ON TROPICAL FRUITS 
orange belt (preferably near its northern limits) 
and the reward that awaits the successful devel- 
oper of a hardy orange is sure and significant. 
SEEDLESS CiTrUS FRuITS 
Everyone is familiar nowadays with the so- 
called Navel Orange, which combines the very 
notable quality of seedlessness with large size and 
general excellence of quality. 
The seedless condition of this orange is not the 
result of skillful selection, but appeared as a 
“sport” in certain wild oranges of Brazil. There 
are almost numberless varieties of oranges grow- 
ing wild in the region of the Amazon. A lady who 
was traveling through South America, was sur- 
prised to find among the oranges served at the 
hotel where she was stopping some that were seed- 
less—a thing hitherto never conceived even as a 
possibility among cultivators of the fruit. 
The discovery was communicated to the Agri- 
cultural Department at Washington, and in 1870 
the new variety was imported. 
Four years later specimens of the tree were 
sent from Washington to California and the fruit, 
which was subsequently christened the Washing- 
ton Navel in recognition of its origin and its pecu- 
liar form, soon came to be extensively cultivated. 
This varicty is subject to bud variation and a num- 
ber of more or less distinct varieties have made 
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