26 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



USES. The delicious and wholesome fruit of this tree is too well- 

 known to require comment, being extensively grown in all warm countries 

 and probably enjoyed, thanks to our modern facilities of transportation 

 in every portion of the civilized world. An essential oil, the Oil of 

 Orange Flowers, is distilled from the flowers of both the Sweet and the 

 Bitter Oranges (the latter being preferred), and is much used by the 

 manufacturers of confections, perfumes, etc. The Oil of Orange Peel 

 is likewise a valuable product for flavoring purposes, and the leaves of 

 the plant are valuable for infusions. 



The wild Bitter-sweet Orange tree is occasionally planted in the streets 

 of southern cities purely for ornamental purposes, and a fine is imposed 

 by city ordinance to prevent wanton picking of the fruit and hence mar- 

 ring the ornamental value of the tree. 



The wood is used in turnery, for which it is admirably suited. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES. Various parts of the plant are used in 

 medicine. The leaves, which are bitter and aromatic, are employed in 

 some places in the form of infusion as a gently stimulant diaphoretic. 

 Bitter Orange Peel is a mild tonic, carminative and stomachic; the Sweet 

 Orange peel is simply aromatic, but neither is much used alone. They 

 are chiefly employed to communicate a pleasant flavor to other medieines, 

 to correct their nauseating properties, and to assist their stimulant im- 

 pression upon the stomach.* 



NOTE. The Bitter-sweet Orange, which is the form found in a wild 

 state in Florida and characterized from the cultivated trees mainly by 

 the bitter-acid and rather more rugose fruit, is not considered specifically 

 distinct ; probably only a degenerate form. It must have been 

 introduced into Florida at a very early period, as we learn from Brown's 

 Trees of America, that Bartram in speaking of the vicinity of New 

 Smyrna, as long ago as 1791, states that "I was there about ten years 

 ago, when the surveyor ran the lines of the colony, where there was 

 neither habitation nor cleared field. It was then a famous orange grove, 

 the upper or south promontory of a ridge nearly half a mile wide and 

 stretching north about forty miles. * * * All this was one entire 

 orange grove, with live oaks, magnolias, palms, red bays and others." 

 And Audubon in 1832 states that " Whatever its original country may 

 be supposed to be, the wild orange is, to all appearances, indigenous in 

 m;my parts of Florida, not only in the neighborhood of plantations, but 

 in the wildest portions of that wild country, where there exist groves 

 fully a mile in extent." 



* 17. S. Dispensatory, 16th ed., pp. 274-376. 



