36 STATE HOAED OF HORTICULTURE. 



orange the pistillate impulse has displaced the staminate 

 impulse, which appears in a weakened reproductive function. 

 The vegetative growths have increased; the leaf is larger and 

 has lost its relative thickness, and except in new and rampant 

 growths is nearly wingless. The thorns have lost much of 

 their protective qualities and are easily changed to a branch, 

 and in rare cases develop a sessile floral branch which tips the 

 thorn with a flower. The changes" in the fruit are marked. 

 The oil cells of the rind are convex, and have lost the pungent 

 oils, becoming more delicate in fragrance. The same compara- 

 tive delicacy in the oils is seen in the leaf and the blossoms. 

 The bitter compounds are freed from the inner cells of the car- 

 pels, and are only feebly present in the rind. The power to 

 produce acidity is impaired, and the vegetative functions cause 

 the tree to shorten its season of fruit-ripening by the aborted 

 development of its seed. 



In this comparison of the two varieties of oranges, the bitter 

 and the sweet, we see the positive staminal qualities of the 

 bitter orange are in the sweet orange either entirely eliminated, 

 weakened, or replaced by the growth of negative qualities that 

 could not be observed in union with the overpowering staminal 

 qualities. We see that the sweet orange does not represent 

 the complete unit of nature, but consists of a division of 

 qualities, comprised in a large group only. However marked 

 this change, our California seedling still retains the largest 

 group of qualities representing the type of our orchard 

 varieties. 



Tendency of Orange Cxdture. — The tendency of orange culture 

 in California is to displace, as far as possible, the type of 

 varieties, as represented by the bitter and sweet oranges, and to 

 extend the orchard growths in the direction of the variety that 

 eliminates the seed growth and possesses only a small and 

 sometimes feeble group of inherited qualities. This tendency 

 arises from a desire to grow a sweet orange, and to a great extent 

 is a misunderstanding of those qualities which, in combination, 

 make a model fruit. 



Variety Groups.— In the St. Michael we have a group of 

 qualities that intensified the staminal impulse of the sweet 

 orange, as shown in the production of seeds. It retains the 



