BUD. VARIATION IN THE WASHINGTON NAVEL ORANGE. 19 



occurrence. Some trees of the Washington, many of the Thomson, 

 and a few of the other strains in the investigational performance- 

 record plats have been found to bear individual fruits of this strain. 

 Occasional limbs have been found in such trees producing typical 

 Golden Nugget fruits consistently from year to year during the 

 entire period of observation. 



This strain, as in the case of the Australian, is really made up of 

 several groups, differing in some minor respects but having •certain 

 general'points of common resemblance. In the further study of this 

 strain the characteristics of trees and fruits of these groups are being 

 given careful consideration. In this discussion, however, the various 

 groups constituting the strain will be treated collectively as belonging 

 to the same strain, because at the present time the fruits of all are 

 considered as belonging to one class from the commercial standpoint. 



The trees of the Golden Nugget strain are, as a rule, less vigorous 

 growers than Washington trees, the habit of growth is drooping, and 

 the foliage dense. The leaves frequently are of lighter color than com- 

 parable ones of the Washington strain, and in many cases the trees 

 are easily distinguished in the orchard by reason of the light-colored 

 foliage and the characteristic dwarf and drooping habit of growth. 

 In some instances the habit of growth, foliage, and other tree charac- 

 teristics are almost indistinguishable from those of the Washington 

 or Thomson strains. The fruits borne by such trees differ in some 

 respects from those produced by the dwarf-growing Golden Nugget 

 trees, but not enough to warrant a separate classification and descrip- 

 tion at this time. 



The Golden Nugget fruits, illustrations of which are shown in 

 Plate VI, usually are somewhat pj^riform in shape and of medium 

 to large sizes. The rind is thin and of smooth texture. The color of 

 the fruit is light yellowish orange, the rag is coarse and abundant, 

 and the juice is fairly abundant and frequently of distinctive quality. 

 The fruit is seedless and has very small and usually only rudimentary 

 navels in which the opening is nearly or entirely closed. The fruits 

 have a peculiar and unmistakable appearance, due in part to the 

 presence of comparatively few oil cells, the light yellowish color of the 

 rind, and the pyriform shape of the oranges. In some cases the fruits 

 bear narrow red stripes or characteristic red ridges or knoblike 

 projections. 



As a whole, this strain is not a valuable one for commercial planting, 

 and the presence of such trees in established navel-orange orchards 

 is detrimental to the commercial value of the crops produced by 

 these orchards. At the same time the striking characteristics of 

 the fruits of this strain and their frequent and easily recognized 

 occurrence in trees of other strains make i't important from the 



