1877. ] 
THE TANGIERINE ORANGE. 
205 
tion only of a tree may be annuall}^- smitten with it, and the entire crop of fruit 
thereon destroyed, whilst other portions of the same tree may bear fine large 
clear-skinned fruit, without a speck upon them ! I have a tree, which for 
many years has recorded this fact, and that in a very remarkable manner. The 
tree is trained around the convex corner of a warm south-west aspect wall. It is 
somewhat aged ; three-fourths of it consists of Beurre Diel^ which is particularly 
healthy, and which produces fruit annually, large, fine, and of the true habitual 
golden-yellow colour, with rarely a speck or blemish upon any. The other 
portion of the tree, a portion the highest on the sunniest southern side, is Easter 
Beurre^ and not only are its fruits constantly cracked and cankered, but the 
branches and the branchlets are smitten with a malady which developes itself in 
a chronic series of warty or dry excrescences of a striking character. Here, then, 
is the malady perpetuated annually upon the same tree on which healthy pears 
are produced, which suggests that, whatever the cause, it is not infectious. 
I have noticed young trees full of robust-growing vigour heavily smitten 
with this unwelcome malady, in such a manner, indeed, that every fruit became 
cracked, none remaining intact, and thus the fruit prospect was entirely destroyed. 
Incidentally, I may refer to the fact that though these young fruits crack or split 
open so determinedly, the flesh}?- part thus as a consequence exposed to the air 
rarely or never exhibits decomposition, as is almost always the case when the 
inner flesh of fruits is wounded or exposed. This would indicate that the cause 
may be connected with a deficiency of the necessary sap in the fruit. 
Probably the cause is a fungus, but if so, as it influences the tissues of the 
fruit, it may be both superficial and internal. It has been suggested that a species 
of jEcidiam is at the bottom of the matter. I am not sure, however, that 
those bright yellow spots sometimes seen upon the surface of pear-tree leaves, can 
have this charge justly laid to them. They seem to eventuate in a liquid matter, 
which at length exudes and forms spore-cells, which find their end and intent in 
in the formation of spores, and which, singularly enough, appear to drop out from 
the underside of the leaves also, Mr. Meehan, a pomologist of America, suggests 
that the real cause of “ Pear-crack ” is Helininthosporium pyrorum. It would be 
well to try what effect sprinkling lime or sulphur over affected trees would have, 
the process being within the means of every one.— William Earley, Valentines. 
THE TANGIERINE ORANGE. 
WITH AN ILLUSTRATION. 
'E have to thank Mr. Rivers, of Sawbridgeworth, for the specimens of 
Tangierine Orange from which Mr. Macfarlane has prepared the accom¬ 
panying plate. Mr. Rivers has for many years been famed for his 
success in the cultivation of this very distinct and ornamental variety of 
the Orange family, and indeed, of dessert Oranges generally, so that as long since 
as 18GG he described his method of “ Dessert Orange Culture,” in a paper read 
at the International Horticultural Congress of that year, held in London, and 
