THE ORANGE FAMILY. 577 



decumanci) ; and the Citron ( G. medico) j all different species, with the 

 same general habit. 



The Orange, a native of Asia, is the most attractive and beautiful 

 of fruit-trees, with its rich, dark evergreen foliage and its golden fruit ; 

 and it may well therefore enjoy the reputation of being the Golden Ap- 

 ple of the Hesperides. When to these charms we add the delicious fra- 

 grance of the blossoms, surpassing that of any other fruit-tree, it must 

 be conceded that, though the orange must yield in flavor to some other 

 fruits, yet, on the whole, nothing surpasses an orange grove, or orchard, 

 in its combination of attractions rich verdure, the delicious aroma of 

 its flowers, and the great beauty of its fruit. 



The south of Europe, China, and the West Indies, furnish the lar- 

 gest supplies of this fruit. But it has, for a considerable time, been cul- 

 tivated pretty largely in Florida, and the orange groves of St. Augustine 

 yield large and profitable crops. Indeed the cultivation may be extended 

 over a considerable portion of that part of the Union bordering on the 

 Gulf of Mexico ; and the southern part of Louisiana, and part of Texas, 

 are highly favorable to orange plantations. The Bitter Orange has be- 

 come quite naturalized in parts of Florida, the so-called Wild Orange 

 seedlings furnishing a stock much more hardy than those produced by 

 sowing the imported seeds. By continually sowing the seed of these 

 Wild Oranges, they will furnish stocks suited to almost all the Southern 

 States, which will in time render the better kinds grafted upon then* 

 comparatively hardy. 



North of the latitude where, in this country, the orange can be 

 grown in groves or orchards, it may still be profitably cultivated with 

 partial protection. The injury the trees suffer from severe winters' 

 arises not from their freezing for they will bear, without injury, severe 

 frost but from the rupture of sap-vessels by the sudden thawing. A 

 mere shed, or covering of boards, will guard against all this mischief. 

 Accordingly, towards the south of Europe, where the climate is pretty 

 severe, the orange is grown in rows against stone walls or banks, in ter- 

 raced gardens, or trained loosely against a sheltered trellis ; and at the 

 approach of winter they are covered with a slight movable shed, or 

 frame of boards. In mild weather the sliding doors are opened, and' 

 air is admitted freely if very severe, a few pots of charcoal are placed 

 within the enclosure. This covering remains over them four or five 

 months, and in this way the orange may be grown as far north as Bal- 

 timore. 



SOIL AND CULTURE. The best soil for the orange is a deep rich 

 loam. In propagating them, sow, early in the spring, the seeds of the 

 naturalized or wild bitter orange of Florida, which gives much the har- 

 diest stock. They may be budded in the nursery-row the same season, 

 or the next, and for this purpose the earliest time at which the opera- 

 tion can be performed (the wood of the buds being sufficiently firm), the 

 greater the ' success. Whip or splice grafting may also be resorted to 

 early in the spring. Only the hardiest sorts should be chosen for 

 orchards or groves ; the more delicate ones can be grown easily with 

 slight covering in winter. Fifty feet is the maximum height of the 

 orange in its native country, but it rarely forms in Florida more than a 

 compact low tree of twenty feet. It is better, therefore, to plant them- 

 so near as partially to shade the surface of the ground. 



INSECTS. The orange plantations of Florida have suffered very 



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