32 [ CITRUS FRUITI 



the spring blossoms. In the case of the ever- flowering 

 lemon it often happens that the tree is laden with 

 blossoms and fruits in all their stages of development. It 

 is the practice with lemon-growers in Sicily to remove 

 all the main crop fruit and to withhold irrigation until 

 midsummer, when the trees are given a good soaking 

 twice or thrice in quick succession, and soon produce a 

 profusion of blossoms, followed by lemons which remain 

 green until June or July, and are then sold at a good 

 price as ''verdelli". But most orange trees, if they have 

 suffered at all from want of water in summer are apt to 

 bloom in autumn, soon after the first rains, and the fruit 

 which sets will survive the winter and ripens in summer, 

 and although it is usually quite tasteless and of inferior 

 quality, often fetches a good price. 



It is probable that the cultivation of the BITTER or 

 SEVILLE ORANGE was originally started in these Islands by 

 the Arabs, presumably not long after they had occupied 

 the Islands in A.D. 870, in the so-called natural gardens 

 at the head of valleys where there was spring water 

 available. Such were originally the bitter-orange groves 

 at Boschetto, Gnien il Gbir, Ghirghenti, Chain il Gbira, 

 Bahria, Imtahleb etc. in Malta, and the neighbourhood 

 of Nadur and Xaghra, and the valley of Xlendi in 

 Gozo, of which only a few remnants are still visible. 

 Of course these groves must have been replanted 

 several times, as there is at present no bitter orange tree 

 anywhere which can be said to be more than 500 years 

 old. The common orange was introduced somewhat later, 

 and our egg-orange usually known as "/#//" or {i tauuali" 

 or Portugal orange is probably a selection or sport of 

 an improved common orange introduced from Portugal 

 during the rule of the Knights of St. John. A few trees 

 of this variety apparently of great antiquity and much 

 decayed still existed some years ago in an orange- 

 grove said to be planted by Grand Master Vilhena at 

 Boschetto. 



