194 Oranges and Lemons of India. 



that, because there are at present some wild forms of 

 citrus, therefore the cultivated varieties we have at 

 present have descended directly from tliem. This 

 may be so, and it is reasonable to suppose that it 

 is so ; but it may also be that both the present wild 

 forms, and the present cultivated forms, have no closer 

 relationship to each other than that they all descended 

 from a common and older ancestor, or ancestors, now 

 extinct. Alphonse de Candolle, in his " Origin of 

 Cultivated Plants," thinks that some of the modern 

 cultivated plants have no longer any wild representa- 

 tives ; they have become extinct. It must be as easy 

 for birds to carry seeds from cultivated tracts to wild 

 ones, as it is for them to do the reverse. 



A writer in the Gardeners Chronicle of 2Oth June, 

 1885, on the oranges of the Argentine republic says, 

 " that the orange was originally imported into the basin 

 of the River Plate, and that now, in certain localities, 

 it grows wild, sometimes forming veritable forests, not 

 only on the islands of the lower and upper Parana, but 

 in the forests of Missiores, as well as those of Paraguay.'' 

 He further says that "the orange is produced perfectly 

 from seeds, and these being scattered everywhere by 

 the parrots, which are exceedingly fond of the fruit, 

 explains the fact of its general dissemination." He 

 adds that " the tree from seed is very robust, and is per- 

 fectly proof against drought and locusts." 



It should not be supposed that only sweet oranges 

 are eaten by birds. In Etawah I have often seen the 

 large fruit of khatta orange a sour variety hang- 

 ing like a bird's nest on the tree. Only the skin 

 remaining, with a hole on one side, and the pulp 

 entirely scooped out by some bird or other animal. 



There must have been a time in the history of vege- 

 tation, when plants had not begun yet to form what we 



