CHAPTER XV. 

 SOME SUBTKOPICAL OROHAKD FKUITS. 



191. The Orange. This is one of the most ancient 

 fruits and one that has been most modified by culture, 

 selection, and natural crossing. De Candolle says : 

 "Thanks to the discoveries of travellers in British India, 

 they are able to distinguish the wild and therefore true 

 and natural species." Those who have tasted the fair- 

 looking ripe fruit of the bitter-orange seedlings, yet quite 

 common from New Orleans south to the gulf, will have a 

 feeble conception of the wild, bitter oranges from which 

 the luscious, sweet varieties are supposed to have been 

 developed during the ages in southern China. As a com- 

 mercial fruit, found over the civilized world in every 

 grocery, and even mining and lumber camps, it is a 

 product of recent years. It first became commercial in 

 parts of Europe and Asia. West Europe was first supplied 

 commercially from the Azores. In 1878, C. P. Johnson 

 says that 410,101 boxes of St. Michael oranges were 

 received in Great Britain, which at that time were all 

 produced in the Azores. Great quantities of the orange, 

 less esteemed as to quality, were received in west Europe 

 from Sicily, Portugal, and Spain. At that time the supply 

 of the United States was mainly from Jamaica and the 

 Bahamas, with a partial supply from Florida. Later 

 orange-growing on a large scale was developed in Florida.; 



193 



