LUTHER BURBANK 



Meantime, referring specifically to the orange, 

 it requires no great powers of observation to dis- 

 cover why this tree stands in such pre-eminent 

 need of an exceptional water supply. 



It is only necessary to recall that the bulk of 

 the fruit is juice, each orange containing four or 

 five ounces of water, to discover what the tree does 

 with the liquid it imbibes so freely. A well-laden 

 orange tree, with say a thousand mature fruits, is 

 carrying the equivalent of thirty or forty gallons 

 of water in its globular buckets; and of course 

 there is constant transpiration of moisture from 

 the leaves which in the aggregate is far greater. 

 Hybridizing Possibilities 



And all of this, of course, applies not merely 

 to the orange but to the allied citrus fruits, in 

 particular to the grapefruit and the lemon. 



Indeed, the entire company of citrus fruits is 

 characterized by exceeding juiciness of pulp, the 

 bulk of the fruit being made up of water — with 

 delicious acids and sweets instilled therein — 

 merely intermeshed with enough thin fibrous tis- 

 sues to give stability to the fruit structure. 



These fruits are further characterized by the 

 unique quality of the fruit-covering, which is 

 painted with marvelous hues that are so unique 

 as to have given their names to- prominent pig- 

 ments of the painter's color box; and incorporate 



[288] 



