330 ESSENTIALS OF BOTANY 



first sweet oranges grown in what is now United States 

 territory were brought to California by the Franciscans 

 about 1769. Orange production in this country was for 

 a time most extensively carried on in Florida, but severe 

 frosts there cut off many orchards, and now the greater 

 part of the crop (over 10,000,000 boxes) comes from Cali- 

 fornia. The famous Washington navel orange, nearly or 

 quite seedless, so largely grown in California, originated 

 from chance seedlings. These were found growing wild 

 in a swamp along the Amazon, and were brought from 

 Bahia, Brazil, to the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture in the early seventies. 



The Grape or Vine family contains only one genus, the 

 grape, which is of economic importance, but it is one of 

 the oldest cultivated plants. The grapes of the European 

 type, such as the Malaga, Black Hamburg, Muscat, and 

 the Tokay variety so extensively grown in California, are 

 solid-meated and are all descendants of a single wild spe- 

 cies. American varieties, such as the Concord, Delaware, 

 Isabella, Niagara, and many other familiar kinds, with 

 soft pulp readily separated from the skin, are descended 

 from wild American species (Sect. 389). Grape culture is 

 carried on most extensively in California, where the fruit 

 is grown for table use, for wine-making, and for preserva- 

 tion by drying into raisins. 



The Heath family produces several highly valued spe- 

 cies of berries. The most important are cranberries, blue- 

 berries, and huckleberries. Cranberries of the ordinary 

 large species are borne by a delicate, trailing, woody plant, 

 which flourishes particularly in peat-bogs all the way from 

 North Ctirolina to Minnesota and throughout a large part 

 of Canada. Cranberry culture is extensively carried on in 



