THE OBANGE AND ITS ALLIES. 175 



attained their full growth, when they turn yellow and 

 ripen like the others. Plants of this species are now not 

 uncommon at Paris, but they have all been obtained from 

 cuttings from the original, and for a long time the only 

 one of the kind, in the Jardin des Plantes ; but though as 

 easy to cultivate as the common sort, a high price has been 

 maintained for it by the florists, who reserve it for their 

 choicest bouquets, and sell it under the name of Herma- 

 phrodite. An attempt has been made, by nipping the green 

 leaves as soon as they appeared, to force the whole plant 

 to become violet-coloured, but it has proved a failure. 



But the most curious of all curious oranges nay, it 

 might almost be said the most extraordinary production 

 of the vegetable kingdom is the Bigaradier bizarrerie,* 

 the origin of which remained for thirty years a marvel 

 and a mystery, till Pierre Nato, a Florentine physician, 

 who made it the subject of a public dissertation at Flo- 

 rence in 1674, made known that the tree which bore it was 

 simply a seedling, which the gardener in whose grounds 

 it had been raised had forgotten or neglected to re-graft, 

 after his first operation upon it had accidentally failed. 

 Left thus to itself, the fruit it brought forth was so dif- 

 ferent to anything that had ever been seen before, that 

 ere long it attracted its owner's notice : he gained large 

 sums by selling cuttings from it ; but wishing for fame as 

 well as fortune, took credit for having produced such 

 wonderful effects by his own special skill and exertions, 

 until at last Nato prevailed upon him to disclose the 

 whole truth. Trees of this strange variety have some of 

 their branches smooth, some garnished with thorns, violet- 

 coloured or green ; the leaves are indiscriminately long 

 and short, smooth-edged or indented, and their petioles 

 naked or winged ; the flowers are sometimes all white, 

 sometimes only a portion are white, and the rest pink ; 

 while in the fruit which follows no less than four or five 

 species are mingled, the same tree bearing at the same 

 time sweet oranges, bitter ones, Citrons and Limes, in- 

 terspersed with fruits made up of some or all of these in 



* See Plate V., fig. 16. 



