620 



OUANGE 



Orange U a sub-variety of the China orange. The 

 Jaffa Orange has now a great reputation. The 

 M ijorca Orange U seedless. The Kum-qimt (('. 

 iaponica), f ruin China and Japan, is lit tit- bigger 

 than a gooseberry, and grows well in Australia. 



The Hitter Orange, Seville Orange, or Bigarade 

 (C. rulgaru, or C. bigaradia), U distinguished 

 from the sweet orange by the more truly elliptical 

 leaves, the acid ana bitter juice of the fruit, and 

 the concave oil-cysts of its rind. Its branches are 

 also spiny, which is rarely the case with (lie sweet 

 orange. "The varieties in cultivation are numerous. 

 The nitter orange was extensively cultivated by 

 the Moors in Spain, probably for medicinal pur- 

 poses, as stomachic and tonic. Its chief use, how- 

 ever, is for flavouring puddings, cakes, &c., and 

 for making marmalade. The Bergamot Orange 

 (C. lierymnia) is noticed in a separate article. 



< (range-leaves are feebly bitter, and contain a 

 fragrant volatile oil, which is obtained by dis- 

 tilling tin-in with water, and U known in the shops 

 as Essente tic Petit Grain. Orange-flowers yield, 

 when distilled with water, a fragant volatile oil, 

 called Oil of Xeroli, which is used in making Eau 

 tie Cologne and for other purposes of perfumery. 

 The flowers Iwth of the sweet orange and of the 

 bitter orange yield it, but those of the bitter 

 orange are preferred. Dried orange- flowers, to be 

 distilled for this oil, are an article of export from 

 the south of Europe. They are packed in barrels, 

 and mixed with suit. The dried flowers have a 

 yellowish colour ; the fresh flowers are white and 

 very fragrant. The use of them as an ornament 

 in the head-dress of brides is common throughout 

 great part of the world. The small green oranges, 

 from the size of a pea to the size of a cherry, which 

 fall from the trees, both of the sweet orange and 

 llu- bitter orange, when the crop is too great to 

 ! brought to maturity, are carefully gathered and 

 dried, and are the Orange berries of the shops. 

 They are used in making Curacoa, and yield a 

 fragrant oil on distillation, the original essence 

 de petit grain. The dried and candied rind of the 

 ripe bitter orange, well known as Oranite-peel, is 

 u^ed as a stomachic, and very largely for flavouring 

 puddings and articles of confectionery. The rind 

 of the sweet orange is sometimes employed in the 

 Kiime way, but is inferior. A fragrant essential oil 

 is obtained from the rind of the orange by distilla- 

 tion with water, and is sold by perfumers as Oil of 

 Sweet Orange, or Oil of Bitter Orantie, according 

 as it is obtained from the one or the other, although 

 the two kinds of oil are very similar. The rind of 

 the orange is used in the preparation of a fine 

 li<|iieur called Orange Rosoylw, which is an article 

 of exjiort from some juirts of Italy. Besides the 

 use of the sweet orange as a dessert fruit, and 

 M a refrigerant in cases of sickness, its juice is 

 extensively used as a refrigerant beverage, and is 

 valuable in febrile and inflammatory complaints. 



Orange-trees are often extremely fruitful, so 

 that a tree 20 feet high and occupying a apace of 

 Hi tie more than 12 feet in diameter sometimes 

 yields from 3000 to 4000 oranges in a year. One 

 tree in Kim i. la has often borne 10,000 oranges in a 

 single season The orange-tree attains an age of 

 at least 100 to 130 years. Young trees are less 

 productive than old ones, and the fruit is also less 

 juicy, has a thicker riml, and more numerous seeds. 



Tin- fruit of the orange-tree is of great com- 

 mercial imjMirtance, for not only is it one of the 

 most delicious and wholesome of fruit", but for- 

 tunately it is also the most easily kept and carried 

 from place to place. No fresh fruit (lossesses in 

 the same degree as the orange and its congeners, 

 lie- ieni'in. citron, lime, &c., the property of lieing 

 easily parked in boxes when nearly ripe, and being 

 in that slate able to stand the close confinement 



of a ship's hold during a voyage of two or three 

 -. The orange is much cultivated in the 

 Azores, Malta, Sicily, Spain. Portugal, the Syrian 

 coast, and latterly in Florida, and it is from 

 these localities that Britain receives its supply. 

 Those from St Michael's, one of the Azores, and 

 from Malta are the best varieties in the Kngli>h 

 markets ; but the Mandarin Orange of China and 

 the Navel Orange of South America are much 

 superior. The latter occasionally reach Britain 

 in small quantities from Brazil ; they are nearly 

 double the size of the ordinary orange, and have 

 a peculiar navel-like formation on the top of the 

 fruit, which is somewhat oval in shape. 



Oranges when gathered for export must not be 

 c|iiite ripe; those fully formed and with the colour 

 just turning from green to yellow are chosen. 

 Each is wrapped in a piece of paper, or in the 

 husk of Indian corn, and they are packed in 

 boxes and half-boxes, chests and half-chests 

 the former are the Sicilian packages, the latter 

 are St Michael's, Spanish, and Portuguese. A 

 box contains about 230, a chest about 1000 

 oranges. 



Orange-peel, or the rind of the orange, is used 

 both in medicine and in confectionery for the 

 former purpose it is merely cut into long strips, 

 and dried ; for the latter it is carefully separated, 

 either in halves or quarters, from the fruit, and, 

 after lying in salt water for a time, is warned in 

 clear water, and then lioiled in syrup of sugar, or 

 candied, and is sold extensively as candied peel. 

 The rinds of the citron and lemon are treated in 

 the same manner. The wood of the orange-tree U 

 yellowish white and close-grained. It is used for 

 inlaying and for turnery. 



The orange may lie successfully cultivated in 

 climates the winter temperature of which does 

 not fall below 40. The tree prefers strong loam 

 or clayey soil, but succeeds in any kind of soil if 

 well fertilised. See Dr Moore's Jlinullmok of 

 Orange Culture (New York and Lund. 1885); and 

 United States Consular Report on Fruit Culture 

 (1890). 



Orange, or GARIEP, the largest river of South 

 Africa, nses in the Kathlamba Mountains, in the 

 east of Bosutoland, and Hows west, with an in- 

 clination to the north, to the Atlantic Ocean. It 

 describes numerous wide curves in its course of 

 1000 miles, and separates Cape Colony, on the 

 south, from the Orange Free State, Griquahind 

 West, Bechuanaland, and Great Namaqualand, on 

 the north. Area of basin, :i'2."),000 sq. in. Its prin- 

 cipal tributaries are the Culedon and the Vaal, 

 both joining it fioiu the right. Its volume varies 

 greatly between the dry season, when it is not 

 navigable, and the rainy season, when it overflows 

 its tanks in the upper parts of its course. Its 

 mouth is, moreover, obstructed by a bar. 



OrailK<N a town in the French department of 

 Vaucluse, on the left bonk of the Aigue, 18 miles 

 b\ rail X. of Avignon. The .<4 raim'o of the Romans, 

 which contained40,000 inhabitants, it retains two 

 splendid Roman remains a triumphal arch, 72 

 feet high, and a theatre whose facade was 340 

 feet long by 1 18 high. A neighliouring circus has 

 been swept away. There is a Romanesque cathe- 

 dral, and statues of two of the counts. Pop. G904. 



Orange was the capital of a small independent 

 principality, which was ruled by its own sovereigns 

 from the lltb to tin- Itith century. The last of 

 these sovereigns, Phililiert de Chalons, died in 1331 

 without issue. His sister, however, had married a 

 Count of Nassau, and to that house the estates and 

 titles passed. The ( 'mint of Nassau who obtained 

 the principality of Orange was the father of William 

 the Silent (see HOLLAND, Vol. V. p. 742). William 



