THE JAPANESE ORANGES. 



335 



grown as such in Florida. Mr. Amoore tells me 

 that this variety is cultivated almost exclusively in 

 the province of Kishiu, and is known as Unshiu 

 (pronounced Oonshiu) there and in Satsuma. Trees 



Fig. 6. Bushiukan. 



came to us in California eighteen years ago, under 

 the name Unshiu, which thus seems to have prior 

 claims. 



An interesting article from Professor C. C. George- 

 son, of the Tokio Agricultural College, was pub- 

 lished in' 1888, in which he said: "Japanese or- 

 anges are in many respects different from those 

 grown in the United States. Most of the Japanese 

 varieties belong in fact to an entirely different spe- 

 cies, the Citrus jiobilis of botanists, otherwise known 

 as the Mandarin orange, while the American and 

 European oranges belong to C. aiiraiitiuin. The 

 Mandarin type is well represented in the Oonshiu 

 orange. It is the queen of oranges in Japan, and 

 needs only to be known to be appreciated in Amer- 

 ica. It may be described as follows : Fruit medium 

 to large, oblate and flat, or even slightly depressed 

 at apex and base, and at the latter place having a 

 few broad, shallow folds. Rind very thin, sepa- 

 rating easily from the pulp, smooth with some lus- 

 tre, and orange or reddish orange in color. The 

 pulp is divided into eleven or twelve sections or lobes 

 which separate easily from each other. Each sec- 

 tion is enclosed in a thin membrane, 

 which does not adhere to the pulp except 

 on the outer or spherical side. The pulp 

 is very juicy, seedless, sweet, but with 

 the faintest trace of acid when fully ripe, 

 delicious, all dissolving on the tongue, 

 leaving little or no fibrous residue." 



The claim of hardiness for the Jap- 

 anese oranges is well sustained. I have seen letters 

 from persons in Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, 

 Georgia and California alluding to this as the most 



valuable point in this class of oranges. One man 

 says : " Frost and ice every night for a week. Two 

 Navel orange trees packed and in the railroad depot 

 building were frozen, but the Japanese orange trees 

 in the open ground were uninjured." A Florida 

 grower says that they stand eighteen degrees of frost 

 without shedding the leaves. J. W. Moore, of Jack- 

 sonville, Florida, wrote, in 1885, that buds stood 

 when large sour stocks were killed down. At Se- 

 quel, Japanese oranges stood fifteen and a half de- 

 grees without injury, and at Kelseyville the ther- 

 mometer fell to twelve degrees without hurting them. 

 The claim has been made that they will stand from 

 twenty to twenty-four degrees of frost, but this re- 

 mains to be proved. 



Leaving the Japanese oranges of the Citrus nobilis 

 species, I turn to the two varieties of the interesting 

 Citrus Japouica, the cumquots, or "kincquats," 

 which deserve especial mention. There are two 

 sorts, the Marumi-kinkan and the Nagami-kinkan. 

 The first has a deep yellow fruit from three-quarters 

 to an^inch in diameter. The second has an oblong 

 and somewhat larger fruit. Both grow on bushes of 

 from six to twelve feet high. The whole fruit, rind 

 and all, is eaten, and people become very fond of 

 them. Preserved in sugar, or crystallized, the cum- 

 quot, wherever known, is exceedingly popular. The 

 bushes in fruit and blossom are very handsome, and 

 can be recommended for pot-culture. The Japan- 

 ese graft cumquots and large oranges together on 

 the same stalk, in the many attractive and curious 



Fig. 7. Marumi-kinkan. 



combinations so dear to these ingenious gardeners. 



I have already pubhshed several articles on the 

 dwarfing of Japanese oranges, and the possibility 



