344 NEW AMERICAN ORCHARDIST. 



USES. The use of the orange as a dessert fruit is well 

 known. The juice of the orange, from its pleasant, subacid 

 flavor, is serviceable in inflammatory or febrile diseases, 

 by diminishing heat and allaying thirst. It is a powerful 

 antiscorbutic. Orange wine of superior quality is thus 

 made : A gallon of water and three pounds of sugar are 

 boiled and skimmed for twenty minutes, and when nearly 

 cool, the juice expressed from eight Seville (sour) oranges 

 is added, together with the shavings of the outer rinds; 

 the whole to be placed in a barrel, and after frequent stir- 

 rings for two days, to be bunged down for six months or 

 more, till fit for bottling. The outer rind also forms the 

 basis of an excellent conserve, and when preserved in 

 sugar, is deservedly prized at the dessert, being one of the 

 best stomachics, and a grateful aromatic bitter. The 

 flowers of the orange tree have a highly odoriferous 

 perfume; they have a slightly pungent, bitter taste, and 

 communicate their flavor by infusion to rectified spirits, 

 or by distillation to spirit and water. An essential oil is 

 also prepared from the flowers, of a perfume more delicate 

 and agreeable in its fragrance than even the Otto of Roses. 

 It is prepared in Italy and Portugal, and there called Es- 

 sentia Neroli. 



CITRON. (C. medico..) Loudon. 



A beautiful evergreen, prickly, and upright tree, rising 

 to the height of eight or ten feet, with horizontal or re- 

 clining branches ; the leaves are smooth, oblong, ovate, 

 alternate, serrate, pale green; the fruit is six inches 

 long, ovate, rough, with a protuberance at the summit. 

 There are two rinds ; the outer rind is thin, the inner 

 thick, white, and pulpy. The outer rind has innumerable 

 glands filled with a fragrant oil. This fruit ripens suc- 

 cessively at all seasons. The citron and lemon are not 

 deemed so hardy as the orange, and will not endure so 

 great a degree of cold. 



USES. The citron forms an excellent preserve or sweet - 

 meat. The juice, with sugar and water, forms the refresh- 

 ing beverage called lemonade. It is used in cookery and 

 in medicine, and is powerfully antiscorbutic. There are 

 many varieties. 



