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The World's Commercial Products 



EXOTIC FRUITS 



The Common Orange, also known as the Sweet- or Chinese Orange (Citrus.- A urantium), is 

 probably a native of China, where it is widely cultivated. This orange forms a low, very 

 bushy, evergreen tree with very hard wood, and lives to a great age.. The fruits are borne in 

 great profusion, and orchards of orange-trees loaded with ripe fruits present one of the most 

 beautiful sights imaginable. In favoured spots in the south-west of England oranges succeed 

 against warm walls protected in winter, but they are usually- grown in structures termed 

 " orangeries." Owing to the indifferent results, the expense involved, and the ease and 

 cheapness with which oranges can be imported from south Europe and elsewhere, their culture 

 jn this country has been practically abandoned. 



From Stereograph Copyright, Underwood & Underwood, London & New York 



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A FRUIT RANCH AT LOS ANGELOS, CALIFORNIA 



Under favourable circumstances the productiveness of the orange is astonishing. In the 

 island of St. Michael a single tree has been said to produce 20,000 oranges fit for exportation ! 

 There are many varieties of this orange as the result of its wide cultivation ; some are of great 

 value, others of but little merit. Among the more familiar and esteemed are the Blood 

 Orange, Saint Michael's, and Sweet-skinned Oranges. The blood orange has a round fruit, 

 rough red cr reddish-yellow outside, with a pulp irregularly mottled with crimson. The 

 St. Michael's Orange has a rather small fruit, pale yellow and seedless, with a very thin rind 

 and very sweet pulp. The sweet-skinned orange is the Forbidden Fruit (" Pomme d'Adam ") 

 of the Paris shops, but not of London. The rind is smooth, deep' yellow, very thick, and sweet. 



The Seville or Bitter Orange (C. Aurantium, van Bigaradia) was introduced into Arabia, 

 like the sweet orange, from India by the Arabs in the ninth century. From Arabia it was carried 

 by way of Egypt and north Africa to Spain, probably by the Moors. It was in cultivation 

 at Seville about the end of the twelfth century. The fruit of the Seville orange is round, 

 dark-coloured, with an uneven, rugged, and very bitter rind. The fruit is largely used 

 for making marmalade, and the rind for making candied orange peel. The ripe fruit is also 

 made into a syrup, and is one of the principal ingredients of the liqueur Curafoa. 



