THE ORANGE GENUS. 341 



to produce varieties, from some oripnal differences, or 

 from (litterence of soil and climate, cannot now be 

 ascertained. Including; all the different species, 

 Risso, an eminent naturalist at Nice, (and from his 

 livint^ in a country producing oranges, he had the 

 best opportunities of examining and studying them,) 

 has, in a very elegant and elaborate natural history 

 of oranges, published at Paris in the year 1818, 

 enumerated, described, and, with respect to all the 

 more important sorts, figured no fewer than one 

 himdred and sixty-nine varieties: these he has divided 

 into eight species : sweet oranges, bitter oranges, 

 bergamottes, limes, pampelucos, sweet limes, lemons, 

 and citrons. 



Of the first of these there are no fewer than forty- 

 three varieties ; though, in the opinion of Galessio, 

 they are all derived fi-om the common orange. The 

 others are, generally speaking, more acid in their 

 flavour ; though some of them, such as the berga- 

 mottes, from the rind of which the celebrated oil of 

 bergamot is obtained, are highly perfumed. 



Of the bitter oranges Risso enumerates thirty-two 

 varieties ; of the bergamottes, five ; of the limes, 

 eight ; of the pampelucos, six ; of the sweet limes, 

 twelve ; of the lemons, forty-seven ; and of the 

 citrons, seventeen. 



There is something peculiar in the organization of 

 all the fruit of the orange tribe. The rind or external 

 pericarp of them all is a spongy texture, containing 

 but little juice or sap of any kind in its substance ; 

 but the external surface is covered, or tuberculated 

 over, with little glands that secrete a volatile oil which 

 is very inflammable, more or less acrid according to 

 the species, and of a very strong and pungent scent. 



The family of the oranges, in some places in many 

 of their varieties, are now cultivated in Portugal, in 

 Spain, in France, in Italy, and in Greece. In the 



