CIVET. 



57 



graft in February or March. Soon as grafted, they 

 should be placed on a dung hotbed under a glazed 

 frame. Here, if in a proper moist temperature, the 

 grafts will soon take, and grow away to be fine little 

 plants by the end of summer. 



Orange trees do well in tubs or boxes, in which 

 they may be kept for many years, and until of 

 considerable size. This is particularly convenient, 

 where it is necessary to house the trees in winter. 

 They require a loamy soil enriched with rotten dung ; 

 and as they do not require to be often shifted, top- 

 dressings of sheep or cow dung are given on the top 

 of the soil in the pots or boxes. 



Where houses are built expressly for the purpose 

 of fruiting orange trees in this country, the trees are 

 trained to a trellis against the back wall, planted as 

 standards along the middle, and as many kept in 

 boxes as will fill every part of the house. The tem- 

 perature of the house should be regulated according 

 to that of the season ; never lower than 45 in winter 

 nights, and about 60 after sunset in summer. At all 

 seasons they should have as much fresh air as possi- 

 ble, so as it is not too chilly ; and sprinkling fre- 

 quently with tepid water is of service to free from 

 <!iist and discourage insects, to which orange trees are 

 very subject. One species of coccus is a common 

 pest ; and after it has formed its scale to breed under, 

 cannot be displaced without using the back of a knife, 

 or sharp point of a stick. Indeed a stick pointed at 

 one end, and a bit of sponge fixed to the other, must 

 be frequently used to keep the trees clean. 



One very important part of the management of 

 orange trees, in order to have large and well-flavoured 

 fruit, is the timely thinning the flowers and fruit, after 

 the latter are fairly set. The tree is naturally ex- 

 tremely fruitful, and if neither flowers or fruit are 

 mercifully thinned, the tree becomes stinted, and will 

 neither produce healthy shoots nor sizeable fruit. 

 The supernumerary flowers are saleable, and fetch a 

 high price among perfumers. In the neighbourhood 

 of 1'aris vast numbers of orange trees are cultivated 

 for their flowers only ; and in this country there can- 

 not be ;> more agreeable ornament than an orange 

 tree, while in flower, placed in the entrance hall of a 

 mansion. 



The shaddock, or pommelmoc, as it is called by the 

 Portuguese, is the largest, both as to size of tree and 

 fruit, of any of the tribe. In India, when seen loaded 

 with fruit nearly ripe, it is certainly a magnificent 

 object : the deep green glossy foliage, forming a dense 

 background to the large bright yellow fruit scattered 

 over the exterior of the branches. A full-sized fruit 

 is not less than five inches in diameter ; and, though 

 less juicy and more acid than the orange, it is much 

 sweeter and less acid than either the lemon or the 

 lime. The shaddock is a dessert fruit ; and so loosely 

 are the vesicles composing the pulp attached to each 

 other, that they are separated by the fingers, and may 

 be eaten singly like grapes. Their qualities are con- 

 sidered anti-scorbutic ; and homeward-bound Eu- 

 ropean ships usually lay in a store of them with which 

 to proceed on the voyage ; they, however, require to 

 be suspended singly in net bags, as they do not keep 

 long if laid together in a locker. The lime in its 

 wild state is, when young, a very prickly, rigid look- 

 in _' ^hrnb; but becomes almost or wholly spineless 

 when old, or when domesticated. Its juice, however, 

 is, perhaps, superior to all others for medical and 

 culinary purposes. 



The Chinese, who may be called a nation of gar- 

 deners, possess many varieties of the citrus, and 

 especially some excellent oranges. Their mandarin 

 variety is a very superior fruit, and has the singular 

 property of discharging the rind from the-pulp when 

 fully ripe. These oranges are very plentiful, and 

 may be purchased very cheap in the streets of Can- 

 ton in the season (spring), provided the seller be 

 allowed to strip the fruit and retain the rinds, of 

 which they make some specific use. There are also 

 several varieties, differing in the size and flavour of 

 fruit, manner of growth, size of leaves, &c., many of 

 which are already in European collections. 



CIVET Viverra. A genus of carnivorous mam- 

 malia, placed by Cuvier last in that division of 

 digitigrade carnivora, of which the dog may be 

 regarded as the type ; and intermediate between the 

 foxes and hyaenas in the system. They have three 

 false grinders on each side of the upper jaw and four 

 in the under, the front ones of which are sometimes 

 shed. There are two moderately large tuberculous 

 grinders above, only one below, and two projecting 

 tubercles on the interior side of their foremost car- 

 nivorous tooth below. All the rest of the grinders 

 have their crowns more or less tuberculous. The 

 tongue is beset with horny papillae, harder and more 

 pointed than in the hyaMias, but not so much so as 

 in the cats. With the exception of one of the sub- 

 genera, there are five toes on all the feet, the claws 

 on which are sharp and more or less retractile, but 

 they are not very crooked. The legs are generally 

 short in proportion to the length of the body ; and 

 the greater number use the elasticity of the arched 

 spine to aid them in springing on their prey. Under 

 the tail there is a scent bag, which secretes an unctuous 

 matter, which is, in some of the species, rather 

 abundant, has a strong musky scent, is much valued 

 as a perfume by the Orientals, and once formed an 

 article in the materia medica of Europe, under the 

 name of civet. It is now excluded from the list of 

 medicines ; and it got a place in that list formerly, 

 probably for no better reason than the old dogma, 

 that " whatever seemed to have active qualities, and 

 for which no other use could be found, must have 

 been intended for curing some disease." In addition 

 to this matter, of which the scent, when it has any, 

 is generally musky, there are, at least in some of the 

 species, two smaller openings, situated in the same 

 part of the body, from which a dark-coloured fluid of 

 a very disagreeable scent is discharged. 



When we consider the appearance, the structure, 

 and the habits of these animals, we find it somewhat 

 difficult to determine to which of the other families 

 they have the nearest resemblance. In their general 

 form, their style of walking, and also in the posses- 

 sion of the anal scent bag, they bear no inconsiderable 

 resemblance to the pole-cat or martin family ; many 

 of them have also much of the air and not a little of 

 the manners of the hyaenas ; some of them also have 

 slightly the appearance, and all have a good deal of 

 the manners of the smaller cats ; they also, in their 

 form, the feet excepted, bear some slight resemblance 

 to the badgers ; nor is it impossible to trace points 

 of resemblance between them and the dogs. But 

 still they have a distinctive character of their own ; 

 and though the different sub-genera and species vary 

 a good deal from each other, it is easy to trace a 

 family likeness among them all. But it is much more 

 easy to trace this likeness than to say in words in 



