April 2/^, 1890] 



NATURE 



579 



largely owing," we read, " to your influence if all who are 

 concerned with the management of schools habitually 

 regard the officers of this Department not merely as 

 critics and examiners, but as advisers and helpers, in the 

 performance of an important public work." That is the 

 idfeal to aim at, though there is a good deal of lee-way to 

 make up before it is realized. 



ORANGES IN INDIA. 



The Cultivated Oranges and Lemons of India and Ceylon. 

 By E. Bonavia, M.D. Pp. 384, with an Atlas of 259 

 Plates 7 inches long by 9 inches broad. (London : 

 W. H. Allen, 1890.) 



FOR twenty years past Dr. Bonavia has been distin- 

 guished in India as a horticulturist. He has been in 

 charge of the Horticultural Gardens at Lucknow, where 

 he has conducted many valuable experiments. Of late years 

 he has tried oranges, and he has also collected information 

 concerning oranges from various parts of India. India, 

 taken as a whole, is very poorly supplied with fruit ; really 

 good mangoes and litchis are nearly everywhere dear, 

 and remain in season but a short time. Oranges in 

 several parts of India are cheap and excellent ; improve- 

 ment in their cultivation and extension in their circulation 

 are matters of importance. The book of Dr. Bonavia 

 contains his own experiences and notes, which are 

 valuable. His second-hand information, which he has 

 collected in the fashion of an Indian Secretary to Govern- 

 ment or Minister of Agriculture, is of very small value, 

 but is certainly superior to many secretarial compilations 

 about hemp, jute, cotton, &c. 



The first ninety pages treat of the various groups of 

 oranges, lemons, limes, citrons, &c., with their sub- 

 varieties ; the next fifty pages treat of their cultivation in 

 India ; fifteen pages treat of their uses ; eleven of the 

 orange trade in India ; twenty-one of the morphology of 

 Citrus ; forty of the origin of the Citrus and the derivation 

 of its Indian names. Then follow 120 pages of appendix, 

 containing a miscellaneous collection of " cuttings " 

 relating in some way to the subjects in the book, with a 

 translation of the chapters relating to Citrus in Rumphius's 

 " Herbarium Amboinense." The greater part of this 

 appendix appears of small importance ; while Dr. Bonavia 

 has by no means exhausted what first-rate authorities 

 have written regarding oranges. The atlas of plates 

 gives hardly anything but outline drawings of oranges 

 and their leaves ; a very small selection of these would 

 have served every useful purpose. 



Dr. Bonavia has summed up for us the conclusions 

 of his book under seven heads (p. 245) : — 



{a) The pummelo {Citrus decumana, Willd.), is not 

 specifically separable from the orange (C Aurantium, 

 Linn.). — This is a point of no possible importance, when 

 naturalists know no line between a well-marked variety 

 and a dubious " species" ; but Lowe (" FI. Madeira," p. 73) 

 agrees with Dr. Bonavia. 



ip) The sweet orange of Europe (C Aurantium, Linn.) 

 is a distinct race from the Mandarin orange (C nobilis, 

 Lour.). — This is correct, and well brought out by Dr. 

 Bonavia ; but it is also done very clearly by Lowe (" Fl. 

 Madeira"[i857], pp. 73, 74). 



{c) The India name " suntara," for C. nobilis, is not a 

 corruption merely of Cintra. 



(rf) The European words " lime," " lemon," are prob- 

 ably derived from Malay words. 



{e) Huge forms of Citrus fruit may have risen from a 

 fusion of two ovaries [p. 187, " My view would require 

 that the Citrus fruit should have originated in two whorls 

 of carpels, the outer or rind-whorl and the inner or 

 pulp-whorl''^\ 



(/) The true lime (C acida, Roxb.) has more probably 

 descended from C. hystrix, Kurz, than from C. medica, 

 Linn. 



{g) The juice- vesicles of the Citrus pulp are probably 

 homologous with the oil-cells of the rind and leaves, and 

 perhaps with the ovules. 



It will be best to reverently draw a veil over the con- 

 clusions [e) and {g) and over the whole chapter on morpho- 

 logy. And the other five " conclusions," except {b), do 

 not conclude anything. The foregoing is Dr. Bonavia's 

 own summary of what he has proved, but he has done 

 more than he claims ; his account of his own horticultural 

 observations is of value, and his deductions very generally 

 correct. Of these only a few can be given here. 



(i) The Khatta or Kama orange of Upper India pro- 

 duces two kinds of fruit on the same tree and on the same 

 branch, viz. (i) the regular crop, of smooth oranges, ripe 

 at the end of the dry season, and (2) the after crop, of 

 grossly- warted oranges, ripe at the beginning of the 

 rains. 



(2) The European orange (C. Aurantium) is only 

 known in India as a cultivated foreign orange, and is not 

 common. It has been probably introduced into India in 

 modern times — possibly from the West. 



(3) The C. nobilis is the sweet orange of India ; it has 

 been in India from ancient times, and is possibly in- 

 digenous on the north-east frontier. It has only been 

 brought to Europe in modern times. The Tangerine 

 orange is a small form of it. (This C. nobilis is a more 

 slender tree than C. Aurantium ; its oranges are de- 

 pressed at the poles ; the rind is very full of large oil- 

 glands, and separates easily from the pulp, which lies 

 more or less loosely in the rind as in a bag.) 



(4) The pummelo (i.e. Pompel-moes) of India and 

 Ceylon is in flavour, structure of carpels, colour ot 

 pulp, &c., very distinct from the Syrian shaddock, i.e. the 

 shaddock of English fruit-shops. 



(5) In the plains of Upper India (Delhi, Lucknow, &c.) 

 the Indian orange (C. nobilis) can be successfully culti- 

 vated, but requires irrigation (well-water being better 

 than canal-water), budding, trenching, shade, special pre- 

 paration of the soil by lime or manure, &c. 



Every page of Dr. Bonavia's book offers opportunity 

 of comment : the remaining space here available is 

 devoted to the practical subject of the Indian sweet 

 orange, C. nobilis, which we shall call the " Mandarin," 

 and, for shortness, state first our own beliefs concern- 

 ing it. 



There are (according to Dr. Bonavia) three great 

 centres of cultivation of the " suntara " in India, viz. (i) 

 Sylhet, z.^. South Khasia ;(2) Central India ; (3) Delhi and 

 Oudh. From Khasia {fide Bonavia) about 4000 tons, 

 worth ^4 a ton, are exported to Bengal, mainly to 

 Calcutta. From Central India about 800 tons go by rail 



