upright, the 

 branches symmetrical, the bark of a delicate ash-gray 

 rnliir. The leaves are moderately large and shiny on 

 the upper surface, with a slight appearance of down 

 beneath. The flowers are of a delicate white color. 

 The delightful aroma and the pure whiteness of the 

 orange-flowers have long made them the favorite 

 lilo->Mins lor the bridal-wreath. The orange is a na- 

 tive of South-eastern Asia, and seems to have been 

 brought by the Arabs to Arabia uud Syria in the 



eleventh century and to Spain at a later date. This 

 appears to have been the bitter orange, the sweet not 

 being cultivated in these regions till perhaps the fif- 

 teenth century. From these countries it has been dis- 

 seminated until now it is grown widely throughout the 

 warmer regions of the globe. It is a long-lived and 

 prolific tree, there being at Cordova, Spain, a number 

 of monster orange-trees which are known to be 700 

 years old. The trunks are partly hollow and the bark 

 cracked, yet they are still in good bearing. 



The orange blooms but once a year, yet it seems often 

 to have flowers, young fruit, and mature fruit on it at 

 the same time. This comes from the habit in some 

 regions of letting the fruit of the preceding year hang 

 on the branches. In Italy the fruit intended for ship- 

 ment js picked green, while that kept for home con- 

 sumption remains on the trees all winter and reaches 

 perfection in the succeeding spring and summer. It 

 takes about fifteen years from the time of sowing be- 

 fore the orange comes to full bearing, but the delay in 

 this respect is more than compensated by its persist- 

 ence as a fruit-bearer. This is particularly the case in 

 view of the fact of its frequent great bearing powers. 

 It is said that as many as 20,000 oranges have been 

 borne on a single tree in the Azores, while half this 

 bearing to a single tree has been observed in Florida. 

 As a rule an orange-tree bears from 500 to 2000 yearly. 



In addition to the oil of Neroli (which gets its name 

 from having been used as a glove perfume by the wife 

 of the Prince of Neroli), the orange yields several 

 useful products. The water from which the oil is 

 separated is sold as orange-flower water, while what 

 is known as oil of orange is obtained by squeezing the 

 peel. A tea is made from an infusion of orange 

 leaves which is considered efficacious in fevers, while 

 the seeds yield a fixed oil of amber color, which is val- 

 ued for reducing swellings and as a hair oil. In the 

 French colony of Martinique large quantities of orange 

 wine are made, which finds a ready sale in Turkey and 

 Russia. 



The orange is a surface-feeding plant ; old trees 

 make the surface a network of fine rootlets. Its cul- 

 ture is rapidly on the increase, the facilities of trans- 

 portation to Northern markets and the cheapness with 

 which it can be sold having greatly increased the con- 

 sumption within recent years and brought many new 

 regions of growth into competition with the old sources 

 of supply. In the United States Florida has become 

 an important orange-growing State, its fruit being of 

 an acknowledged excellence which renders it a formid- 

 able rival to the oranges of Southern Europe and the 

 West Indies, our former sources of supply. The su- 

 perior ripe fruit which we receive from the Florida 

 plantations is already superseding the half-ripe fruit 

 hitherto shipped in enormous quantities to the United 

 States. 



On the settlement of Florida immense groves of 

 wild orange-trees were found, so widely spread and so 

 prolific that they were at first supposed to be indig- 

 enous, though it is now known tnat they must have 

 been introduced by the early Spanish settlers. These 

 oranges were of the bitter variety, the only one known 

 in Europe at that date. Subsequently the Spaniards 

 introduced the sweet orange, and both these varieties 

 are now found wild, together with a hybrid, the bitter- 

 sweet orange. 



One of the pioneers in this culture was an English- 

 man, named John Eaton, who settled in Florida in 

 1837 and budded a grove of fifty wild trees with buds 

 from the sweet orange. The result was highly encour- 

 aging. The bitter orange trunks proved excellent 

 stocks for budding, and these fifty trees are still in 

 full bearing, being said often to net $1500 to $1800 per 

 season. One tree of this grove is the famous "Big 

 Tree" of Florida, which often bears 10,000 oranges in 

 a single season, and these of the finest quality. The 

 other trees bear from 2000 to 5000 each. 



Oranges grow luxuriantly in a considerable variety 



