86 STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTUBE. 



its origin, and have considered it a species equal with the 

 bitter orange, and awarded to both the ancestry of whole 

 groups of varieties. It carries a strong though weakened 

 reproductive function. Its departure from the type of the 

 bitter orange is in the loss of staminal power. The pistillate 

 or vegetable growths have increased by a readjustment of 

 plant energy in the floral branch which has weakened the 

 virilit)' of the pollen impulse. 



When the two varieties are compared, the necessity for a 

 different parentage does not appear. The lines of modifica- 

 tion follow the generative impulse, and this possibility of the 

 germ type to variation gives the key to unlock the cause of 

 seed and bud variation in the great number of varieties and 

 monstrosities. The generative force broken in the type unit, 

 the combinations of its qualities were resolved into groups. 

 The type unit being impossible, the group unit appears in the 

 pollen, the seed, and the bud, giving us the varieties of the 

 orchard, each having one or more characteristics of the 

 historic tj^pe. 



The sweet orange is intermediate between the bitter orange 

 and the seedless varieties. In comparison with the bitter 

 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 free 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 



