352 



HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



number of years, it ceases to be productive, or 

 the produce becomes so bitter, that it is not 

 healthful. St Michael's has no such disadvan- 

 tage ; the soil there is native and fertUe, and de- 

 posits nothing calculated to injure its fertility, 

 or impair the qualities of its produce. 



The oranges of the two islands are such as one 

 would expect from those differences. The Mal- 

 tese orange is large, the rind is thick and spongy, 

 the glands that secrete the volatile oil are pro- 

 minent, the pulp is red, and there is a trace of 

 bitterness in the taste ; while the St Michael's 

 orange is small, the rind is thin and smooth, the 

 glands less prominent, the volatile oil in smaller 

 quantity, and the lighter coloured pulp more 

 sugary and delicious. Some allowance must no 

 doubt be made for the original differences of 

 those oranges, regarding them as having come in 

 the manner stated by Galessio ; but they have 

 now been long enough in both islands for having 

 their qualities modified by the diflferent climates 

 and soils. 



The modifications produced by differences of 

 soil and climate, in the same vegetable, are 

 among the most important inquiries in the science 

 of plants ; and they are, at the same time, among 

 the most difficult, and certainly the least at- 

 tended to. One principal source of the difficulty 

 lies in the observer being as much changed as the 

 thing observed. Those who are parched with 

 thirst do not stop to analyze the water, or descant 

 upon the flavour of whatever beverage they may 

 have recourse to for slaking it. The removal of 

 the painful sensation is to them far more deli- 

 cious than the purity of the most limpid spring, 

 or the flavour of the choicest wine. Just so 

 with man when he is panting under a burning 

 atmosphere ; the fruit which is most delicious to 

 him is that which is most cool. This necessaiy 

 change in the judge, as well as the thing judged 

 of, must never be omitted when we come to 

 compare the fruits of different countries as re- 

 ported of by those who have enjoyed them there ; 

 and we never can be certain of their real merits 

 till we have them decided by the same individual 

 under the same circumstances. To take a case 

 in point : a guava, apart from its rarity, is cer- 

 tainly not in this country any thing comparable 

 to a peach ; and yet those who have been in tro- 

 pical countries talk in raptures of the guava, and 

 say that the fruit grown here is inferior and de- 

 generated. But they should bear in mind that, 

 in the tropical countries, there is the tropical 

 zest, as well as the tropical flavour. The man 

 who traverses a mountain country in the north, 

 heeds not the glittering fountains that issue from 

 every rock around him ; but send him from Suez 

 to Bassora, or from Morocco to Fezzan, and he 

 would remember them with veneration.* 



• Library of Entertaining Knowledge. 



But, again, we have a further confirmation 

 when we compare the continental oranges. The 

 climate of the slopes and valleys of the Estrella, 

 near the lower Tagus, and that of the Maritime 

 Alps, and the Apennines, in Provence and Ligu- 

 ria, are certainly very different from the climate 

 of Andalusia. The diversities of surface, and the 

 vicinity of the sea, keep the air over the former 

 places in continual play and motion, and prevent 

 those intense heats which unquestionably (though 

 by a process which chemistry has not yet fully 

 investigated) render the juices of plants acid, 

 acrid, or saline ; while, from the wider extent of 

 Andalusia, and its comparative distance fi-om the 

 ocean, the air over it is, in the warmer months, 

 much more quiescent. 



These considerations will, to a certain extent, 

 explain why there are so many varieties in a fruit, 

 which, according to the authorities, appear all to 

 have come from the same part of the world; and 

 a further extension of these considerations would 

 form a criterion of the situations in which it 

 would, or it would not, be desirable to cultivate 

 the orange. 



One great recommendation of the orange is, 

 that it may be had fresh in every region of the 

 world, and almost at every season of the year. 

 The tough rind, and the aromatic oil with which 

 it is filled, protect it from both extremes of tem- 

 perature ; and the acidity of the pulp deters in- 

 sects from piercing it; and if pulled from the 

 tree before it is quite ripe, this fruit will keep 

 for a long time. Indeed, the greater portion of 

 the oranges imported into this country are taken 

 from the tree while they are still green. This 

 gathering of both oranges and lemons for the 

 English market begins in October, and continues 

 to the end of December. Oranges are not fully 

 ripe till spring. It is foxmd that the orange trees, 

 from which the fruit is gathered green, bear 

 plentifully every year ; while those upon which 

 the fruit is suffered to ripen, afford abundant 

 crops only on alternate years. 



During the latter end of the seventeenth and 

 beginning of the eighteenth centuries, the orange 

 tree was a very fashionable article of growth in 

 conservatories, when there were but few exotica 

 of other sorts kept there. The plants were pro- 

 cured from Genoa, with stems generally from 

 four to six feet in height. They were planted 

 in large boxes, and were set out during summer 

 to decorate the walks near the house, in the man- 

 ner still practised at Versailles and the Tuilleries. 

 About the middle of the eighteenth century, 

 when a taste for botany and forcing exotic fruits 

 became general, that for superb orange trees be- 

 gan to decline. Many of these large trees 

 have decayed through neglect, and those which 

 are now to be found in the greater numljer of 

 green-houses are generally dwarf plants, bearing 

 few fruit, and those of small size. In some 



