1874. ] 
THE KUMQUAT, CITRUS JAPONICA. 
241 
THE KUMQUAT, CITKUS JAPONICA. 
WITH AN ILLUSTRATION. 
have here a plant which may certainly be said to combine the ornamental 
with the useful; for while a bush of the Citrus japonica in flower and 
fruit is an object remarkable for its beauty, and the fruits themselves, 
when cut with a leaf or two attached, form one of the prettiest orna¬ 
ments of the dessert, they are also excellent as a preserve. 
The plant has been known since the days of Thunberg, who named it and 
figured it in his leones Japonicce about the close of the last century. It remained 
unknown in our gardens, however, until introduced from China by Mr. Fortune, 
about 1845, the first account of it being published in 1848 {Journ. Hort. Soc., 
iii., 239, with woodcut). Mr. Fortune states that in the south of China, about 
Canton, it is much grown in pots, but on the island of Chusan, and elsewhere in the 
more northern parts of China, he met with it cultivated in groves on the sides of 
the lower hills, the plants, which do not attain to a larger size than about 6 ft. in 
height, being arranged in rows about 4 ft. apart. The fruit ripens late in the 
autumn, and is about the size of a large oval gooseberry, having a sweet rind, 
and a sharp acid pulp. It is largely employed in China in making a preserve 
with sugar, and when manipulated according to the Chinese method, is excellent. 
This preserve finds its way to this country in considerable quantities. The plant 
is also cultivated in Japan. 
The cultivated plant resembles a dwarf small-flowered Orange-tree, but with 
thinner, smaller, and narrower leaves. It varies with spiny and with unarmed 
branches, and also with oblong and globular fruits. The fruits, with their bright 
orange rind, are not very fragrant until cut or scraped, when their perfume is 
highly agreeable. The skin is thin, and the five cells are filled with a very acid 
pulp. Samples of the fruits from the Chiswick Garden were first exhibited in 
April, 1854, at one of the Eegent-Street meetings, the plant having then “just 
begun to bear in the garden.” It was again scarcely heard of till 1867, when 
Mr. Bateman showed some fine specimens from his garden at Knypersley, the 
plant being there “ trained over the back wall of a stove, or; rather, warm 
greenhouse,” and when covered with its golden fruits, having a lovely appearance. 
It was again exhibited from the same place in 1874, and we have to thank Mr. 
Sherratt, by whom the Knypersley Gardens are now held, for the specimens, 
both of the flowering and fruiting branches, from which the .ompanying 
characteristic figure has been prepared. 
Mr. Fortune remarks {Journ. Roy. Hort. Soc.^ n.s. ii., 47) that, from a horti¬ 
cultural point of view, we must in this country regard the Kumquat as an 
ornamental plant only, the cold winters and warm summers of the north of China 
indicating the conditions under which it thrives. In winter it will bear, without 
^injury, from 10° to 15° of frost, but a hot summer temperature is necessary to 
ripen its wood. “ There ought to be no difficulty,” Mr. Fortune continues, “ in 
3rd series.—^VII. X. 
