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SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE 
The sour orange, familiar to all, is a representative of the 
lime family, though a hybrid many degrees improved over its 
original parent. 
Most orange growers are acquainted with the fruit of the 
deciduous citrus trifoliata, which gives the musky flavor of 
fruit and hardy habit ot' the mandarin family, but as few have 
seen the fruit of the red limonia, which is the parent of the 
shaddocks, Tangerines and blood oranges, and the fingered 
citron, which has given the sweet edible character to all the 
citrus fruits, I took special pains while attending the Colum¬ 
bian Exposition, to find specimens in the East Indian exhibit, 
and was so fortunate as to secure the citron and limonia of 
of the Siamese Royal Commissioner, and I take pleasure in 
showing these specimens to the society, for fortunately they 
are preserved in syrup, and retain perfectly their form and 
much of their color. The fingered citron, you will observe, is 
composed of loosely adhering lobes or segments without any 
central core, and these segments are almost entirely covered 
with peel and contain no edible juice. They are only used in 
the east like a boquet of flowers, for the sweet odor they 
exhale. 
This citron hybridizing with, and breeding up from the lime 
has developed two strains of fruit. The first are oranges, 
which retain the form of the lime but the sweetness of the cit¬ 
ron. The highest bred examples we have are the navel and 
early oblong oranges, which you will observe in a general way 
have the same form as this citron. The second strain is the 
commercial lime and lemon family, which retains the modified 
acid of the wild lime, but the color and oblong form of the cit- 
son. This citron, progressively crossing with the citrus tri¬ 
foliata, has developed ilie loose segmented mandarin orange. 
And, again, the citron and limonia crosses have produced the 
shaddocks and Malta blood oranges, which latter especially, 
closely copies the form of the limonia. It must not be under¬ 
stood that I suppose any of the hybrids we have to-day as 
being primary crosses, or even as resembling the fruit that 
would result from an equal blending of the qualities of any of 
these wild primary species, for the tendency of hybrids is to 
produce unedible monstrosities, and it is only the careful se¬ 
lection and cultivation by man through ages of time of the 
gradual improving varieties which have crossed and inter¬ 
crossed with each other, that has given us the well nigh per¬ 
fect fruit we possess to-day. Therefore, in listing oranges, I 
follow nanure’s grand divisions and make but four varieties: 
The citron or sweet China, the lime or Portugal, the shaddock 
or Malta blood, and the trifoliata or mandarin oranges. 
As preliminary to the work of the Cataloguing Committee 
