AURANTIACEjE, OR ORANGE TRIBE' 



399 



teeth ; it early falls off. The petals are equal in number to the 

 sepals ; they are sometimes slightly adherent at the base ; and 

 in the Orange they are fleshy and white, with dots of green. The 

 stamens are equal in number to the petals, or are twice, or some 

 multiple, of their number ; the filaments are rather flattened at 

 the base, and are sometimes adherent into one bundle, sometimes 

 into several, and are sometimes altogether free, as in the Orange 

 itself. The pistil has a nearly globular ovarium, composed of 

 several adherent carpels ; it bears a thick tapering style, having 

 a slightly-divided stigma at its point ; and in each cell of the 

 ovary there is a double row of ovules. 



FIG. 149. CITRUS AURANTWJM. a, Flower ; i; stamenu, to show the union of the hase 

 of the filaments ; c, pistil ; d, transverse section of the ovary ; e, ditto of the fruit ; 

 /, seed. 



565. During the ripening of the fruit, however, a large pro- 

 portion of these ovules perioh ; and in the Orange and its nearest 

 allies, the cavity of the seed-vessel becomes filled up with a 

 pulp consisting of separate vesicles, each containing a portion of 

 the sweet-acid fluid, which is so characteristic of the fruit of this 

 order. The aggregation of these cannot be distinctly seen in the 

 usual state of the common Orange, in consequence of their close 

 adherence to one another ; but in an over-ripe Orange, or in one 

 grown in a hot-house, they are very easily separable. An im- 

 portant change takes place also in the structure of the carpels 

 themselves, which will serve to illustrate the still more striking 

 alterations that occur elsewhere. It is to be remembered that 

 each carpel may be regarded as composed of the same elements 



