1 82 Oranges and Lemons of India. 



which grows and attains perfection without its ovules 

 having felt the stimulus of fertilization. All the culti- 

 vated varieties of plantains are usually so. I have also 

 seen a variety of mango, the surka of Lucknow, in 

 which the kernel of the stone was not developed. The 

 currant, and the Sultana raisins, are in the same 

 category. All such seedless varieties of fruit in a state 

 of nature, would be at a great disadvantage, and if they 

 appeared at all, would eventually be extinguished, 

 unless perhaps, as in the case of the plantain, the 

 parent plants may have been aided by other means of 

 propagation. On the contrary, under cultivation, such 

 varieties become very important and useful, provided 

 the tree, as in the case of the citrus, can be propagated 

 in any other way than by seed. Cultivation can 

 vastly improve seedless varieties. They are the result 

 of cultivation and selection. 



To recapitulate then, this orange within orange 

 appears to be nothing but a doubling of the fruit, or 

 ovary-whorls. It is analogous to the doubling of a 

 flower. Risso says that the " Bigaradier a fleur double,'* 

 if left to itself and not highly cultivated, loses by 

 degrees the character of giving double flowers, and 

 bears only single ones. 



Now we have to examine the curious essential oil 

 glands which pervade almost every part of the citrus 

 tree, and which are present in all varieties. The 

 essential oil differs in scent and quantity, according to 

 variety. If you take a leaf of any citrus, and, putting it 

 up against the light, examine it with a lens, you will, as I 

 have mentioned, see a sort of firmament, studded with 

 stars of the first, second, and third magnitudes 

 possibly other magnitudes also but usually three sizes 

 of cells are quite distinct. These are the essential oil 

 cells or glands. It should be noted that the larger ones 



