LONG VITALITY OP THB ORANGE-TKEE. 259 



for a long period ; but there are no known examples which offer so 

 convincing a proof of its strength as the following : — In 1833 I saw an. 

 Orange-tree in a garden in Normandy, whose trunk was 65 inches in 

 diameter at two feet from the surface of the boU, and nearly two yards 

 high before it branched. This plant had been neglected for a long 

 time ; water was frequently withheld during the summer, and there 

 being no convenient shelter for it in the winter, it died back every 

 year. The tub in which it had been planted at last fell to pieces with 

 age, and then the plant was removed. Reduced to almost nothing by 

 the successive loss of its branches, the trunk was preserved for two 

 years in the comer of a cellar ; after which the principal branches and 

 roots were cut off near their origin. The stem of this Orange remained 

 in the same place for four years more, laid horizontally on the ground, 

 to serve as a stage to set casks on ; and during these six years it 

 showed no indication of vegetating. At the end of this period the 

 bark was observed to be BtUl green, and in 1831 the trunk was planted 

 with care in a tub filled with rich Kght vegetable mould. In this state 

 it remained for some months, no more water being given to it than was 

 strictly necessary ; soon afterwards swellings were seen on several parts 

 of the bark, and a number of rootlets appeared about the sections of the 

 old roots, from which new ones were developed. The trunk also 

 showed some little productions of cellular tissue, from which new buds 

 proceeded the following year. AU those which were imperfect or 

 crowded were rubbed off, and in 1837 this tree had a vigorous weU- 

 formed head and fine foliage ; and since that time it has continued to 

 flower every year. 



" In 1762, or 1764, the Count de Charolais had a fine estate in what 

 is now called the quartier Montmartre, the garden attached to which was 

 magmfleent, and kept with a great deal of care ; and the Orangery, 

 which was one of the finest of that age, contained 300 large Orange- 

 trees. M. de Charolais was a great amateur, and -believed that these 

 trees were as beautiful as those at Versailles, or in the other royal 

 gardens. Being exiled from Paris by the Parliament* he, at his 

 departure, had aU the doors and passages to his hotel closed, and the 

 Oranges remained immured in the Orangery without air and water for 

 the six years during which his exile lasted. M. Audebert, the gardener 

 attached to the house, was ordered not to go into the plant-houses, nor 

 even into the garden. When M. de Charolais returned, the windows 

 and doors of the Oraagery were opened, and what was the despair of 

 the gaidener at finding the trees, which previously had been the 

 admiration of everybody, changed to dry sticks, dried up, and com- 

 pletely deprived of leaves ; in fact, to aU appearance dead ! Notwith- 

 standing this, M. de Charolais wished his Oranges to be placed in the 

 same order that they were before his exile. On examination, the roots 

 were found to be in the same state as the branches ; they were cut back 



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