150 THE GEOGRAPHY F PLANTS. 



it is not despised by the rich. From the 

 amount of duty paid, it is calculated that 

 272,000,000 of oranges are annually imported 

 into this country. 390,546 chests of oranges 

 and lemons, besides a considerable number 

 loose, and a still further quantity which were 

 only entered by value, were imported in 1848. 

 So prolific are the trees, that a single one 

 in St. Michael's has been known to produce 

 20,000 oranges fit for packing, exclusive of 

 damaged ones and waste, which may be 

 calculated at a third more. The oranges 

 intended for exportation are gathered green ; 

 if they were suffered to become ripe, they 

 would spoil on the passage. The orange 

 harvest commences with October, and ends 

 with December, a period of about three 

 months ; to ripen on the tree, they would 

 require to hang till the spring. It is a 

 singular fact, that the trees from which the 

 oranges are gathered green, bear plentifully 

 every year, but if they hang till ripe, the tree 

 only bears well every other year. Near 

 Cordova, there are orange trees six or seven 

 hundred years old ; in Andalusia, there are 

 extensive orchards, which formed the principal 

 source of revenue to the monks for ages ; and 

 in the south and south-west of Italy, there are 

 groves of oranges almost amounting to forests. 



Spain and Portugal are the head-quarters of 

 the Cistus tribe ; no less than twenty-one 

 species of Cistus* and eighty-three of Helian- 

 themum, being found there. They are a beau- 



