C I T 
leaves acuminate. The orange is a middle-fized ever¬ 
green-tree, with a greenilh-brown bark; in its native 
country the branches are prickly; leaves broad-laneeo- 
late, almoft quite entire, ftnooth, with the petioles com¬ 
monly winged ; peduncles many-flowered, terminating; 
corolla white; ftainens twenty, conne&ed in feveral par¬ 
cels; berry l'ubglobular, flatted, (an oblate fpheroid,) of 
a golden colour, Alining, odorous, three inches in dia¬ 
meter, divided within into about nine cells, filled with a 
bladdery pulp, having a fweet acid juice in it; rind flelh.y, 
of a middling thicknefs, covered with a pellicle which is 
fomewhat biting and bitter to the tafte. The above de- 
fcription, fays Loureiro, the author of it, agrees particu¬ 
larly with that fort of orange which is molt common all 
over the world, and is known in Europe by the name of 
Portugal or China orange, becaufe it was brought from 
China by the Portuguefe, and by them difperfed over 
Europe. It is a native of India, China, &c. and was ob- 
ferved by our circumnavigators in the ifle of Tanna, in 
the South Seas. 
There are innumerable varieties of the orange in China, 
and other countries of Afia, as well as in South America 
and the Weft Indies, and even in Europe. Loureiro de- 
fcribes the molt grateful of all the oranges, as a diftindt 
fpecies, under the title of citrus nobilis. The branches do 
not fipread fo much as in the common orange, but are 
rather afcending,-and they are not prickly; leaves lan¬ 
ceolate, quite entire, dark green, on linear petioles; berry 
red within and without, twice, as large as the common 
fort, being five inches in diameter ; the lkin thick, juicy, 
fweet, eatable, and irregularly tubercled. It abounds in 
Cochinchina. The moft efteemed fruit in China, accord¬ 
ing to Grofier, is very fmall, with a fmooth loft lkin, of 
a reddilh yellow colour. They have alfo the four-leafon 
or everlalting orange, fo called from its being always in 
fruit and blofi'om ; this alfo bears a very fmall fruit; the 
large clove or mandarine; and the fmall clove or man¬ 
darine ; the loft culhion orange; the gold orange, See. 
The Chinefe oranges are, in general, firmer than thofe of 
Europe, their lkin does not eafily peel off, and the pulp 
will not feparate into fmall divisions. They commonly 
give them to the fick, fofteiiing them a little at the fire, 
and mixing fugar with them. Loureiro deferibes another 
fort, under the name citrus fufea, or brown orange, which, 
in fome refpedls, feems to approach the Seville orange of 
Europe. It is a tree above the middle fize, with abun¬ 
dance of twdfted branches, that rife a little, and are armed 
with many long ftoutfpines; leaves ovate-lanceolate, quite 
entire, dark green, of an unplealant odour, on large, wing¬ 
ed, heart-lhaped, petioles; flowers on many-flowered fub- 
terminating peduncles, white, and not very fweet; berry 
globular, two inches in diameter, rough, brownilh-green ; 
the juice pale, acid, bitterifli, and unpleafant. It is very 
common in Cochinchina. The Seville orange differs little 
from that of China in the tree, except that it is more 
hardy, and that the leaves are larger and handfomer. 
The fruit, however, is very different in the colour of the 
peel, and in the tafte both of that and of the juice, as is 
well known. 
The varieties of the orange moft known in the Englifh 
gardens are, befides the Seville and China already men¬ 
tioned, i. The willow-leaved or Turkey orange, a. The 
yellow and white ftriped-leaved. 3. The curled-leaved. 
4. The horned orange. 5. The double-flowering. 6. The 
hermaphrodite. 7. The dwarf or nutmeg orange. The 
horned orange, like the figured lemon or citron deferibed 
above, divides into parts, lpreading out in form of horns; 
this and the diftorted orange are preferved merely for va¬ 
riety, .not being fo beautiful as the common-fort. The 
leaves of the dwarf orange are very fmall, and grow in 
clufters; the joints of the branches are very near each 
other; the flowers grow very dole together, and appear 
like a nofegay, the branches being covered with them. 
This, when in flower, is proper to be placed for ornament 
R U S. 627 
in a room or galleiy, which it will perfume with its flow¬ 
ers ; but it requires care, and is feldom in health. 
The firft China orange, fays Evelyn, (that appeared in 
Europe,) was fent for a prefent to count Mellor, then 
prime minifter to the king of Portugal; but of that whole 
cafe that came to Lifbon, there was but one only plant 
which efcaped the being fo fpoiled and tainted, that with 
great care it had hardly recovered to be fince become the 
parent of all thofe flourifhing trees of that name, culti¬ 
vated by our gardeners, though not without fenfibly de¬ 
generating. Receiving this account, adds our famous 
planter, from the illuftrious fon of the Conde, I thought 
fit to mention it for an inftance of what induftry may 
produce in lefs than half an age. South America and the 
Weft Indies have been furnifhed with this fruit, fo falu- 
tary and agreeable to the palates of the people, arid fo con¬ 
genial to thofe hot climates,,from Spain and Portugal. 
Mr. Miller informs us, that he fent two fmall trees of 
the true Seville orange to Jamaica, where this fort was 
then wanting, and that from thefe many other trees were 
budded, which produced plenty of fruit. Some of thefe 
were fent to England; and, although they were long in 
their paflage, yet they were greatly fuperior to any of the 
fruit imported from Spain and Portugal, affording three 
times the quantity of juice. 
In England this tree has been cultivated certainly fince 
1629. The firft fhifts made to preferve it, will not be in¬ 
curious to the reader. “ The orange-tree (fays Parkin- 
fon) hath abiden with fome extraordinary looking and 
tending of it, when as neither citron or lemmon-trees 
would by any means be preferved in any long time. 
Some keepe them in great fquare boxes, and lift them to 
and fro by iron hooks on the fides, or caufe them to be 
rowled by trundels, or fmall wheeles under them, to place 
them in an houfe, or clofe gallerie, for the winter time; 
others plant them againft a bricke wall in the ground, 
and defend them by a fhed of boardes, covered over with 
feare cloth in the winter, and by the warmth of a ftove, 
or other fuch thing, give them fome comfort in the colder 
times; but no tent or meane provifion will preferve them.” 
But bifhop Gibfon, in his additions^to Camden’s Britan¬ 
nia, probably from Aubrey, fays that the orange-trees at 
Beddington in Surrey, introduced from Italy by a knight 
of the noble family of the Carews, (fir Francis,) were the 
firft that were brought into England; that they were 
planted in the open ground, under a moveable covert 
during the winter months ; and that they had been grow¬ 
ing there more than a hundred years ; that is, before 1595; 
the firft edition of Camden, by bilhop Gibfon, being 
printed in 1695. The editors of the Biographia Britan- 
nica, article Raleigh, fpeaking from a tradition preferved 
in the family, tells us, that thefe orange-trees were raifed 
by fir Francis Carew from the feeds of the firft oranges 
which were imported into England by fir Walter Raleigh, 
who had married his niece, the daughter of fir Nicolas 
Throckmorton. But this is not probable, for the plants 
raifed from thefe feeds would have required to be inocu¬ 
lated, in order to produce fruit. And it is much more 
likely that they were plants brought from Italy. Profef- 
for Bradley reports, that they always bore fruit in great 
plenty and perfedlion ; that they grew on the foutli fide 
of a wall, not nailed againft it, but at full liberty to fpread ; 
and, by the account of Mr. Henry Day the gardener, they 
were fourteen feet high ; the girt of the Item twenty-nine 
inches; and the lpreading of the branches one way nine 
feet, and twelve feet another. Thefe trees were entirely 
killed by the great froft in 1739-40. The year before, 
they had'been inclofed by a permanent building,, after 
the manner of a green-houfe ; fo that it is uncertain 
whether the dampnefs of new walls, and the want of lo 
much air and light as the trees had been accullomed to, 
might not have deftroyed them, if the froft had not hap¬ 
pened. 
Citrus aurantinm, or orange, has long maintained a 
very 
