The Seville Oranges. 7 



wild is in the forests near " Devikulam " in Southern 

 India, from which wild trees Mr. John Payne sent me 

 some leaves. In my opinion these are unmistakably 

 of the Seville variety ; but whether this is indigenous in 

 South India, or has become naturalized there, it is 

 impossible to say. I have been told that in the Nil- 

 ghiris there is a place called the " Orange Vale," 

 where some kind of wild orange grows, but what this 

 is I don't know. I tried to obtain information about 

 the " Orange Vale " trees, but have not succeeded. 

 There does not appear to be any indigenous Citrus in 

 Ceylon, although the Seville orange is well known and 

 grown there in many places under the name of Amool 

 Dbdan. 



In Europe the Seville orange stands the cold better 

 than other kinds, and that may be the reason why the 

 Italians have given it the qualifying name of " forte/ 

 In Florence I have seen it growing in the open, under 

 a south wall, while the Portugal or Malta oranges 

 cannot be grown at all there without artificial heat, and 

 all the lemon trees grown there are protected under 

 roofs in winter. 



Another reason why I do not think the Seville 

 orange an Indian Citrus is that it has many names, 

 most of them being names of other kinds of Citrus. 

 In Lucknow it is called ndranj ; in Gonda, sadaphal ; 

 in Mooltan, khatta, which simply means sour ; in Cal- 

 cutta, goralemboOy or common Citrus ; in Mangalore and 

 Mysore, karna, or kanchikai ; in Ceylon, amool dbdan 

 which means sour and round. 



In my opinion it is hardly possible that this Seville 

 orange, or so-called bitter orange, could have been the 

 direct progenitor of one of the sweet oranges, the 

 Malta or Portugal orange, the Citrus aurantium sinense 

 of Gallesio. Had it been so, it would be hardly possible 



