The " Siintara" Oranges. 49 



which come out in February or March, and the after, 

 or Dumrcz, crop in June or July, during the rains ; 

 fruit varies in shape, from the flat oblate-globose to 

 the pyriform, sometimes quite smooth, at others sub- 

 warty. The colour varies from orange-yellow to 

 lobster-red, and sometimes in part to tomato-red ; it 

 is mostly baggy, with a loose skin, sometimes so loose 

 that the pulp-ball wabbles inside it ; the white pithy 

 part between the rind and the pulp is frequently 

 almost absent, and the large oil cells of the rind can 

 be easily dissected into balloon-shaped vesicles ; the 

 colour of the pulp is often much deeper than that of 

 the bloodless kinds of the Portugal type. The flavour 

 varies from very sweet to a mixture of sweetness and 

 sub-acidity (which most of them have), and to a pure 

 acid. The centre of the pulp is mostly hollow, and 

 the carpels loosely adherent. The seeds are green, 

 when cut. 



It is possible that this type of orange may be indi- 

 genous to the north-eastern border hills of India, 

 but probably it was naturalized there at a very re- 

 mote period ; that it originally came from China, or 

 Cochin China, either directly across the border or 

 by way of the Malayan peninsula. The reasons for 

 taking this view are given in the chapter on the 

 Origin of the Citrus. 



De Candolle, under the heading of " Sweet Orange," 

 states : " Royle says that sweet oranges grow wild at 

 Sylhet (meaning no doubt those of the suntara type, 

 now still semi-wild), and in the Nilgiri hills, but his 

 assertion is not accompanied with sufficient detail to 

 give it importance. . . . On the other hand, 

 Brandis and Sir J. Hooker do not mention the sweet 

 orange as wild in British India; they only give it as 

 cultivated. Kurz does not mention it in his ' Forest 



