No. 4. 



The Golden-fruited Orange Tree. 



127 



The Golden-fruited Orange Tree. 



Citrus aurantium. 



The Citrus aurantium, under favourable 

 circumstances, usually attains a height of 

 twenty-five or thirty feet, and is graceful in 

 all its parts. The trunk is upright, and 

 branches into a regular or symmetrical 

 head. The bark of the twigs is of a soft 

 and almost translucent green, while that of 

 the trunk and older branches is of a delicate 

 ash-gray. The leaves are moderately large, 

 beautifully shaped, of a fine healthy green, 

 and shining on the upper sides, while the 

 under sides have a slight appearance of 

 down. The flowers occur in little clusters 

 on the sides of the branches, are pleasing in 

 their form, of a delicate white in the sweet 

 oranges, and in the more acid varieties 

 slightly tinged with pink. In some plants 

 they have a more powerful odor, and are, 

 for the moment, more rich ; but in the 

 orange grove there is a fragrance in the 

 aroma which never satiates nor oflends; and 

 as the tree is at one and the same time in 

 all stages of its bearing — in flower, in fruit 

 just set, and in golden fruit, inviting the 

 "hand to pull and the palate to taste," — it 

 is hardly possible to conceive or imagine 

 any object more delightful. There is some- 

 thing, too, peculiar in the organization of 

 the fruit of this tree. Its rind or external 

 covering, is of a spongy texture, containing 

 but little juice or sap of any kind in its sub- 

 stance ; but the external surface is covered, 

 or tuberculated with little glands, which se- 

 crete an acrid, volatile oil, very inflamma- 

 ble, and of a strong, pungent taste. The 

 interior of the fruit is usually divided into 

 nine to twelve carpels or cells, which 

 contain the pulp, seeds, and juice, and are 

 united by a whitish pellicle or leathery skin, 

 radiating from the centre to the rind, and 

 may easily be separated without wasting 

 the juice. The seeds are solitary or seve- 

 ral, and are attached to the inner angle of 

 the carpel, and in some varieties are entirely 

 wanting. 



Varieties. — The varieties or races of the 

 orange have been greatly multiplied; but 

 whether from the proneness to change from 

 some original difl^erences in the species, or 

 from difference of soil and climate, it is diffi- 

 cult to determine. It was the opinion of 

 Galessio, who described forty principal kinds, 

 as cultivated in Italy, that they were all de- 

 rived from the common orange, although 

 some are more acid, and others more bitter 

 in their flavor. 



The orange is believed to have been ori- 

 ginally a native of the warmer parts of Asia, 

 and has long since been acclimated to the 



shores of the Red and Mediterranean Seas, 

 to the temperate and tropical isles of the 

 oceans and seas, and to the warmer portions 

 of Africa and America. It is especially 

 cultivated with a view to profit, and abounds 

 in Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, 

 Turkey, Egypt, northern Africa, and many 

 of the islands adjacent to those countries; 

 also in the Azores, Brazil, the island of Cu- 

 ba, and East Florida. 



The first distinct notice of this fruit on 

 record, is by Avicenna, an Arabian physi- 

 cian, who flourished in the Xth century. 

 He not only describes oleum de cilrangiila, 

 (oil of oranges,) and oleum de cilrangulo- 

 rum seminihus, (oil of orange seeds,) but 

 speaks of citric acid, (acid of citrons.) Ac- 

 cording to Galessio, the Arabs, when they 

 entered India, found the orange tribes there, 

 further inland than Alexander had pene- 

 trated ; and they brought them to Europe 

 by two routes, — the sweet ones through 

 Persia to Syria, and thence to the shores of 

 Italy and the South of France, and the bit- 

 ter ones, by Arabia, Egypt, and the north of 

 Africa, to Spain and Portugal. 



It does not appear that the orange was of 

 Chinese origin, as it is not mentioned by 

 Marco Polo, who is so minute in describing 

 all the other wonders of the "Celestial Em- 

 pire." It is said to have been found by the 

 Portugese upon the east coast of Africa; 

 but it is not known whether it had been indi- 

 genous there, or disseminated by the Arabs. 

 When the Portuguese reached India, in the 

 early part of the XVIth century, they found 

 the orange there, and also in China, which 

 was then visited by them for the first time 

 by sea. 



At the Azores, nothing can exceed the 

 rich luxuriance of the orange groves, from 

 November to March, when the emerald 

 tints of the unripe, and the golden hue of 

 the mature fruit, mingle their beauties with 

 the thick, dark foliage of the trees. Al- 

 though the oranges of the Azores are among 

 the best that are to be met with, they are 

 not indigenous productions of those islands; 

 but were introduced there by the Portuguese, 

 as the same fruit was originally sent, by the 

 Spaniards to the West Indies and the conti- 

 nent of America. In the midst of a forest, 

 on the banks of the Cedeno, Baron Hum- 

 boldt, in 1800, found wild orange trees, la- 

 den with large and sweet fruit. These 

 were probably not indigenous, however, but 

 the remains of some old Indian plantations. 



The orange plantations of the Azores are 

 usually of large extent, always encircled by 

 walls fifteen or twenty feet in height, and 

 within thick belts of other trees, to protect 

 them from the breezes of the sea. The 



