CHAPTER XXXVI. 



CITRUS FRUITS. 



THE ORANGE. 



THE citrus-tree is supposed to have originally travelled 

 from China to India, and thence gradually spread over the 

 world to all countries having a climate sufficiently mild for its 

 ^owth. The citron was known on the shores of the Mediter- 

 ranean long before the sweet orange, and some scriptural 

 allusions to the apple are supposed to refer to it. The Seville 

 orange, or bigarrade, is reported to have been brought from 

 the East by the Moors, who established large plantations of it 

 about Seville in Spain ; hence the name. From Spain this 

 orange was brought to Florida by the early Spanish settlers, 

 and the Indians, becoming very fond of it, carried quantities 

 about with them on their canoe excursions to be eaten at their 

 camps on the shores of the numerous streams of that well- 

 watered country. The seeds, dropping upon the ground, soon 

 germinated, and from them sprang the famous sour-orange 

 groves, which in time became so vast and numerous as to 

 lead many to believe the sour orange an indigenous product. 



In Florida all sweet oranges were formerly called China 

 oranges, to distinguish them from the Sevilles, and perhaps 

 also in allusion to the country of their origin. Of late great 

 attention has been paid to improvement of quality by selec- 

 tion, cross-fertilization, and scientific cultivation, and when 

 the efforts in these directions shall equal those expended upon 

 the fruits of temperate climes, a greater demand and higher 

 appreciation will follow. The renaissance of the industry in 

 Florida at the close of the civil war, combined with the popu- 

 lar estimation of the fruit grown in that peninsula, resulted 

 in an increase of production in twenty-five years, from almost 

 nothing up to about five million boxes per annum. 



Under favorable conditions the orange-tree lives and con- 

 tinues fruitful to a great age. Its tenacity of life is wonder- 

 ful. Trunks of large trees, after lying for weeks in the hold 

 of a vessel as ballast, have struck root and renewed their lives 

 when planted out and cared for. Others killed to the ground 

 by fire or frost, and showing no signs of life for a year or 

 621 



