394 ELEMENTARY STUDIES IN BOTANY 



trees (40,000 acres) in cultivation, and the acreage was 

 rapidly increasing. The clanger from frost is the same as 

 for peaches, but the interior valleys of California furnish a 

 most congenial situation. 



100. Cherry. The cherry is of European origin, and the 

 various cultivated races are grouped as sour cherries and 

 sweet cherries. The sour cherries are cultivated in orchards 

 for canning purposes in a number of states, extending from 

 New York and New Jersey to Kansas and Nebraska. The 

 sweet cherries are restricted mostly to what is called " door- 

 yard " planting. In California, cherries are the least com- 

 mercially important of the temperate fruits, but they attain 

 unusual size. Cherry trees are grafted with unusual readi- 

 ness, so that large orchards can be transformed into more 

 desirable varieties. 



101. Orange. This is the best known of the table 

 citrous fruits, and is one of the oldest of cultivated fruits. 

 In fact, it has been so long in cultivation that its native 

 region is in doubt, although probably it has come from 

 southern and eastern Asia. Now it is grown in all warm 

 temperate and tropical countries. 



The structure of an orange is familiar to every one, but 

 certain variations should be noted. Ordinarily an orange 

 contains ten compartments, but the number is often in- 

 creased through cultivation ; and in some cases a secondary 

 axis with its small compartments is developed in the center 

 of the fruit, forming the " navel " orange. The best-known 

 navel orange is the " Washington navel," which started as a 

 chance seedling brought from Brazil in 1870. This navel 

 orange is also seedless. 



There are three well-developed orange regions in the 

 United States : (1) central and southern Florida, (2) the delta 

 region of the Mississippi, and (3) California. Formerly 

 most of our oranges were imported from the Mediterranean 

 region, but these were replaced for the most part by Florida 



