SOUTH SHORE OF THE MAINLAND 105 



blossoms are borne on slender, branching stems 

 while the larger female flowers are nearly sessile. 

 The latter develop into roundish fruits a couple 

 of inches in diameter which are crowded on the 

 stem for several feet. The outer part of the trunk 

 has considerable fiber but within this is merely- 

 hardened pulp. The stem is ordinarily un- 

 branched, but if the growing bud is injured it 

 sometimes divides into two or more limbs. In a 

 wild state the fruit is small and insipid but when 

 cultivated and carefully selected it becomes at 

 times as large as a muskmelon and of delicious 

 flavor. Sometimes male trees produce peculiar, 

 slender fruits the seeds of which are fertile. Wild 

 or cultivated the tree is one of the most beautiful 

 and striking objects of the tropics. It grows in 

 Florida from the Indian River on the east and 

 Tampa Bay on the west to the extreme lower part 

 of the State. Bartram tells of his joy and aston- 

 ishment at seeing this tree growing wild on the 

 banks of the St. John's River just south of Lake 

 George, but it probably does not now grow so 

 far north. In this connection Sir Charles Lyell 

 gives an account of immense orange trees ninety 

 years old on the lower Altamaha River and others 



