CHAPTER LY. 
THE GOLDEN ORANGE-TREE. 
Doubts of the Nativity of the Golden Orange-tree.—Its Believed Ori- 
gin.—Where Abounding in the United States, and by Whom Intro- 
duced.—Record of its Early Notice.—Its Attainable Height under 
Culture.—Its Majestic Bearing and Floral and Fruit Productiveness. 
—Its Many Varieties Variously Described and Qualified.—Soil and 
Climate Suited to its Thrift.—How Propagated.—Manner of Rais- 
ing from Cuttings.—Uses for which Principally Cultivated.—De- 
scription and Usefulness of its Wood.—Its Greatest Enemy. 
Dovsts exist as to the nativity of this tree, but it is 
believed to have been originally a native of the warmer 
parts of Asia, and to have been introduced into America 
about the period of the first settlements, where it has 
become acclimated to the warmer portions of the main- 
land, and to the tropical and temperate islands of its 
coast waters. It is found to exist in Florida, where, not 
only in plantations along the coast, but in the interior 
wilds, extensive groves are met with; these trees, how- 
ever, are not considered of American origin, having, as 
is supposed, been introduced by the Spaniards at the 
time of their settlements in that country. 
“The first distinct notice of this fruit on record is by 
Avicenna, an Arabian physician, who flourished in the 
tenth century, and, according to Galesio, the Arabs, when 
they entered India, found the orange-trees there and 
brought them to Europe by two routes—the sweet ones 
through Persia to Syria and thence to the shores of Italy 
and the south of France, and the bitter ones by Arabia, 
Egypt, and the north of Africa to Spain and Portugal.”* 
* Browne's ‘‘ Trees of America,” p. 61. 
