THE OKANGE IN CALIFORNIA VARIETIES. 



55 



found to be equal to the most extravagant reports of its quality 

 and size, and the trees were very prolific in that section. The 

 trees sent to Florida produced equally good fruit, but they did 

 not bear well. This is why many fruit-growers thought there 

 was more than one variety in the lot of trees imported from 

 Brazil, but the difference in fruitfulness came from climatic 

 causes, as has been most thoroughly proved by many years of 

 experience in all the orange-growing sections of the country. 

 It has also been said that there was only one tree at the Tib- 

 bets place, and that it was unlike the other trees bearing the 



LUTHER C. TIBBETS AND WIFE. 

 The parents of the Washington Navel orange industry in California. 



same name. But this is a mistake, for I have gathered and 

 eaten fruit from these two trees and had their history direct 

 from Mr. and Mrs. Tibbets, also from Mr. Saunders. Besides, 

 I have critically examined the trees of Bahia in bearing in 

 many parts of Florida and California, and compared them and 

 their fruit in many ways, and found them to be identical, 

 except in variations caused by climate, soil, and culture. The 

 orange is truly seedless and utterly devoid of pollen, and the 

 pistils are also deformed in such a way as to render seed pro- 

 duction from the pollen of other varieties an impossibility, 

 except in a few very rare cases in which seeds have been found. 

 It is this malformation of the pistils or embryonic ovaries that 



