186 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 



British India ; tiiey only give it as cultivated. Kurz 

 does not mention it in his forest flora of British Burmah. 

 Further east, in Cochin-China, Loureiro ^ describes a C. 

 Aurantiuin, with bitter-sweet {acido-dulcis) pulp, which 

 appears to be the sweet orange, and which is found both 

 wild and cultivated in China and Cochin-China. Chinese 

 authors consider orange trees in general as natives of 

 their country, but precise information about each species 

 and variety is wanting on this head. 



From the collected facts, it seems that the sweet 

 orange is a native of Southern China and of Cochin- 

 China, with a doubtful and accidental extension of area 

 by seed into India. 



By seeking in what country it was first cultivated, 

 and how it was propagated, some light may be thrown 

 upon the origin, and upon the distinction between the 

 bitter and sweet orange. So large a fruit, and one so 

 agreeable to the palate as the sweet orange, can hardly 

 have existed in any district, without some attempts 

 having been made to cultivate it. It is easily raised 

 from seed, and nearly always produces the wished-for 

 quality. Neither can ancient travellers and historians 

 have neglected to notice the introduction of so remark- 

 able a fruit tree. On this histoi'ical pomt Gallesio's 

 study of ancient authors has. produced extremely in- 

 teresting results. 



He first proves that the orange trees brought from 

 India by the Arabs into Palestine, Egypt, the south of 

 Europe, and the east coast of Africa,, were not the sweet- 

 fruited tree. Up to the fifteenth century, Arab books 

 and chronicles only mention bitter, or sour oranges. 

 However, when the Portuguese arrived in the islands of 

 Southern Asia, they found the sweet orange, and ap- 

 parently it had not previously been unknown to them. 

 The Florentine who accompanied Vasco de Gama, and 

 who published an account of the voyage, says, " Sonvi 

 onelarancie assai, ona tutfe dolci" (there are plenty of 

 oranges, but all sweet.) Neither this writer nor subsequent 

 travellers expressed surprise at the pleasant taste of the 



' Loureiro, Fl. Corhin., p. 569. 



