The Wild Orange of the South. 143 



and gaudily-plumaged birds. To add to the picture, we have perhaps a 

 clear, beautiful lake in the centre, with a white, sandy bottom, in which the 

 fish play lazily about, unless disturbed from their pastime by the loud 

 splashing of an alligator ; cool, gentle breezes, rustling leaves, and the 

 ground whitened with fallen blossoms. 



To come to the economical use of these rank groves, which cover so 

 large an area in the State of Florida alone, we may say that many of them 

 could be converted into sweet-orange groves, and doubtless will be so 

 changed when the country is more settled ; but, even at present, they may 

 be made subservient to man's use in the arts and manufactures. Many 

 articles of much value can be produced from them. The sour orange forms 

 a tree about fifteen or twenty feet liigh ; and in their natural groves so thick 

 do they grow, that they entirely shade the ground. Probably no less than 

 two or three hundred of these trees can be found on an acre. Now, a 

 healthy, full-grown tree is computed to bear at least three thousand oranges \ 

 but, in a grove where they are so much crowded, they cannot bear so many. 

 If they bear a thousand a piece, it can be seen that there is an immense' 

 amount of fruit. Each year, this fruit is wasted. 



From the flower to the dying tree, each part can be used for the benefit 

 of mankind. The beautiful white perfumed flowers can be gathered under 

 the tree in the spring, not by the handful, but by the wagon-load. By dis- 

 tillation, these blossoms yield the oil mroli, or oil of orange-flowers, which 

 now commands a high price in gold, per ounce, for perfumers' use. A few 

 weeks later, quantities of the young oranges about the size of peas can be 

 found on the ground; and these, distilled, produce oil oi petit grain, — an oil 

 worth less than that from the flower, yet of good price. An oil can be 

 distilled from the leaves of the tree which much resembles oil oi petit grain, 

 but is a little lower in price. The wood of a superfluous tree can be made 

 into articles of ornament ; is hard, light yellow, susceptible of fine polish, 

 and can be used as a substitute for box-wood for engravers' use. The bark 

 from the living tree furnishes one of the most pleasant of all bitter tonics, 

 and is considered almost a specific in intermittent and remittent fevers. 

 The bark of the bitter-sweet orange has a high commercial value : it is 

 largely imported, and used in the manufacture of bitters. Bitter-sweet 



