60S 



THE ORANGE FAMILY. 



SuBSECT. VII. — The Orange Family. 

 134G. The Orange famMy., Citrus, L., includes the sweet orange, bitter 

 orange, bergamot orange, lime, shaddock, sweet lemon, true lemon, and 

 citron. It is very doubtful how far the orange was known to the Romans, 

 though the citron is said to have been cultivated by Palladius in the second 

 century ; and it is generally thought that the golden apples of the Hesperides 

 either were, or bore some allusion to this fruit. One or more of the varieties 

 liave been in cultivation as ornamental trees in the royal orangeries of France 

 since the commencement of the fifteenth century, and in the open air in the 

 warmest part of the south of Europe for its fruit, for at least three centuries. 

 In Britain, at the present time, the different species and varieties are culti- 

 vated under glass chiefly as ornamental trees, but in part also for then- fi-uit, 

 which from some gardens is sent regularly to table throughout the greater 

 part of the year. \V''e shall arrange the different kinds after the Histoire 

 Naturelle des Orangers of ISIessrs. Risso and Poiteau, as given by the latter 

 author in the Bon Jardinier for 1842. 



1347. The common orange is the C. Aurantium, L. Granger, Fr. ; 

 Pomeranze, Ger. ; Oranje appel, Dutch ; Arancio, Ital. ; and Naranja, 

 Span. In the year 1500, there was only one orange-tree in France, which 

 had been sown in 1421, at Pampeluna, then the capital of the kingdom of 

 Navarre. After having been taken from Pampeluna to Chantilly, and from 

 Chantilly to Fontainebleau, it was, in 1684, taken to the orangery at Ver- 

 sailles, where it still remains, holding the first rank among the numerous trees 

 there for its shape and beauty, under the name of the Grand Bourbon, 

 Fran9ois I., Lc. From the establishment of the orangery at Versailles, the 

 taste for orange-trees spread extensivel}^ in France, till about the middle of 

 the eighteenth century, when it began to give way to a taste for more rare 

 exotics. The oldest orange-trees in England were planted at Beddington, in 

 Surrey, about the end of the sixteenth century, and here as in France it was 

 the most popular tree, till it was supplanted by a taste for plants of other 

 countries, and more especially the plants of the Cape. At present the taste for 

 the orange tribe is reviving, both in France and England. The uses of the fruit 

 of the orange in the dessert, in confectionery, and in medicine, and its flowers 

 in perfumery, are universally known. The more remarkable varieties of the 

 orange are the following : the China, (Arancmo, Ital.,) pear-shaped, Nice, 

 tiny-fruited, fingered, blood-red, ribbed, sweet-skinned, Mandarin, and St. 

 Michael's. The last two are by far the best worth cultivating for their fruit. 

 Tlie Mandarin orange, C. nobilis, H. is small, oblate, with a thin rind, 

 which separates of itself from the pulp, so much so, that when full}^ ripe the 

 latter may be shaken about in the inside like the kernels of some nuts. It is 

 originally from China, but is now cultivated in Malta. The flesh is of a deep 

 orange colour, and its juice and flavour superior to those of most varieties. 

 The St. Michael's orange is also small, but the skin instead of being of an 

 orange colour like that of the Mandarin, is of a pale yellow ; the fruit is 

 generally without seed, the rind thin, and the pulp extremely sweet. It is 

 the most delicious of all the oranges, and the tree is a great bearer. It is 

 in general cultivation in the Azores, from which it is shipped in large 

 quantities. The Tangerine orange is strongly recommended by some. 



1348. Bigarade, Seville, or bitter orange, C. Bigaradia, Poit., Bigara- 



