THK ORANGE. 



351 



others, give more tlie air of the perpetual sum- 

 mer of the tropical countries, than is to be found 

 perhaps in any other country of Europe, cer- 

 tainly in any other of the same extent. 



The glory of that delightful country is the 

 orange, which, when full grown, attains the 

 height of about five and twenty feet, and is grace- 

 ful in all its parts. Tlie trunk and older branches 

 are of a delicate ash colour ; the twigs of so soft 

 a green that they almost appear transparent; the 

 leaves are moderately large, beautifully shaped, 

 of a fine healthy green, and shining on the upper 

 sides, while the under ones have a slight appear- 

 ance of down. The flowers, which are in little 

 bunches, and very graceful in their form, are, in 

 the sweet oranges, of a delicate white, and, in the 

 more acid varieties of the family, lightly marked 

 with pink. Some plants have a more powerful 

 odour, and are for the moment more rich ; but 

 there is a freshness in the aroma of an orange- 

 grove which never offends or cloys ; and as the 

 tree is at one and the same time in all stages of 

 its bearing — in flower, in fruit just set, and in 

 golden fruit, inviting the hand to pull and the 

 palate to taste — it is hardly possible to imagine 

 any object more delightful. The perfumes of 

 Arabia do not exceed the fragrance of the groves 

 on the north of the Mediterranean, in which the 

 beautiful white Provence rose, the tuberose, and 

 countless other flowers, blend their sweets with 

 that of the orange ; and where, with all this rich- 

 ness, the pestilent airs of the tropics, and even 

 the sirocco of the southern parts of Italy, are al- 

 together unknown. This delightful fertility and 

 fragrance accompany the chain of the Apennines 

 round the whole gulf of Genoa, and until, upon 

 the boundary of the plain of Tuscany, they sub- 

 side in elevation, and bend more toward the 

 Adriatic. 



Tuscany is further to the south ; but the cli- 

 mate and the vegetation cannot be compared to 

 those of the little valleys of Provence and Ligu- 

 ria, especially the latter. About Florence there 

 are still orange trees in the gardens ; but there 

 are none of those aromatic groves and plantations 

 which are found further to the west. Nor are 

 the causes difficult to find out. There is an 

 enemy on each side of the plain of Tuscany, 

 which will not allow the orange to arrive at per- 

 fection. The gales that come from the south- 

 east, over the sandy shores near Leghorn, are not 

 adapted for a plant which, as well as heat and 

 pure air, requires a considerable quantity of 

 moisture ; and the winds from the north, that 

 are cooled in passing over the Adriatic, are not 

 so genial as those from the Alps, that are wanned 

 in passing over the vale of Lombardy. But still 

 the olives, the grapes, and the melons, of the 

 vale of the Arno, in so far compensate the in- 

 habitants for the want of the orange. 



Eastward of Tuscany, though the coast of 



Italy inclines still further to the south, it is even 

 less adapted for the production of the orange ; 

 the sea coast is ban-en, the interior is dreary, and 

 over the whole the pestilent malaria creeps, for- 

 bidding man to approach even for the cultiva- 

 tion of the fields ; and thus it may be that, ere 

 long, the arid downs by the sea will meet the 

 marsh of the interior, and the centre of Italy 

 shall be desolation to the very base of the Apen- 

 nines. After the gulf of Gaeta is passed, and the 

 shelter of the more elevated mountains of Cala- 

 bria is obtained, orange groves again make their 

 appearance. 



Thus the locality of the orange depends fully 

 as much upon situation and soil as upon lati- 

 tude; and therefore we need not wonder that, 

 considering the many and varied lands in which 

 it is cultivated, there should be so many varie- 

 ties of its fniit. There is no absolute reason for 

 supposing that the sweet and the bitter orange 

 were originally different ; and even now they are 

 not so different as two mushrooms of the very 

 same variety — the one produced upon a dry and 

 airy down, and the other upon a marsh. Now, 

 if it be true that the bitter orange of Seville 

 came, by successive removals, from the head of 

 the Persian Gulf, along the margin of the salt 

 desert, till it reached the states of Barbary, where 

 it was transplanted into Spain; if the sweet 

 orange of Malta, Italy, and Erance, came through 

 the more fertile parts of Persia and Syria ; and 

 if the orange of India and the Azores came direct 

 from China — it would follow that each should 

 have those qualities which we find in it ; and 

 that the opinion of Galessio is borne out by the 

 only evidence which the case admits. 



Looking at the fiicts, we are induced to infer, 

 that, if the temperature be sufficiently high for 

 maturing its flavour, the orange is delicious in 

 proportion to the uniform salubrity of the air; 

 and that those high temperatures which force a 

 very large expansion of the fruit are against the 

 fineness of its quality. In this respect we have 

 an opportunity of contrasting both the oranges 

 of islands and those of continents. St Michael's, 

 in the Azores, and Malta, are both small islands; 

 the former always exposed to the equalizing 

 breezes, which, fi'om whatever quarter they blow, 

 are always wafted across the expanse of the At- 

 lantic; and the latter lying near the dry and 

 sultry shores of Africa, and, of course, subjected 

 to more changes of season and a higher tempera- 

 ture. There is also some difference in the soil. 

 Whether it be the decomposition of the rock, or 

 saline particles, brought by the same pestilent 

 wind that withers the south of Italy and Sicily 

 with the sirocco, it is well known that, under 

 the artificial earth (brought originally from Si- 

 cily) Avhich forms the soil of Malta, there gathers 

 a crust ; and that if the earth be not trenched, 

 and this crust removed at the end of a certain 



