542 THE ORANGE. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



THE ORANGE FAMILY. 



Citrus, L. AurantiaceaS) of botanists. 



THE Orange family includes the common orange, (Citrus 

 aurantium ;) the Lemon, (C. limonum ;) the Lime, (C. liwetta ;) 

 the Shaddock, (C. decumana ;) and the Citron, (C. Medica ;) all 

 different species, with the same general habit. 



The Orange, a native of Asia, is the most attractive and 

 beautiful of fruit trees, with its rich, dark evergreen foliage, 

 and its golden fruit ; and it may well therefore enjoy the repu- 

 tation of being the golden apple of the Hesperides. When to these 

 charms we add the delicious fragrance of the blossoms, sur- 

 passing that of any other fruit tree, it must be conceded that, 

 though the orange must yield in flavour to some other fruits, yet, 

 on the whole, nothing surpasses an orange grove, or orchard, 

 in its combination of attractions rich verdure, the delicious 

 aroma of its flowers, and the great beauty of its fruit. 



The south of Europe, China, and the West Indies, furnish 

 the largest supplies of this fruit. But it has, for a considerable 

 time, been cultivated pretty largely in Florida, and the orange 

 groves of St. Augustine yield large and profitable crops. In- 

 deed, the cultivation may be extended over a considerable por- 

 tion of that part of the Union bordering on the Gulf of Mexico ; 

 and the southern part of Louisiana, and part of Texas, are 

 highly favorable to orange plantations. The bitter orange has 

 become quite naturalized in parts of Florida, ttys so-called 

 wild orange seedlings furnishing a stock much more hardy than 

 those produced by sowing the imported seeds. By continually 

 sowing the seed of these wild oranges, they will furnish stocks 

 suited to almost all the Southern States, which will in time 

 render the better kinds grafted upon them, comparatively 

 hardy. 



North of the latitude, where, in this country, the orange can 

 be grown in groves, or orchards, it may still be profitably cul- 

 tivated with partial protection. The injury the trees suffer from 

 severe winters, arises not from their freezing for they will 

 bear, without injury, severe frost but from the rupture of 

 sap-vessels by the sudden thawing. A mere shed, or covering 

 of boards, will guard against all this mischief. Accordingly, 

 towards the south of Europe, where the climate is pretty severe, 

 the orange is grown in rows against stone walls, or banks, in 

 terraced gardens, or trained loosely against a sheltered trellis; 

 and at the approach of winter they are covered with a slight 

 moveable shed or frame of boards. In mild weather, the sliding 



