THE SWEET ORANGES. 33 



Iii Florida the navel oranges have not been a success, 

 owing to the small crops usually produced. The late E. 

 H. Hart,* however, called attention to one variety, a cross 

 between Sustain and Botelha which is quite prolific in 

 the above mentioned district. This tendency toward shy 

 bearing can in part be overcome in Florida by a judicious 

 selection of stocks. The Bahia navel orange is the \ 

 variety par excellence of the California districts and there \ 

 seems at present to be no good reason why any other va- I 

 riety of its season should be planted. All things consid- / 

 ered, this variety is the most noteworthy of the whole/ 

 group of navel oranges. / 



More recently a variety of navel orange known as 

 Surprise has been brought forward by Mr. E. S. Hub- 

 bard, of Federal Point, Fla. This variety fruits well on 

 sour orange stock and bids fair to take the place in Flor- 

 ida, which the Bahia now occupies in California. 



Regarding the first mention of the navel orange in 

 citrus literature, B. M. Lelong, in his work, "Culture of 

 the Citrus in California," 1902, pages 52 to 53, makes 

 the following remarks: "The first illustration of the 

 Navel orange appears in a volume, 'Table xvi. Historian 

 Naturalis de Arboribus et Fructibus, Libri Decem. Jo- 

 hannis Johnston!, Medici use Doctoris. Francofurti, o in., 

 MDCLXIT.' ('The Natural History of Trees and Fruits. 

 Ten Books. By John Johnson, Doctor of Medicine. Frank- 

 fort on Main, 1662'), referred to as Aurantium foetiferum 

 * * * Although no description of the navel orange ap- 

 pears in the text, this is the earliest reference known." 



In 1646 Baptiste Ferrari, a monk of the Society of 

 Jesus, published at Rome his famous work, "Hesperides 

 sive de Malorum aureoruin cultura et usu, Libri Quat- 

 uor." On page 403 he describes and on page 405 illus- 



