5.S THE ORANGE. 



and unripe fruits, and these latter are much used in the 

 making of Liqueur. As the bitter- fruited Orange is 

 particularly hardA' it is commonh' used as a stock on 

 which to graft other species of Citrus. 



The sweet-fruited Orange reached Europe consider- 

 ably later than its relations. It is commonly supposed 

 that the Portugese brought it with them Irom South 

 China towards the middle of the sixteenth centur\-, and 

 the T,'ear 154(S is even mentioned as the date. Indeed 

 a tree said to be the first e\'er planted in Europe \'\'as 

 shown in the garden of C oiint St. TjOrenzo at Ijisbon. 

 It is ho\\ever certain that the s\\-eet Orange adorned the 

 gardens of Spain and Itah" long before tliis: it must 

 have reached Europe as earh' as the fourteenth centurw 

 Galesio attempts to jirox'c in his "Traite du Citrus", 

 published in 1811, that the culti\-ation of the sweet 

 Orange dates back to the fifteenth century e\en on the 

 Riviera; but his argument is not conclusive. lie adduces 

 as a proof the fact that, according to tlie archives of 

 Savona of the year 1471, a present of preserved Citrons 

 and Lemons, as well as fresh "Citruli", was sent to 

 their envoA' at Milan. And because the fruits called 

 "Citruli" were sent fresh Galesio infers that they were 

 sweet Oranges, since the en\(j\' would not have been 

 able to eat bitter ones. Moreover in the records of a 

 Notar}' in Savona mention has been found of a trans- 

 action, in 1472, in connection A\'ith the lading of a ship 

 with fifteen thousand "Citranguli" or "Cetroni", and 

 Galesio asks what they could be doing with fifteen 

 thousand bitter Oranges. We may, fioNA'ex'er, leave his 



