202 
PLANT-LORE OF SHAKESPEARE 
And its handsome evergreen foliage, its deliciously scented 
flowers, and its golden fruit—- 
“ A fruit of pure Hesperian gold 
That smelled ambrosially ”— Tennyson. 
at once demand the admiration of all. It only fails in one 
point to make it a plant for every garden : it is not fully hardy 
in England. It is very surprising to read of those first trees 
at Beddington, that “ they were planted in the open ground, 
under a movable covert during the winter months; that they 
always bore fruit in great plenty and perfection; that they grew 
on the south side of a wall, not nailed against it, but at full 
liberty to spread; that they were 14 ft. high, and the girth of 
the stem 29 in., and the spreading of the branches one way 
9 ft., and 12 ft. another; and that they so lived till they were 
entirely killed by the great frost in 1739-40.”— Miller . 1 These 
trees must have been of a hardy variety, for certainly Orange 
trees, even with such protection, do not now so grow in 
England, except in a few favoured places on the south coast. 
There is one species which is fairly hardy, the Citrus trifoliata , 
from Japan, 2 forming a pretty bush with sweet flowers, and 
small but useless fruit; it is often used as a stock on which 
to graft the better kinds, but perhaps it might be useful for 
crossing, so as to give its hardiness to a variety with better 
flower and fruit. 
Commercially the Orange holds a high place, more than 
20,000 good fruit having been picked from one tree, and 
England alone importing about 2,000,000 bushels annually. 
These are almost entirely used as a dessert fruit and for 
marmalade, but it is curious that they do not seem to have 
been so used when first imported. Parkinson makes no 
mention of their being eaten raw, but says they “are used 
as sauce for many sorts of meats, in respect of the sweet sour- 
1 In an “Account of Gardens Round London in 1691,” published in the 
“ Archseologia,” vol. xii., these Orange trees are described as if always 
under glass; but Evelyn describes them as having been “planted in the 
naked earth one hundred years since,” i. e. in 1554.— Sylva , iii. 7, 15. 
2 “Bot Mag.,” 6513, 
