350 



HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



the orange was not known to the ancients either 

 in Europe or in Syria; but that we are indebted for 

 the first knowledge of it to the Arabs, who, with 

 their zeal to propagate the religion of the Koran, 

 were as anxious to extend the advantages of 

 agriculture and medicine. The sweet orange 

 which they introduced was not, strictly speaking, 

 that which has since been called the China orange, 

 and under that name introduced into Spain, Por- 

 tugal, St Michael's, the other Atlantic isles, and 

 the West Indies ; but rather the orange which 

 was known in Italy before Vasco de Gama had 

 doubled the Cape of Good Hope. 



The orange is said to have been found by the 

 Portuguese upon the east coast of Africa; but it 

 is not known whether it had been indigenous 

 there, or disseminated by the Arabs. When the 

 Portuguese reached India, they found the orange 

 there, and also in China, which was visited for 

 the fii-st time by sea in the early part of the 

 sixteenth century. 



Although the oranges of St Michael, in the 

 Azores, are now the best that are to be met with 

 in the European market, they are not indigenous 

 productions of that island; but were sent there 

 by the Portuguese, as the same fruit was origin- 

 ally sent to the American continent by the Span- 

 iards. In the middle of a forest, on the banks 

 of the Rio Cedeno, Humboldt found wild orange 

 trees, laden with large and sweet fruit. They 

 were, probably, the remains of some old Indian 

 plantations; for the orange cannot be reckoned 

 amongst the spontaneous vegetable productions 

 of the New World. 



But, in whatever way oranges were first in- 

 troduced into those parts of the world of which 

 they are not natives, they are now very widely 

 diffused; and wherever they are found they are 

 among the most ornamental of trees, and the 

 most delightful of fruits. The species and var- 

 ieties have also been greatly multiplied; but 

 whether from their proneness to produce varie- 

 ties, from some original differences, or from dif- 

 ference of soil and climate, cannot now be ascer- 

 tained. Including all the different species, Risso, 

 an eminent naturalist at Nice, (and from his 

 living in a country producing oranges, he liad 

 the best opportunities of examining and study- 

 ing them,) has, in a very elegant and elaborate 

 natural history of oranges, published at Paris in 

 the year 1818, enumerated, described, and, with 

 respect to all the more important sorts, figured 

 no fewer than one hundred and sixty-nine varie- 

 ties: these he has divided into eight species: 

 sweet oranges, bitter oranges, bergamottes, limes, 

 pampelucos, sweet limes, lemons, and citrons. 



Of the first of these there are no fewer than 

 forty-three varieties; though, in the opinion of 

 Galessio, they arc all derived from the common 

 orange. The others are, generally speaking, more 

 acid in their flavour; thouRh some of them, such 



as the bergamottes, from the rind of which the 

 celebrated oil of bergamot is obtained, are highly 

 perfumed. 



Of the bitter oranges Risso enumerates thirty- 

 two varieties; of the bergamottes, five; of the 

 limes, eight; of the pampelucos, six; of the sweet 

 limes, twelve; of the lemons, forty-seven; and 

 of the citrous, seventeen. 



The family of the oranges, in almost all 

 their varieties, are now cultivated in Portugal, 

 in Spain, in France, in Italy, and in Greece. 

 In the first two countries they especially abound; 

 in Algarve, and in the fine plains of Andalusia, 

 on the banks of the Guadalquivir. The latter 

 is the place from which the bitter, or Seville, 

 oranges are chiefly obtained. In Algarve and 

 Andalusia the orange trees are of great size; 

 and extensive orchards of oranges have formed 

 the principal revenue of the monks for several 

 centuries. In Cordova, the seat of Moorish 

 grandeur and luxury, there are orange trees still 

 remaining, which are considered to be six or seven 

 hundred years old; and in that province, whose 

 craggy mountains are covered with gai'dens, and 

 vineyards, and forests abounding in fmit, the 

 flowers of the orange fill the air with their per- 

 fume, and lead the imagination back to those 

 days which the Moorish poets and historians de- 

 light in describing, when the land which they 

 conquered was adorned with all the refinements 

 of their taste and intelligence, and the luxuries 

 of the East were naturalized in the most deli- 

 cious regions of the South. The trunks of the 

 old trees of Cordova have begun to decay; and 

 when they get diseased, they are crusted with a 

 kind of lichen, which is supposed to be peculiar 

 to the orange. In France, the orange country is 

 chiefly Provence, or that part of the south wliich 

 lies to the eastward of the Rhone; and planta- 

 tions or groves of oranges are the most abundant 

 and the most beautiful on the banks of the Var, 

 and especially in the environs of Nice, where the 

 species are very many, and come to great perfec- 

 tion. To the west of the Rhone, the country 

 along the coast is flat, sandy, and barren; and on 

 the plains of Langucdoc, that lie interior of this 

 barren tract, the olive thrives better than the 

 orange, apparently because there are no second- 

 ary mountains between the cold heights of the 

 Cevennes and the plains. The country to the 

 eastward of the Rhone is much better adapted 

 for choice vegetables, both in soil and in aspect. 

 In the western or French part of it, the Alps 

 descend gradually, by successive elevations, from 

 the high summits of Mont Blanc, Mont Rosa, 

 and St Bernard, to the sea. Thus the lowgrounds 

 are finely exposed to the southern sun; and being 

 at the same time sheltered from every quarter 

 whence a cold wind could come, the vegetation 

 is at once luxuriant and choice. The finest bul- 

 bous flowers, the mj'rtlc. the cactus, and many 



