SOME SUBTROPICAL ORCHARD FRUITS. 203 



to seven inches in diameter, weigh from eight to ten 

 pounds, and the fruits grow singly. The type called 

 grape-fruit is not larger than an overgrown orange and it 

 grows in clusters. This is shipped North more generally 

 than the large pomelos. 



The commercial varieties are usually "propagated by 

 budding on the rough-lemon stocks and on the sour orange. 

 The trees are not as hardy as the orange, but in nearly 

 f rostless regions it is a clean, healthy tree, not liable to 

 disease or troubled with scale or other insects. In south 

 Florida the culture of the best varieties is being rapidly 

 extended, and the same is true in Cuba and Porto Eico. 



199. The Kumquat. This is a dwarf species of the 

 citrus family. As grown on Citrus trifoliata in Florida 

 it makes a small, handsome bush. It is a heavy bearer of 

 golden yellow fruit not often more than one inch in 

 diameter. The rind is sweet, and unlike most fruits it is 

 eaten entire, only rejecting the seeds. It is used also for 

 marmalades and preserves. It is found at every home 

 place on the gulf coast and in California, but so far as 

 known it is not grown anywhere in a commercial way. 

 At the North it is often found in sitting-rooms in large pots 

 worked 011 the trifoliata, loaded with fruit. It is by no 

 means a delicate shrub, as it will thrive in a living-room 

 where a geranium can be grown. In frosty climates it 

 seems -much hardier than the orange. 



200. The Lime. The sour lime (Citrus medica, variety 

 acida) is much grown in a home way, as its acid fruits are 

 used to the almost total exclusion of the lemon in frostlees 

 climes for cooling drinks and for all culinary uses. It is 

 also shipped in quantity from south Florida and the West 

 Indies to New York, Boston, and other Atlantic cities, but 

 rarely reaches the Western States. Budded on Citrus 

 trifoliata it has proven about as hardy as the orange, and 



