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BULLETIN 77, HAWAII EXPERIMENT STATION 



HAWAIIAN ORANGE 



( Citrus sinensis ) 



Description: Although several varieties of oranges have been intro- 

 duced into Hawaii, only the seedling known as the Hawaiian is grown 

 commercially. The Hawaiian orange is a medium-sized, round variety. 

 The yellow skin is thin and rather tough. The flesh is commonly yellow- 

 orange and very juicy. It varies from acid to sweet but is usually rather 

 mild in flavor. Additional information about the orange and other citrus 

 fruits may be obtained from a previous bulletin of the Hawaii Experi- 

 ment Station (49). 



History: The Hawaiian variety of orange has been developed by 

 a long period of cultivation in these islands. One of the original orange 

 trees left in Hawaii by Captain Vancouver in 1792 still lives. He gave 

 the natives a number of small orange seedlings (69), some of which 

 were planted on a piece of land belonging to a prominent Hawaiian at 

 Kealakekua in the District of Kona. In time, the land came into the 

 possession of the famous high chiefess, Kapiolani, and later was obtained 

 by an early missionary, the Reverend J. D. Paris, who began his resi- 

 dence there about 1852, at which time his daughter, Miss Ella Paris, 

 was four years old. She still occupies a part of the old Paris home and 

 clearly recalls that the old tree is one of several which were very old 

 trees when she was a little girl. 



The orange was one of the first fruits to be cultivated commercially 

 in Hawaii, and at one time was the leading export from the district of 

 Kona on the Island of Hawaii (55). The districts of Waialua, on Oahu, 

 and Waimea, on Kauai, were also well-known for their oranges ; conse- 

 quently in different sections of the islands this variety is known as the 

 "Kona," "Waialua," or "Waimea" orange (49, p. 19). 



Nutritive value: The nutritive value of oranges has been extolled by 

 so many scientists in recent years that little need be added here. 



Oranges are a fruit of excellent flavor of which people rarely tire. 

 Though acid to the taste they leave an alkaline ash residue in the body 

 and tend, like most other fruits, to make the urine more alkaline. 



The analyses in Tables 2 and 3 show Hawaiian oranges to have a 

 chemical composition similar to that of oranges grown on the mainland. 

 Average analyses ( 59, p. 558 ) show oranges to be superior to most 

 fruits as sources of calcium and equal to or better than other fruits as 

 sources of phosphorus and iron. Our analyses show that the calcium 

 content of the orange with the membrane surrounding the sections, is 

 almost twice that of the orange with the membrane removed, but the 

 phosphorus and iron content is about the same in each case. 



Our figure of 0.013 per cent of calcium for the Hawaiian orange 

 juice, although about 30 per cent lower than Sherman's most recently 

 published figure of 0.019 per cent (60, p. 625), is less than half of his 

 previously published figure of 0.029 per cent (59, p. 558). A second 

 sample of Hawaiian orange juice showed a calcium content of 0.010 

 per cent and a California navel orange juice prepared and analyzed in 



