51 CITRUS AURANTIUM 



placentae ; style thick, nearly as long as the stamens ; stigma 

 rounded, channeled. Eipe fruit, a large round berry somewhat 

 compressed at its two ends, usually 9 11 -celled, the loculi packed 

 with a soft tissue of large irregular, fusiform, horizontal, loosely 

 connected cells or vesicles, filled with a sweet juice, the disse- 

 piments very thin, membranous, the axis spongy; pericarp thin, 

 spongy, externally smooth, slightly irregular from the pro- 

 jection of the numerous crowded oil-cysts below the epidermis, 

 rich orange yellow. Seeds several in each cell, horizontal, loose 

 in the pulp, about f inch long, oblong-ovoid, somewhat compressed, 

 usually with a blunt point at the apex above the chalaza, and 

 somewhat truncate at the hilum; testa soft, pale yellow, veiny; 

 embryo of two large, unequal, irregular, thick, plano-convex 

 cotyledons and a small, superior radicle; endosperm none; not 

 very unfrequently two embryos are produced in a single seed. 



Habitat. The sweet orange can scarcely be said to be known 

 in a wild state, but all circumstances appear to concur in pointing 

 to Northern India, or possibly to Southern China as its original 

 home. It was unknown to the Greek and Eoman writers, and, 

 indeed, was not introduced into Europe till about the middle of 

 the 15th century by the Portuguese. It is now sparingly culti- 

 vated in India, but very abundantly in many parts of the 

 Mediterranean district, and in Spain, Portugal, Madeira, the 

 Azores, and China. Numerous varieties are distinguished by 

 cultivators, no less than 44 being described, and most of them 

 beautifully figured in Eisso's sumptuous ' Histoire des Grangers/ 

 the differences residing almost entirely in the form, colour, &c., 

 of the fruit. In the South of Europe the trees are in full flower 

 in April and May, and the fruit, which takes a year or more to 

 ripen, is in perfection at much the same time. The tree is 

 familiar enough in our greenhouses, where it fruits pretty freely, 

 but English-grown oranges want the sweetness of those of southern 

 climes. 



Hook, f., Fl. India, i, p. 515 ; Brandis, Forest FL, p. 53 ; Lowe, Fl. 

 Madeira, i, p. 73; Lindl., Fl. Med., p. 163. 



