454 AUEANTIACE^. 



hypogynous disk, to which the petals and stamens are attached. 

 Ovary free, multilocular ; style 1 ; stigma thickish, somewhat divided. 

 Fruit a hesperidium, having a spongy separable rind, and pulpy sepa- 

 rable cells (p. 314). Seeds anatropal, attached to the axis, solitary 

 or several, usually pendulous, having the chalaza and raphe usually 

 well marked ; perisperm ; embryo straight ; cotyledons thick and 

 fleshy. — Trees or shrubs, usually conspicuous for their beauty, with 

 alternate, often compound leaves, which are articulated with a petiole, 

 usually winged (fig. 201, p. 85). They abound in the East Indies. 

 Limonia Laureola is remarkable as the only plant of this family found 

 near the summit of lofty mountains, where it is for some months 

 of the year covered with snow. Some include this order in Eutacese, 

 to which in many points it is allied. There are 13 genera and nearly 

 80 species enumerated. Examples — Citrus, Limonia, Triphasia. 



The plants exhibit in every part receptacles of volatile oU. The 

 oU abounds in the leaves and in the rind of the fruit. It is fragrant 

 and bitter. The fruit has a more or less acid pulp, and the wood is 

 generally compact. The Orange, Lemon, Lime, Citron, Shaddock, 

 and Forbidden Fruit belong to this order. Citrus vulgaris yields the 

 Bitter or SevUle Orange, from the flowers of which an essential oU, 

 called Neroli-oil, is procured, in the proportion of an ounce from 550 

 pounds of flowers. A similar oil is got from the flower of the Sweet 

 Orange, Citrus Aurantium. The rind of the Bitter Orange is used in 

 conserves. In the young state the fruit is sold under the name of 

 Orangettes or Curagoa oranges. Orange-flower-water, as obtained 

 from the flowers of the Bitter Orange, is employed as an anodyne. 

 The chief kinds of Sweet Orange are the Common Orange, the Chinese 

 or Mandarin Orange, the Maltese, and St. Michael's. The last are 

 the finest imported into Britain, and are distinguished by their smooth, 

 thin rind. A single tree, it is said, wUl produce 20,000 good oranges. 

 Their fruit is used medicinally, on account of the pulp, which contains 

 sugar, mucilage, and citric acid. From the rind of the Sweet Orange, 

 an oil, called Oil of Orange, is procured, which differs from Neroli-oil. 

 A similar oil, but of inferior quality, is procured from the rind of the 

 Seville Orange. Many look on the Bitter and Sweet Oranges as pro- 

 duced by varieties of one species. The Bitter Orange tree is less than 

 that yielding the Sweet Orange ; the petioles are more distinctly foli- 

 aceous ; the flowers have a sweeter fragrance ; the rind of the fruit 

 is darker and more bitter ; and its pulp more bitter and less saccharine. 

 The Lemon, Lime, and Citron, are distinguished from oranges by their 

 oblong form, their adherent rind, and a protuberance at the apex. 

 Citrus Limonum yields the Lemon, the juice of which is antiscorbutic, 

 and is used for cooling drinks and effervescing draughts, while the 

 peel or rind, on account of the oil it contains, is employed as an 

 aromatic and anthelmintic. A single tree will produce 8000 lemons. 



