310 Bitter mid Sweet Orange Trees cultivated in Italy, 



protected as above stated. Even with every advantage of 

 wall training, the quality of the oranges grown in the north 

 of Italy is, I am inclined to believe, rarely very excellent. I 

 cannot speak from experience as to those grown near Genoa ; 

 though, judging from the much finer apricots which I saw 

 there in June last, than at Pisa, I should suppose that the 

 oranges also are superior to those produced at the latter 

 place, where they usually require sugar, even when quite 

 ■ ripe, to correct their acidity : a defect, however, which is in 

 some degree compensated by their beauty at the dessert, just 

 as plucked from the trees in all their freshness, the golden 

 hue of each being set off by the contrast of a bunch of the 

 green leaves still attached to it. The finest oranges sold in 

 the north of Italy come from Sicily by way of Leghorn and 

 Genoa. 



I am ignorant whether there is anything peculiar in the 

 mode of pruning the sweet orange trees, adopted by the Italian 

 gardeners ; but two points in their treatment of those kept in 

 pots may be worth specifying : first, they rarely employ tubs, 

 but prefer any large pots of handsome forms, and adorned 

 on the outside with mouldings and bas reliefs of festoons of 

 fruits, &c., which, though merely of common red earthen- 

 ware, have a much better appearance than the painted wooden 

 receptacles usually adoptee! in other countries ; and, second, 

 they seldom train their trees with a tall single stem, or clip 

 them with the shears into a mop-like globular head, as is too 

 often the practice, but suffer the stem to branch out imme- 

 diately above the top of the pot, and prune it with the knife 

 into the irregular and far more beautiful form of a natural 



o 



shrub. 



Much of what has been observed above, as to the cultiva- 

 tion of the sweet orange in the north of Italy, is also appli- 

 cable to that of the lemon, which is equally tender; and, at 

 Pisa and Genoa, is, in like manner, mostly trained against 

 walls, which are never applied to the training of peaches or 

 other fruits. Even the far-famed Leaning Tower and Campo 

 Santo of Pisa would scarcely prove so attractive to an English 

 gardener, as the display now made by a garden adjoining the 

 city walls, which may be seen, to the extent of some thou- 

 sands of square feet, thickly clothed with lemon trees trained 

 to the height of 15 ft. and 20 ft., and studded with the greatest 

 profusion of fine ripe lemons intermixed with blossoms and 

 the young fruit for another crop, and without the slightest 

 protection from frost. A considerable quantity of lemons are 

 grown in the open ground on the shores of the Lago di 

 Garda (but constantly protected in winter like the sweet 



