BUD VARIATION IN THE WASHINGTON NAVEL ORANGE. 19 
occurrence. Some trees of the Washington, many of the Thomson, 
and a few of the other strains in the investigational performance- 
record plats have been found to bear individual fruits of this strain. 
Occasional limbs have been found in such trees producing typical 
Golden Nugget fruits consistently from year to year during the 
entire period of observation. 
This strain, as in the case of the Australian, is really made up of 
several groups, differing in some minor respects but having certain 
general points of common resemblance. In the further study of this 
strain the characteristics of trees and fruits of these groups are being 
given careful consideration. In this discussion, however, the various 
groups constituting the strain will be treated collectively as belonging 
to the same strain, because at the present time the fruits of all are 
considered as belonging to one class from the commercial standpoint. 
The trees of the Golden Nugget strain are, as a rule, less vigorous 
growers than Washington trees, the habit of growth is drooping, and 
the f oh age dense. The leaves frequently are of lighter color than com- 
parable ones of the Washington strain, and in many cases the trees 
are easily distinguished in the orchard by reason of the light-colored 
foliage and the characteristic dwarf and drooping habit of growth. 
In some instances the habit of growth, foliage, and other tree charac- 
teristics are almost indistinguishable from those of the Washington 
or Thomson strains. The fruits borne by such trees differ in some 
respects from those produced by the dwarf-growing Golden Nugget 
trees, but not enough to warrant a separate classification and descrip- 
tion at this time. 
The Golden Nugget fruits, illustrations of which are shown in 
Plate VI, usually are somewhat pyriform in shape and of medium 
to large sizes. The rind is thin and of smooth texture. The color of 
the fruit is light yellowish orange, the rag is coarse and abundant, 
and the juice is fairly abundant and frequently of distinctive quality. 
The fruit is seedless and has very small and usually only rudimentary 
navels in which the opening is nearly or entirely closed. The fruits 
have a peculiar and unmistakable appearance, due in part to the 
presence of comparatively few oil cells, the light yellowish color of the 
rind, and the pyriform shape of the oranges. In some cases the fruits 
bear narrow red stripes or characteristic red ridges or knoblike 
projections. 
As a whole, this strain is not a valuable one for commercial planting, 
and the presence of such trees in established navel-orange orchards 
is detrimental to the commercial value of the crops produced by 
these orchards. At the same time the striking characteristics of 
the fruits of this strain and their frequent and easily recognized 
occurrence in trees of other strains make it important from the 
