328 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



It is certainly by no means improbable, that, by 

 further improvements in the art of gardening, we 

 may be enabled to diversify our vegetable stores by 

 many of those choice productions of the tropical 

 countries which are at present known only as curi- 

 osities to a few. Many tropical plants, which, at 

 their first introduction, were kept entirely in stoves, 

 are now planted out, and can bear the rigour of our 

 ordinary winters, without any abatement of growth 

 or diminution of beauty; and from this we may 

 reasonably hope that some tropical fruits may in time 

 be so far assimilated to our climate as to ripen in our 

 ordinary summers. 



But, while the great number of tropical fruits are 

 of little value to the many, there is a fruit, originally 

 a native of tropical regions, and naturally growing 

 only in countries of a higher temperature than our 

 own, which commerce has made our property in 

 a very remarkable degree. The orange may be 

 procured at little more cost than that of the com- 

 monest of our domestic fruits; while it is the most 

 refreshing and healthy, perhaps, of all the fruits 

 of the warm countries. It has thus become a 

 peculiar blessing to us: for while it offers a grati- 

 fication within the reach of the poorest, it is so su- 

 perior to other fruits, that it cannot be despised 

 for its cheapness, even by the richest. The duty 

 upon oranges is 68,000/. per annum, at the rate 

 of 2s. 6d. for a package not exceeding 5000 cubic 

 inches. Assuming the cubical contents of an orange 

 as ten inches, there are 500 in each package and 

 thus we see that 272,000,000 of this fruit are an- 

 nually imported, allowing about a dozen per annum 

 to every individual of the population. 



This extraordinary consumption of a production 

 which is brought here from very distant places, is a 



