ORANGE TREE. 199 



ORANGE TREE. 



(CITRUS.) 



* Here Orange trees, with flowers and pendants shine, 



And vernal honors to their autumn join; 

 Exceed their promise in the ripened store, 

 Yet in the rising blossom promise more." 



This exotic is an old and much esteemed favorite orna- 

 mental tree. It is cultivated in the green-house and parlor, 

 and will bear considerable frost, but is best if protected. 



This delightful fruit bearing tree was first introduced into 

 England in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, in about 1600, 

 and the first is supposed to have been planted by Sir Fran- 

 cis Carew, at Beddington, in the open ground. They did 

 well, but had to be covered with a shed through the win- 

 ter; unfortunately the winter of 1739-40 destroyed them. 

 They were considered a great curiosity in their time, for 

 some had attained fourteen feet high, and their branches 

 extended fourteen feet ; they were nearly two feet round 

 the trunk. 



The Orange generally flowers in May and June; its 

 color is white, the petioles winged, and the leaves ellip- 

 tical, acute, crenate ; the fruit globose, with a yellow rind, 

 possessing a sweet, juicy flavor ; they grow freely from 

 seed sown in the spring, and the seedlings should be 

 budded in July or August to insure their bearing fruit, 

 when two or three years old. It is supposed that the 

 Orange is a native of Spain, and that it will live for several 

 hundred years, under favorable circumstances. It is much 



