3i8 



HISTORY OF THE TEGETAIJLE KINGDOM. 



orange and shaddock, tlie shape is spherical, or 

 rather an ohlate spheroid, with a red or orange 

 coloured rind; in the lime spherical, with a pale 

 rind; in the lemon oblong, rough, with a nipple- 

 like protuberance at the end; in the citron ob- 

 long, with a very thick rind. There is a pecu- 

 liarity in the fruit of all this tribe. The rind or 

 external pericarp, is of a soft spongy texture, 

 containing but little juice or sap of any kind in 

 its substance; but the external surface is covered 

 or tuberculated over with little glands, that se- 

 crete a volatile oil, which is very inflammable and 

 acrid. According to Decandolle, the fruit con- 

 sists first, of a thick valveless indehiscent coat, 

 which is most likely to be considered a continu- 

 ous torus; secondlj', of several carpella, verticel- 

 late around an imaginary axis, often separable 

 without laceration : membranous, and either con- 

 taining seeds only, or filled with pulp lying in 

 innumerable little bags, proceeding from the 

 inner coats of the cells. 



The flowers of this tribe are deliciously fra- 

 gTant, and the fruits almost all eatable. The 

 wood is particularly close grained. 



The golden apples of the heathens, and the 

 forbidden fruit of the Jews, are supposed to al- 

 lude to this family, though it is remarkable that 

 we have no authentic records of any species of 

 citrus having been known to or cultivated by 

 the Romans. 



It is very difficult to determine what is a var- 

 iety, and what a distinct species in this family. 

 Four species are, however, commonly enumerated 

 — the orange, the lemon, the citron, and the shad- 

 dock. Of these there are a great many varieties. 

 The orange family are originally natives of the 

 warmer parts of Asia, from whence they have 

 been introduced, and naturalised in the southern 

 counties of Europe, in the West India islands, 

 and the tropical parts of America. They will 

 even grow in the open air in the warmer coun- 

 ties of England. In warm climates tliey con- 

 tinue flowering during nearly all the summer, 

 and the fruit takes two years to come to matur- 

 ity, so that for a considerable period of each 

 year, a healthy tree has every stage of the pro- 

 duction, from the flower bud to the ripe fruit, in 

 perfection at the same time. 



The Orange, (citrus aurantium.) The orange 

 is a middle sized evergreen tree, with a green- 

 ish brown bark, and in its wild state with prickly 

 branches. The leaves are ovate, acute, pointed, 

 and at the base of the petiole are winged. The 

 flowers are white, containing about twenty sta- 

 mens, and are disposed in clusters of from two 

 to six upon a common peduncle. The fruit is 

 globose, bright yelIow,and contains a pulp, which 

 consists of a collection of oblong vesicles filled 

 with a sugary and refreshing juice : it is, besides, 

 divided into eight or ten compartments, each 

 containing several seeds. The principal varieties 



are the sweet or China orange, the bitter or 

 Seville, the Maltese or red pulped. The box- 

 leaved, willow-leaved, and some others, are cul- 

 tivated more as curiosities than for use. 



The precise time at which the orange was iii- 

 troduced into England is not known with cer- 

 tainty, but probably it may have taken place 

 not long after their introduction into Portugal, 

 which was in the early part of the sixteenth 

 century. 



137. 



The first oranges, it is stated, were imported 

 into England by Sir Walter Baleigh ; and it is 

 added that Sir Francis Carew, who married the 

 niece of Sir Walter, planted their seeds, and they 

 produced the orange trees at Beddington, in Sur- 

 rey, of which bishop Gibson, in his additions to 

 Camden's Britannia, speaks as having been there 

 for a hundred years previous to 1695. As these 

 trees always produced fruit, they could not, as 

 professor Martyn justly observes, have been raised 

 from seeds; but they may have been brought 

 from Portugal, or from Italy, (the place whence 

 orange trees have usually been obtained,) as 

 early as the close of the sixteenth century. The 

 trees at Beddington were planted in the open 

 ground, with a movable cover to screen them 

 from the inclemency of the winter months. In 

 the beginning of the eighteenth century they 

 had attained the height of eighteen feet, and the 

 stems were about nine inches in diameter; while 

 the spread of the head of the largest one was 

 twelve feet the one way and nine the other. 

 There had always been a wall on the north side 

 of them to screen them from the cold of that 

 quarter, but they were at such a distance irom 

 the wall as to have room to spread, and plenty 

 of air and light. In 1738 they were surrounded 

 by a permanent inclosure, like a greenhouse. 

 They were all destroyed by the great frost of the 

 following winter; but whether wholly owing to 

 the frost, or partly to the confinement and damp 

 of the permanent inclosure, cannot now be as- 

 certained. 



John Parkinson, apothecary, of London, one 

 of the most voluminous of our early writers on 

 plants, who published his Practice of Plants in 

 IG29, gives some curious directions for the pre- 



