Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/158

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beft ; the feeds muft be fown in pots of rich earth, and thefe, \ when the bed is of a due temper, muft be plunged into it. The pots muft be watered frequently, and the glaffes of the hot-bed fhaded with mats in the heat of the day, and at times raifed to give air.

The feeds will come up in thiee weeks, and a month after this the plants will be fit to tranfplant into fingle pots. The bed muft be now renewed, and fome pots of about five inches over at the top, muft be filled half full with frefh earth, mixed with very rotten cow-dung. Place one plant in the middle of each of thefe pots, and then fill it up with the fame earth ; then place thefe pots in the new hot-bed, and water the plants every day. By July, th,e plants will be two foot high, and muft then be hardened by degrees to the air, by raifuig more and more the glafles of the hotbed. In September they muft be taken into the greenhoufe; in the winter feafon they muft have frequent fmall waterings, and in fpring their heads muft be warned, to cleanfe them from filth. In fpring, they muft have again a gentle hot-bed, but in June they muft be hardened again ; and in Augufl: they will be fit to bud.

At this time you are to make choice of cuttings from very thriving and fruitful trees ; chufing fuch buds as are round. When the (locks are budded, they muft be removed into the greenhoufe, to fhelter them from wet, turning their buds from the fun, but letting them have as free air as poffiblc, and refrefliing them often with water. They muft remain In the greenhoufe all winter, and in the fpring muft have another bark hot-bed ; then cutting off the ftocks about three inches above the buds, obferve to give them as much water as they require.

The buds with this management will be by July three feet high, and they muft then be hardened by degrees, that they may bear the greenhoufe in the winter; and as this will be a fufficient height for the ftems, it is proper at this time to flop the leading branch to force out lateral moots. This firft winter they will be tender, and muft be taken great care of, and after this they require no more care than other full grown trees.

It is a regular and certain way of fupplying a greenhoufe with o?7mj>r-trees, but there is a much more expeditious one, Which is the purchafing fuch trees as are brought over every year from Italy. Thefe are as large when we receive them, as thofe of our own produce will be in ten or twenty years growth ; and tho' they have but fmall heads then, will be brought to have very good ones in three years, and to pro- duce very fine fruit.

In the choice of thefe trees, thofe which have two buds in flock are preferable to thofe which have only one ; and the ftraitnefs of the ftem, frefhnefs of the branches, and plump nefs of the bark, are greatly to be regarded. When you have purchafed a proper number of thefe trees, each of them is to be fet in a tub of water, with its head and half its trunk above thefurface; they are to ftand in this three days, then they are to be taken out, their roots picked, and brufbed clean, and the tops of the branches cut off, and they are to be planted fingly, in pots juft large enough to contain their roots, in a mixture of frefli earth and rotten cow-dune. Thefe are to be fet in a moderate hot tanners bark-bed, and fome potfhreds muft be always put at the bottom of the pots, to keep their holes from bein* ftoped, and give a free pauao- e to the water. They are to be moderately watered at proper times, and by the month of June they will fhoot out pretty long fhoots, which muft be ftoped, in order to produce the lateral branches. They muft now be hardened by degrees, and in the middle of July muft be brought into the open air, in fome warm fituation, defended from winds and from the too great heat of the fun. In September they muft be removed into the greenhoufe, and watered gently during the winter. In the fucceeding fummer, the branches muft be Hopped from growing to their Iengths,to furnifh a good head ; and they muft be frequently watered. And after this, they will require no farther management, but to be new potted every year; which fhould be done in April, and the earth prepared for it a year beforehand, of cow-dung and frefh earth. The roots mould be foaked a quarter of^an hour in water, and afterwards fcrubed very clean, before they are nut into the new pot.

If old orange-trees have bad heads, the way to mend them is to cut them moftly off, and proceed with them in the fame manner as with the trees brought from Italy. All orange-trees require frequent waterings, but thefe fhould not be large ; there muft always be a paflage for the water to run off at -the bottom of the pot or tub ; they muft have as much frefh air in winter, as the feafon will allow, and they fhould not be placed too near each other in the greenhoufe. In fummer they fhould be placed where they may have the morning and evening fun,without too much wind ;and they fhould not be houfed till October. The fbaddock and citron are much ten- derer than the orange, and fhould therefore be houfed fooner. InthePhilofophicai Tran factions, N u 1 14, there is a very re- markable account of a tree Handing in a grove near Florence, having an orangei\ock> which had been fo grafted upon, that it became in its branches, leaves, flower, and fruit, three-form- ed ; fome emulating the orange, fome the lemon, or citron,

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and fome partaking of both forms in one ; and what was ve- ry remarkable, was, that thefe mixed fruits never produced any perfect feeds ; fom'etimes there were no feeds at ail in them, and fometimes only a few empty ones. The feeds of the orange kind fecm different in their nature from thofe of all other plants. In the generality of others the feed is only a fort of nidus, and bed of a noiuifhins mat- ter, for the young plant contained in fome one part of it and called the plantula feminalis ; and however minute the feed itfelf may be, this plantula is but a very fmall part of it • but the feeds of the orange, though contained in the infide of a pulpy fruit, and in all refpecls, feeming of the nature of the common feeds, yet) when examined nicely, are found to con- tain, not a fimple plantula feminalis, but each of thefe feeds or kernels, contains within it another compleat fecsl. Both in the orange, and lemon kinds, on opening what we call the feeds, when the fkin, or membrane, is flripp'd off, there are, frequently found two feeds enclofed in that membrane, that is under the fkin, and without fide of the kernel, there is a' lmall feed, the like of which docs not appear in the feed of any other fruit. '

It is true, indeed, that in hazel nuts, as alfo in almond-; and in peach and apricot kernels, we often find a double feed or kernel, but then each of them is feparately en- closed in its own membrane, and has no communication with the other, but is only placed in fimple conraa with it ; and each has its diftinct ftalk, or firing, bv which it feyerally receives its nourifhment ; and, in thefe', the con- taining of two kernels fcems only an accident, a kind of fuperfcetation, as in the twin births of animals, which na- turally, bear only pne^

When one of the orange or lemon feeds is flripp'd of its outer membrane, there appears a little firing, which lyin? under it, caufes a protuberance in the firft fkin ; and from this ftr.ng not only the feed, but the plant within it re- ceives its noorifhmenti and the firft and hard fkin, which is eahly reparated, fcems only given to it for the defence ol the inward parts ; whereas nuts, almonds, peacb-floncs and the like, have a much harder and firmer coat given them for the fame purpofc. The firing which appears through the firft membrane extends its fmall veffels alfo through the fecond membrane n ar the feat of the plan- tule ; but thefe are fo extremely fine, that we lofe them before they enter it, no microfcope being able to Hew them farther than where they grow extremely fmall, and fine, near the entrance into this part. It is an amazina- thought, but it is alfo an evident truth, that this fmall ltring, which runs in this manner under the coat of this feed contains in it as many dillina veffels as are to be found in a full grown orange-tree; for if all thefe veffels were not in the young plant, while involved in its ma- trix, whence fhould they come afterwards ? When this firing is cut tranfverfely, and examined befor. a good microfcope; fomething of this appears, for there are feen in it the fec- tions of feveral veffels, and the fmall quantity of pulny matter between them is enclofed in a feeminglv thick and tough membrane, together with them, in order to keep the whole together : if the feed, or kernel, be itfelf cut a- crofs, it appears to be only a congeries of a great number of g.obules of a foft matter, preffed together. Within this feed thus cut, and under all its membranes are feen the two regular, and perfect feeds, Jodscd together, and not feparated by any membrane, as the accidental double ker- nes of nuts, &c. always are ; fometimes, indeed, there is only one fuch obferved, and fometimes there are three I hefe are not always of the fame fize, but one is often larger than the others. Each of thefe. is, however, a true perfect, and diftinfl feed, and is divided naturally into two lobes, and thefe feem only to have been united at firft juft where the young plant lies, fo that this whole kernel fcems to have been deftined by nature for no other end, bu to foftcr and cherifh the young plan,, till i, become able to fhoot up and live above ground. In the heart of this inner feed ,s found the plantula feminalis, which is not lar- ger than a fmall grain of fand, to the naked eye. The won- derful conformation of this ffruaure, cannot but flrike any one who is ufed to examine feeds, with great amazement. It ,s plain that the feed contained within the other feed, can only receive its nourifhment from the veffels contained in the firing above defenbed But it is amazing, that thefe fhould not be, as ufual, immediately diftributed from that general cord, or congeries of them, to the feed itfelf, but to an- other that is the center feed, and can only come to the inner feed, after having palled thro' this, and been in it devaricatcd into other veffels too fine for the eye to trace. Signior Francifco Lana, in nis prodromus to fome philofopni- cal difcovenes, tells us, that there is a way of producing oranges, without fowing or planting the trees, only by infil- ling the flowers in oil of almonds ; for that this oil will, every year afterwards, at the proper feafon, produce both flowers, and ripe o-ange: See the whole procefs at lanrc, under the ' article Fruits, as attefled by the author and his friends. Sea Orange, in natural hiftory, a name given by Count Alar- figh to a very remarkable fperies of fea plant. It is tough and hrm in its ftrufitare, and, in mauy things, rcfembles the

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