FLORIDA ,STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
39 
foliate and grapefruit, with all conceiva¬ 
ble intermediates. The same is true of 
the kumquat and Satsuma crosses. 
In order to secure the great energy of 
growth just referred to it is necessary 
that a distinctly different species of cit¬ 
rus fruit be used in the cross. If asked 
* 
if it is possible to go a step farther in 
this, the answer is that this depends upon 
our ability to find still more diverse types 
of citrus fruits, than we now have. This 
I am glad to say has been done. Within 
the past year the investigations conducted 
by the Department of Agriculture has 
brought tO' light the existence of at least 
two or three entirely unsuspected types 
of citrus fruits. One is a hardy kum¬ 
quat growing in the deserts of Australia 
and able to stand temperatures but slight¬ 
ly above zero. It bears small, edible 
fruits of the type of the round kumquat. 
As we have found the kumquat to be 
extremely useful in complex hybrids 
there is much to 1 be expected from this 
desert kumquat. 
A giant kumquat, or at least a species 
of fruit more closely allied to the kum¬ 
quat than anything else we know of, has 
been, found to grow in Burma, the Ma¬ 
layan Archipelago and the Andaman Is¬ 
lands. This tree grows to a height of 
from 25-30 feet and bears a fruit from 
1 1-2 to 2 inches in diameter. 
There has also been brought to light 
in tropical Africa a whole group of edible 
citrus fruits of a new type. The trees 
have compound leaves with from three 
to seven leaflets. The leaves themselves 
are of gigantic size, sometimes 1 1-2 feet 
long and 1 foot wide, the individual leaf¬ 
lets being much larger than any ordinary 
citrus leaf. The fruits are small but 
sweet and of good flavor. 
Here, then, are three new types of cit¬ 
rus fruits which, when secured, can be 
used in complex hybrids with strong 
probability of securing great vigor among 
their descendants. The kumquat, though 
a dwarf plant, has yielded extraordinari¬ 
ly vigorous seedlings when crossed with 
the citrange—very much more vigorous 
than would be secured by crossing the cit¬ 
range with even the largest and most vig¬ 
orous type of orange. 
TANGELOS. 
One of the first crosses made by the 
writer some twelve years ago was that 
between the tangerine orange and the 
grapefruit. This was a lucky strike since 
it gave rise to 1 the Sampson Tangelo 
which represents another valuable new 
type of citrus fruit. When oranges of the 
loose skin type are crossed with grape¬ 
fruit the hybrids often produce fruits al¬ 
most entirely destitute of the bitterness 
of the grapefruit but still containing 
much of the agreeable sprightliness of 
the latter. Some of the Tangelos are 
thin-skinned and almost all are of good 
flavor. 
In this connection, the experience of 
Mr. A. Aaronsohn, Director of the Jew¬ 
ish Agricultural Experiment Station at 
Haifa, Palestine, is of interest. Himself 
a grower of the Jaffa orange and coming 
to this country unfamiliar with the grape- 
fruit, he told me that after becoming ac¬ 
customed to the latter he had practically 
lost his taste for the orange which seemed 
insipid after once he had tasted the de¬ 
licious sprightliness of the grapefruit. 
