GALLESIO'S TREATISE ON THE CITRUS FAMILY. 



We read this, not only in the agriculture of 

 Porta, Charles Etienne, Olivier de Serres, Rozier, 

 Gallo, &c., but again in that of Herrara, himself 

 a Spaniard, and one who should have known 

 1he properties of this tree in America. Olivier 

 de Serres expresses himself in these words : " It 

 is requisite to graft these trees in order to make 

 them produce fruits entirely good and delightful, 

 without which means they could not be made to 

 do so." (Theatre of Agri., p. 632.) 



Tanara, whose writings date from a century 

 later, is the first to reject all these methods as 

 popular errors, but does not recognize the ex- 

 istence of a free species of sweet fruit, and ad- 

 vises recourse to the graft for multiplying this 

 species, " because [these are his words] the nat- 

 ural orange delays twelve or thirteen years to 

 give fruit, and only yields a bad quality!" This 

 opinion is followed by all the best writers, and 

 even by the more modern ones. 



Ferraris is the only author who has known of 

 the existence of the orange tree of sweet fruit 

 growing from seed. This writer, the first to ex- 

 amine deeply into the culture of this tree, lived 

 in a time (1646) when this method, already spread 

 in America, had probably passed into Portugal 

 and other parts of Europe. He ought, then, to 

 have had an idea of it. Nevertheless, he speaks 

 of it as a peculiarity accorded by Nature to some 

 of the more favored climates, as the Philippine 

 isles and China (Fer., pp. 44, 450), and he coun- 

 sels European gardeners to supply by graft the 

 defect of climate. Thus, " in some countries, 

 Nature, more adroit, renders art useless, because 

 the seed of domesticated orange trees give abund- 

 antly of sweet fruit without need of being grafted. 

 But this same benefit, accorded not by the most 

 propitious Nature to every climate, admonishes 

 the gardener of the necessity of correcting by 

 grafl the natural defect of the wild orange." 

 (Fer.-Hesperides, p. 450.) He also tells of some 

 specimens seen at Corfu, and at Rome, but re- 

 gards them as phenomena, seeing that he estab- 

 lishes as a maxim that the most perfect seed of 

 the sweetest orange will yield only plants bear- 

 ing sour and wild fruit, which require to be im- 

 proved by the graft. (Fer., p. 450.) 



Such is the force of habit and prejudice ; when 

 an opinion has taken root in the mind of men, 

 it is not sufficient for its destruction that Nature 

 reveals herself by her operations. Prejudice 

 will long contend against belief of facts ; and 

 those who dare first to attack these prejudices, 

 must expect censure, and be content to relin- 

 quish the honor of their discoveries during life. 



More than a century has passed since Ferraris 

 remarked that there were climates where the 

 sweet orange reproduced itself from seed, and 

 still the prejudice in favor of the graft exists in 

 the minds of the greater number of agricultural 

 writers. 



it is by means of the graft, or by cuttings, 

 that this tree is still multiplied at Salo, in Sicily, 

 and in Naples, and always upon citron trees. It 

 is by graft upon the b'igarade that the sweet 

 orange is multiplied at Seville, at Valencia, in 

 Crete, at Nice, and in Provence. 



M. Vacca, a land-owner at Finale, and owner 

 of many orange trees, when at Palermo in 1790, 

 was at the country seat of the Marquis Airoldi. 

 then President of Sicily. Seeing onty small 



trees in these gardens, as well as in all parts of 

 the isle, he expressed astonishment, and gave so 

 glowing a description of the Fiirale orange trees, 

 that he was scarcely believed. But the details 

 given by him were so positive, that M. Airolde, 

 a great amateur of oranges, and a well informed 

 man, decided to make a voyage to Finale, ex- 

 pressly to see our plantations. He came there 

 in 1798-94, and was so surprised by the beauty 

 of our trees, that, on returning to Sicily, he took 

 with him a family of cultivators, in order fcoofen- 

 duct his plantations according to the method in 

 Finale. 



I know not whether he was made to see that 

 the beauty of these plants was only due to the 

 nature of the tree, which, corning from seed, 

 is more vigorous; nor whether he afterwards 

 introduced at Palermo the culture of tree trees. 

 1 only know that even at that period the orange 

 at Sicily was but a grafted tree, and that the 

 most beautiful ones there gave only twelve or 

 fifteen hundred oranges each. 



This custom of grafting had in its favor sev- 

 eral circumstances. The grafted orange gave 

 fruit almost immediately, while a free tree pro- 

 duced fruit only alter twelve or fifteen years ; 

 this, of itself, would appear important enough 

 to give the preference to the common method. 

 Many other reasons united to sustain it. From 

 the first, it was supposed that the bigarade re- 

 sisted cold better than the sweet orange (nee Me- 

 mern reformidant ulpote liabitu. fiuUdiora. FER., p. 

 451), and this advantage seemed very important. 

 Afterwards it was said that it had the real ad- 

 vantage of submitting more readily to cultivation 

 in boxes, because it. grew more slowly, and re- 

 mained smaller, than the tree orange tree. 

 Finally, the custom of grafting suited the views 

 of the speculating gardeners, as well as amateurs. 

 Both had no other object than to be assured of 

 the varieties they possessed, and which they de- 

 sired to preserve. The success of the seed was 

 distant and uncertain. 



Thus it could interest none but the philosopher 

 desirous to study Nature in her operations; and 

 he would need, in addition to an absorbing love 

 for science, means and leisure in order to devote 

 to this study land and time. 



Thus we see why there has been such^ delay in 

 learning the nature of this species, which', during 

 a number of years, has existed but precariously 

 upon a different species. 



But at length chance led to this discovery. 

 The frost of 1709 caused the destruction of all 

 the orange trees in Liguria. To form the seed- 

 beds of the nurserymen the seeds of the sweet 

 orange were used, this being the only fruit sent 

 from southern districts for consumption in Italy. 

 These plants were condemned by the gardeners 

 ^to be grafted, the same as bigarades had been, 

 'but the frost, following that of 1709, destroyed 

 many of these grafts. 



Ordinarily, they grafted anew the vigorous 

 sprouts from the trunk. Some were, however, 

 neglected; and these gave, after some years, 

 very fine oranges. ^ 



This phenomenon excited the surprise and at- 

 tracted the attention of several cultivators. 

 They experimented by allowing many of these 

 rejetons to grow without grafting, until a con- 

 si -tut and uniform success at length convinced 



