Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/875

Rh ORANGE 811 proved that India was the country from which the orange spread to western Asia and eventually to Europe. Oranges are at present found wild in the jungles along the lower mountain slopes of Sylhet, Kumaon, Sikkim, and other parts of northern India, and, according to Royle, even in the Nilgiri Hills ; the plants are generally thorny, and present the other characters of the bitter variety, but occasionally wild oranges occur with sweet fruit; it is, however, doubtful whether either sub-species is really in digenous to Hindustan, and De Candolle is probably cor rect in regarding the Burmese peninsula and southern China as the original home of the orange. Cultivated from a remote period in Hindustan, it was carried to south western Asia by the Arabs, probably before the 9th cen tury, towards the close of which the bitter orange seems to have been well known to that people ; though, according to Mas udi, it was not cultivated in Arabia itself until the beginning of the 10th century, when it was first planted in Oman, and afterwards carried to Mesopotamia and Syria. It spread ultimately, through the agency of the same race, to Africa and Spain, and perhaps to Sicily, following everywhere the tide of Mohammedan conquest and civilization. In the 12th century the bigarade was abundantly cultivated in all the Levant countries, and the returning soldiers of the Cross brought it from Palestine to Italy and Provence. An orange tree of this variety is said to have been planted by St Dominic in the year 1200, though the identity of the one still standing in the garden of the monastery of St Sabina at Rome, and now attributed to the energetic friar, may be somewhat doubt ful. No allusion to the sweet orange occurs in contem porary literature at this early date, and its introduction to Europe took place at a considerably later period, though the exact time is unknown. It was commonly cultivated in Italy early in the 16th century, and seems to have been known there previously to the expedition of Da Gama (1497), as a Florentine narrator of that voyage appears to have been familiar with the fruit. The importation of this tree into Europe, though often attributed to the Portu guese, is with more probability referred to the enterprise of the Genoese merchants of the 15th century, who must have found it growing abundantly then in the Levant. The prevailing European name of the orange is sufficient evidence of its origin and of the line taken in its migration westward. The Sanskrit designation nagrungo, becoming narunyee in Hindustani, and corrupted by the Arabs into ndranj (Spanish naranja), passed by easy transitions into the Italian arancia (Latinized aurantium}, the Romance arangi, and the later Provengal orange. The true Chinese variety, however, was undoubtedly brought by the Portu guese navigators direct from the East both to their own country and to the Azores, where now luxuriant groves of the golden-fruited tree give a modern realization to the old myth of the gardens of the Hesperides. 1 Throughout China and in Japan the orange has been grown from very ancient times, and it was found diffused widely when the Indian Archipelago was first visited by Europeans. In more recent days its cultivation has extended over most of the warmer regions of the globe, the tree growing freely and producing fruit abundantly wherever heat is sufficient and enough moisture can be supplied to the roots ; where night-frosts occur in winter or spring the culture becomes more difficult and the crop precarious. The orange flourishes in any moderately fertile soil, if it is well drained and sufficiently moist ; but a rather stiff loam or calcareous marl, intermingled with some vegetable humus, is most favourable to its growth. Grafting or budding on stocks raised from the seed of some vigorous 1 The modern Arabic name, Bortukan (that is, Portuguese), shows that the China apple reached the Levant from the West variety is the plan usually adopted by the cultivator. The seeds, carefully selected, are sown in well-prepared ground, and the seedlings removed to a nursery-bed in the fourth or fifth year, and, sometimes after a second transplantation, grafted in the seventh or eighth year with the desired variety. When the grafts have acquired sufficient vigour, the trees are placed in rows in the permanent orangery. Propagation by layers is occasionally adopted; cuttings do not readily root, and multiplication directly by seed is always doubtful in result, though recommended by some authorities. The distance left between the trees in the permanent plantation or grove varies according to the size of the plants and subsequent culture adopted. In France, when the trunks are from 5 to 6i feet in height, a space of from 16 to 26 feet is left between; but the dwarfer trees admit of much closer planting. In the West Indies and Azores an interval of 24 or even of 30 feet is often allowed. The ground is kept well stirred between the trunks, and the roots manured with well-rotted dung, guano, or other highly nitrogenous matter; shallow pits are sometimes formed above the roots for the reception of liquid or other manures ; in dry climates water must be abundantly and frequently supplied. The trees require regular and careful pruning, the heads being trained as nearly as possible to a spherical form. Between the rows melons, pumpkins, and other annual vegetables are fre quently raised. In garden culture the orange is often trained as an espalier, and with careful attention yields fruit in great profusion when thus grown. In favourable seasons the oranges are produced in great abundance, from 400 to 1000 being commonly borne on a single plant in full bearing, while on large trees the latter number is often vastly exceeded. The trees will con tinue to bear abundantly from fifty to eighty years, or even more ; and some old orange trees, whose age must be reckoned by centuries, still produce their golden crop ; these very ancient trees are, however, generally of the bitter variety. Oranges intended for export to colder climates are gathered long before the deep tint that indicates ma turity is attained, the fruit ripening rapidly after picking ; but the delicious taste of the mature China orange is never thus acquired, and those Avho have not eaten the fruit in a perfectly ripe state have little idea of its flavour when in that condition. Carefully gathered, the oranges are packed in boxes, each orange being wrapped in paper, or with dry maize husks or leaves placed between them. The immense quantities of this valuable fruit imported into Britain are derived from various sources, but those kinds in most esteem are the produce of the Azores, whence, in 1878, 410,101 boxes, each holding 400 &quot;St Michael s&quot; oranges, are said to have been sent to Great Britain alone. Large numbers are also exported to England from Sicily, Portugal, and Spain, and a considerable amount from other Mediter ranean countries. North America is largely supplied from Jamaica and the Bahamas ; but the extensive and rapidly increasing cultivation of the tree in Florida will probably in a few years supersede the foreign importation. In that State the bitter orange has grown, from an unknown period, in a wild condition, and some of the earlier botanical ex plorers regarded it as an indigenous tree; but it was undoubtedly brought by the Spanish colonists to the West India Islands, and was probably soon afterwards trans planted to Florida by them or their buccaneering enemies. The climate of Florida seems remarkably adapted for orange culture, and orangeries are becoming yearly more numerous and extensive, the wild stocks, or those raised from wild seed, being generally employed by the grafter. In the other Gulf States this branch of agricultural industry is pursued to some extent ; and in California the orange groves are productive and increasing.