308 Bitter and Siveet Orange Trees 



Art. XVIII. On the Bitter and Sweet Orange Trees cultivated in 

 Italy. By Willi AM Spence, Esq. F.L.S. 



Sir, 

 I SEIZE the opportunity of a private conveyance to send 

 you a few seeds of the Arancio forte, or bitter orange, which 

 is so great an ornament to the gardens of this part of Italy, 

 in the hope that you will be able to transmit them to some 

 horticultural amateur in Devonshire or Cornwall, who will 

 take the trouble (if the experiment has not been already 

 made) to raise a few of the plants, and try to acclimate them 

 to that part of England, where there can be little doubt that 

 they might be made to thrive nearly as well as at Florence, 

 In the gardens round this latter city are many of these trees- 

 from 15 ft. to 20 ft. high, and with stems from 4 in. to 6 in. in 

 diameter, which are planted in the open ground, and stand 

 out without any protection except a sheltered situation, or the 

 neighbourhood of a wall, all the winter, though the cold is 

 often very severe and long-continued. Last winter, for ex- 

 ample, my sons skaited at Florence in each of the four months 

 of November, December (1829), January, and February 

 (1830) ; a feat which they could never boast of achieving in 

 England; and Fahrenheit's thermometer was repeatedly 

 down to 26° and 24" at 8 a. M. ; and had, therefore, probably 

 been lower in the night, and yet the only injury which the 

 bitter orange trees sustained was having the extremities of 

 some of the young shoots turned yellow. In Devonshire and 

 Cornwall, therefore, and probably along great part of the 

 south coast of England, it would seem that these trees, if 

 planted in sheltered situations, would run little risk of injury 

 in ordinary winters, while in very severe ones they might be 

 sufficiently protected by a covering of mats of thick straw, 

 &c. If your readers could with me look into the garden 

 of which the windows of the room where I am writing com- 

 mand a view, and see the scores of these trees resplendent, in 

 this month of January, with their green leaves and golden 

 fruit, they would, I think, agree with me as to the desirable- 

 ness of introducing such an ornament into our gardens and 

 shrubberies ; in which view (and also as stocks to graft the 

 sweet orange upon) it is the Italians chiefly cultivate them: 

 for, though the first will make an excellent marmalade, like 

 the Seville orange (to which it is nearly allied, if not the 

 same variety), they make little use of it except as a sauce 

 for fish, &c., and a detergent in washing the hands ; for 

 which purposes it is sold in the markets at the low price of 

 one quattrino each, equal to five for three farthings English. 



