The Seville Oranges. 9 



type anything approaching the scent of the Seville 

 leaf. Had these two been related, as mother and 

 daughter, it is hardly possible that the latter would 

 never have reproduced some of the characters of the 

 former. The two have nothing in common except a 

 close skin, orange colour, white flower, and the general 

 characters of the gemis. 



(d.} The Seville has been grown for ages from 

 seed. Probably it has never, or very rarely, been pro- 

 pagated in any other way. If it once produced a sweet 

 orange, is it likely that this phenomenon would never 

 have been produced a second time. Both Gallesio and 

 Macfadyen state that they never knew an instance of 

 the Seville seed producing a Portugal orange. There- 

 fore I am inclined to think that these two oranges are 

 no more related to each other than both are related to 

 the Suntara orange, which also has a red skin and a 

 white flower. They are not improbably two distinct 

 branches of some common and much more ancient 

 stock. I should, moreover, not wonder if direct expe- 

 riment were to prove that they are not even miscible 

 by hybridization. Although the two have been grown 

 side by side for centuries I can find no evidence that 

 they ever crossed and produced intermediate forms. 

 All the varieties of each, which I have seen, form as 

 distinct groups as those of any two species.* 



In the " Atlas " drawings of the Seville oranges are 

 given from pi. i to pi. 18. 



* The following appears to confirm my conclusion, arrived 

 at from observation. In the " Bot. Mag.," iii., 6807, under the 

 heading of Bijou Lime, it is stated that " Mr. Rivers finds that the 

 bitter orange will not hybridize with the sweet, nor the limes and 

 lemons with the orange. . . . On the other hand, Darwin (Cross- 

 and Self-Fertilizing of Plants, p. 394) says that he has collected 

 evidence on the natural crossing of varieties of the orange, and cites 

 the authority of Gallesio for the fact." 



