The Natural System of Botany. 237 



Shaddock and Seville Orange, the bitter principle manifests it- 

 self- The fVuit of the ° r ange and its allied species requires 

 two years to come to maturity, and as the flowers are produced 

 all through the summer, a healthy tree exhibits, during a con- 

 siderable portion of the year, every stage of production, from 

 the flower-bud to the ripe fruit. Most of the Oranges and 

 Lemons intended for export, are collected before they are fully 

 ripe, since otherwise they would be more likely to spoil. They 

 are generally gathered in the autumn, while they would require 

 until the spring following to ripen fully on the tree. It is also 

 remarkable that the Orange trees from which the fruit is 

 plucked while green, bear plentifully every year, while those 

 on which the fruit is suffered to ripen, afford abundant crops 

 only in alternate years. The best Oranges are those which 

 come from St. Michael, where the tree was introduced by the 

 Portuguese, as it was by the Spaniards into America. Into 

 Spain and Portugal it was brought by the Moors, and is exten- 

 sively cultivated in both countries. Near Cordova are Orange 

 trees supposed to be six or seven hundred years old, and in 

 Andalusia are extensive orchards which have formed the reve- 

 nue of the monks for ages. 



Order— Vitaceje. The Vine Tribe. 



This order is chiefly important as containing the common 

 Grape Vine. Nearly all the plants belonging to it are climbers, 

 and support themselves by tendrils. » Here let me pause to 

 tell you what a tendril is ; by its name you would suppose it 

 some especial kind of organ formed expressly for the purpose 

 of helping the Vine to raise itself among the forests, and to as- 

 cend from the shady thickets where it is born to the free light 

 and air that are necessary to its existence. Not at all ; tins' is 

 not the plan of Nature. Plants are furnished with certain 

 general parts, such as leaves, flowers, &c, and when any par- 

 ticular and unusual office is to be performed, some one of 

 these parts is specially altered, in order to meet the emergency. 

 Thus, in one instance, the stem is enabled to rise among other 

 bushes, by the soft and yielding stalks of the leaves being 

 changed into stiff, inflexible hooks ; in the Sweet Pea, the same 



