206 TREES AND TREE-PLANTING. 
It was also found indigenous to India and China on the 
Portuguese reaching these countries during their dis- 
coveries of the sixteenth century. 
The orange-tree, under favorable culture, attains to a 
height of from twenty-five to thirty feet ; it is of upright 
growth, and branches out with majestic luxuriance of 
foliage, forming a summit regularly symmetrical. Its 
leaves are of moderately large size, of a fine shiny-green 
color on top, and beautifully shaped. Its pleasing odor- 
ous flowers occur in small clusters on the branches, and 
are of the varieties of white tinged with pink. The 
bark of the trunk on old trees is of an ash-gray color, 
while that of the branches is of a soft green. The per- 
fect uniform straightness of its trunk, the regular distri- 
bution of its branches, and the great richness of its foli- 
age, flowers, and golden fruit give it a decided superiority 
of appearance and usefulness over other trees, and it is 
hardly possible to conceive or imagine an object more 
delightful, these qualities entitling it to be considered 
one of the most magnificent and beautiful productions 
of the vegetable kingdom. 
There are many varieties of the orange which are 
supposed to have been derived from the common spe- 
cies ; but whether from its natural habit to change, origi- 
nal differences of the stock, or from the diverse soil and 
climate from which they have been produced, it has not 
yet been determined. The following are the most im- 
portant varieties : 
Navel golden-fruited orange-tree is a native of the 
torrid zone, being chiefly cultivated in Brazil, where it 
flourishes in all its magnificence, and produces a fruit 
similar to the common orange, but slightly more oblong, 
of a most delicious and agreeable flavor, and yellowish, 
juicy pulp. Its fruit is distinguished by an excrescence 
which grows at the end opposite the stem, into which all 
disagreeable impurities are drawn, leaving its pulp in 
possession of all its pleasing qualities. 
