Book 1. 



ORANGE TRIBE. 



767 



at Paris about thirty sorts may be obtained, much smaller plants than those from the 

 other places named, but more scientifically grafted or inoculated. At Vallet's nursery 

 at Rouen, is a collection of very large plants of the common kinds. The catalogues 

 of London nurserymen enumerate above thirty varieties of orange, twelve of lemon, and 

 several varieties of the other species ; the plants are generally inoculated, and small, and 

 are more calculated for pots than for planting in the soil for producing fruit. As being 

 most useful for the British horticulturist, we shall place under each species the names of 

 the varieties which may be procured in England. 



4884. The common orange is the Citrus Aurantium, L. ; the 

 orange of the French ; pomeranzc of the Germans ; and aran- 

 cio of the Italians, ( fig. 510.) It is a middle-sized evergreen 

 tree, with a greenish-brown bark ; and in its wild state, with 

 prickly branches. The fruit is nearly round, from two to three 

 inches in diameter, and of a gold color. It is a native bf India 

 and China, but now cultivated in most countries of Europe; in 

 the open air in Italy and Spain ; and in conservatories or green- 

 houses in Britain and the north of Europe. The orange is sup- 

 posed to have been introduced into Italy in the fourteenth cen- 

 tury, above a thousand years after the citron. In England, the 

 tree has been cultivated since 1629. Parkinson, writing at that 

 time, says, " it hath abiden with some extraordinary looking and 

 tending, when neither citron nor lemon trees could be preserved 

 any length of time." 



4885. The orange-trees of Becldington, in Surrey, introduced 

 from Italy by a knight of the noble family of the Carews {Gib- 

 son's edit, of Camb. Brit.), were the first that were brought into 

 England ; they yvere planted in the open ground, placed under 

 a moveable cover during the winter months, and they had been 

 growing there before 1595. It has been said, that these trees 

 were raised by Sir Francis Carew, from seeds brought to Eng- 

 land by Sir Walter Raleigh : but as such trees would not have 

 readily borne fruit, Professor Martyn thinks it much more likely 

 that they were plants brought from Italy. Bi-adley says, they always bore fruit in great plenty and per- 

 fection ; that they grew on the outside of a wall, not nailed against it, but at full liberty to spread ; they 

 were fourteen feet high, the girt of the stem twenty-nine inches, and the spreading of the branches one 

 way nine feet, and twelve feet another. These trees, Evelyn informs us, were neglected in his time dur- 

 ing the minority of their owner, and finally entirely killed by the great frost in 1739-40. 



4886. During the latter end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries, the orange-tree 

 was a very fashionable article of growth in conservatories, when there were but few exotics of other sorts 

 kept there. The plants were pi'ocured from Genoa, with stems generally from four to six feet in height ; 

 they were planted in large boxes, and were set out during summer to decorate the walks near the house in 

 the manner still practised at Versailles and the Tuilleries. About the middle of the eighteenth century, 

 when a taste for botany and forcing exotic fruits became general, that for superb orange-trees began to 

 decline ; many of these large trees have decayed through neglect; and those which are now to be found 

 in the greater number of green-houses, are generally dwarf plants bearing few fruit, and those of small 

 size. In some places, however, are still to be found large and flourishing trees. Those at Smorgony in 

 Glamorganshire, are the largest in Britain ; they are planted in the floor of an immense conservatory, 

 and bear abundantly. It is said that the plants were procured from a wreck on the coast in that quarter, 

 in the time of Henry VII. 



4887. At Nuneham, near Oxford, are some very fine trees, planted under a moveable case, sheltered by 

 a north wall. In summer, the case is removed, and the ground turfed over, so that the whole resembles 

 a native orange-gi-ove. At Wormleybury, Hertfordshire, and Shipley Hall, in Derbyshire, are very 

 fine large orange and lemon trees grown in borders and in boxes. {Hort. Trans, vol. ii. 295. and iv. 306.) 



4888. At the Wilderness, Kent, (Marquis Camden's,) are three trees in boxes, not surpassed by any 

 trees so grown in Europe. C. Bingham, at Isleworth, possesses a very fine collection ; and various others 

 might be enumerated. 



4889. At Woodhall, near Hamilton, trees of all the species of citrus are trained against the back wall of 

 forcing-houses, in the manner of peaches, and produce large crops of fruit. 



4890. In the south of Devonshire, and particularly at Saltcombe, one of the warmest spots in 

 England, may be seen, in a few gardens, orange-trees that have withstood the winter in the open air 

 upwards of a hundred years. The fruit is as large and fine as any from Portugal. Trees raised from 

 seed, and inoculated on the spot, are found to bear the cold 

 better than trees imported. 



4891. Use. As a dessert-fruit, the orange is well known. 

 The varieties imported, which are most esteemed for this 

 purpose, are the China, Portugal, and Maltese. It is also 

 used in confectionary, both ripe, and when green and not 

 larger than a pea : it forms various liquors and conserves, 

 either alone or with sugars, wines, or spirits ; and either the 

 pulp or skin, or both, are used for these purposes. In cook- 

 ing, it is used to aromatise a number of dishes. The juice 

 of the Seville orange is used in medicine, in febrile and in- 

 flammatory disorders ; and that of the other sorts possesses 

 the same qualities in a lesser degree. The acid of oranges. 

 Dr. CuUen says, unites with the bile, takes off its bitterness, 

 and may prove useful in obviating disorders arising from its 

 redundancy and acridity. In perfumery, the orange is used 

 to form various perfumes and pomades : and the flower dis- 

 tilled, produces orange-water, used in cooking, medicine, 

 and as a perfume. 



4892. Varieties. These are very numerous in the eastern 

 countries, and even in Italy and France. About forty sorts 

 are cultivated in the neighborhood of Paris, and about 

 thirty in the London nurseries, of which we shall give a list. 

 The two principal varieties are the sweet or China orange, 

 the orange douce of the French, and porto-gaJlo or poma de 

 sine of the Italians; and the bitter or Seville, the bigarade 

 of the French, and arancio volgaro of the Italians. The Maltese orange, distinguised by its red pulp, is 

 also a noted and much-esteemed sort. The box-leaved, willow-leaved, aivd some others, are cultivated 

 more as curious varieties than for their fruit. 



