THE ORANGE. 623 



buds may be transferred to another tree, grown, and fruited in 

 a year or two. If seeds of the hybrid fruit be planted, buds 

 from the young seedling when in its fourth or fifth leaf may 

 be skilfully inserted into the sprout of a bearing tree and 

 fruited in the same space of time. 



That the bud influences the stock is proved by the more 

 rapid expansion of the latter, after being worked with a faster- 

 growing variety, as when a lemon is set into a sour orange, 

 and also by the appearance below the union, in some rare in- 

 stances, of adventitious growths of the same kind as the in- 

 serted bud. The writer has a large lemon-tree, worked on a 

 sour orange, a foot above the ground and killed down by the 

 late freeze. From a large side root of this sour-orange stock, 

 about two feet distant from the trunk, are growing a couple 

 of vigorous lemon-sprouts, showing the subtle and potent in- 

 fluence of the dominant top. The orange is also improved by 

 double working, as, for instance, when a lemon is grown upon 

 a sour stock and budded one or more times with an orange. 

 Each successive change assists in refinement of flavor and 

 elimination of seed and thorn. Some of these things may be 

 deemed-heresies, and possibly they are as applied to less tract- 

 able subjects than the citrus, certainly one of the most re- 

 markably docile of fruit-trees. 



Propagation. 



Seeds. — The orange is usually increased by seeds, which 

 should be planted an inch deep, and about an inch apart, soon 

 after removal from the fruit, and before they become too dry 

 to germinate. If the seed cannot be planted at once, it may 

 be mixed with moist sand, which will preserve its vitality for 

 a long time, provided it be kept cool enough not to sprout. 

 The young plants may be started in boxes filled with moder- 

 ately rich earth, or in beds in open ground, covering the seeds 

 with loose or sifted soil, which should not be allowed to be- 

 come dry or crusted over. Shelter from the scorching beams 

 of the sun in the hottest weather, and also from frosts, by 

 screens of coarse cloth or lattice-work, with a liberal but not 

 excessive supply of water, is necessary after they begin to 

 grow. Moles may be kept from the seed-beds by an enclosure 



