26 Oranges and Lemons of India. 



into Spain and Portugal, agrees with this date. " It 

 therefore, appears to me probable," says De Candolle, 

 " that the oranges imported later from China by the 

 Portuguese were only of better quality than those al- 

 ready known in Europe, and that the common expres- 

 sions, Portugal and Lisbon oranges, are due to this 



circumstance." 



De Candolle adds that " in the Malay archipelago 

 the sweet orange was believed to come from China. 

 It was but little diffused in the Pacific Isles at the time 

 of Cook's voyages." And he concludes by saying, 

 "We come back thus by all sorts of ways to the idea 

 that the sweet variety of the orange came from China 

 and Cochin China and that it spread into India perhaps 

 towards the beginning of the Christian era." 



All these researches would have been far more in- 

 teresting, if one could feel sure which sweet orange was 

 meant. There is, however, not much doubt that the 

 Portugal sweet variety is meant. 



Gallesio's " Traite du Citrus " was published in 181 1, 

 and Risso and Poiteau's " Histoire Naturelle des 

 Grangers "was published in 1818. The latter gives 

 only two plates of oranges which come anything near 

 those of the suntara type, viz.: the " Bigaradier 

 Chinois " and the " Bigaradier a feuilles de myrte." 

 And he adds these were then rare in Europe. So that 

 the sweet oranges which De Candolle refers to in the 

 fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries can hardly 

 mean any other race than those of the Portugal type, 

 of which Risso gives a large number of plates, and de- 

 scribes many others, all then known in Europe. All 

 these European varieties very probably originated 

 from seed, as in 1 709 the gardeners of Finale intro- 

 duced the practice of raising orange trees largely from 

 seed. It would appear, therefore, that up to the time 



