BUD VARIATION IN THE WASHINGTON NAVEL ORANGE: 3 



and of a superior character. Arrangements were made for the 

 importation of several of the trees for trial in the United States. 

 When inspected at Washington all the trees in this shipment were 

 found to be dead. From a second shipment, made in 1870, twelve 

 living trees were received. Buds from these trees were propagated 

 *n one of the department greenhouses on orange stocks grown for 

 this purpose and were distributed to growers in Florida and 

 California. 



In the distribution of these young budded trees, two of them were 

 sent to Mrs. L. C. Tibbets, at Riverside, Cal., and were received and 

 planted by her in 1873. One of these trees, shown in Plate I, was 

 transplanted in 1903 from the Tibbets homestead to its present 

 location in the courtyard of the Glenwood Mission Inn at Riverside. 



When the two trees sent to Mrs. Tibbets came into bearing, about 

 1875, their fruits attracted much attention and aroused deep interest 

 among many California citrus growers and propagators. The fine 

 quality of the fruits, the absence of seeds, the distinctive navel mark, 

 and many other striking characteristics led California citrus growers 

 and nurserymen to propagate the variety very extensively. The 

 commercial success of the fruit in the markets confirmed the judg- 

 ment of the early propagators and growers as to the value of the 

 variety. The propagation and planting of the navel orange in Cali- 

 fornia have been carried on extensively during recent years, until now 

 it is by far the most widely grown citrus variety in the State. 



During the early stages of the development of this variety in 

 California the name Bahia was proposed for it by Mr. Saunders. 

 Other names were used locally, such as the Riverside Navel orange in 

 the Riverside district. Because the two navel orange trees origi- 

 nally sent to California had been received from Washington, D. C, 

 the name Washington was used frequently at first to designate the 

 variety. After the trees fruited., this name was changed to Wash- 

 ington Navel. Gradually other names were abandoned and this 

 name has since been used universally by citrus growers and others 

 interested in the citrus industry. 



In the selection of performance-record plats for these investiga- 

 tions, every possible care was taken to determine that the trees in the 

 plats were the direct descendants of the two Tibbets trees. There is 

 every reasonable assurance that all of the navel-orange trees used in 

 these investigations are descendants of those trees and for the most 

 part but two or three bud generations removed from the parent trees. 



VARIABILITY WITHIN THE VARIETY. 



A study of individual trees in several Washington Navel orange 

 orchards in southern California begun by the senior writer in 1909 

 revealed the presence of several strains of trees and fruits showing 



