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 doubtful. No allusion to the sweet orange occurs in contemporary 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 15th 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 Portuguese, 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 narungee in Hindustani, and corrupted by the Arabs into nāranj (Spanish naranja), passed by easy transitions into the Italian arancia (Latinized aurantium), the Romance arangi, and the later Provençal orange. The true Chinese variety, however, was undoubtedly brought by the Portuguese 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 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 612 ft. in height, a space of from 16 to 26 ft. 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 ft. 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 frequently 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 continue 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 maturity is attained, the fruit ripening rapidly after picking; but the delicious taste of the mature China orange is never thus acquired, and those who 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, the Azores (“St Michael’s” oranges), Sicily, Portugal, Spain and other Mediterranean countries, Jamaica, the Bahamas and Florida, California, &c. In Florida the bitter orange has grown, from an unknown period, in a wild condition, and some of the earlier botanical explorers 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 transplanted to Florida by them or their buccaneering enemies; its chief use in America is for stocks on which to graft sweet orange and other species of Citrus.
Orange cultivation has been attempted with success in several parts of Australia, especially in New South Wales, where the orange groves near Paramatta yield an abundant colonial supply. The orangeries of Queensland and South Australia likewise produce well. In many of the Pacific Islands the plant has been long established. There are numerous varieties of the sweet orange, a few of which deserve mention on account of some striking peculiarity. Maltese or Blood oranges are characterized by the deep-red tint of the pulp, and comprise some of the best varieties. Gallesio refers to the blood orange as cultivated extensively in Malta and Provence; they are largely grown in the Mediterranean region in the present day, and have been introduced into America. So-called navel oranges have an umbilical mark on the apex of the fruit due to the production of an incipient second whorl of carpels. Baptiste Ferrari, a Jesuit monk, in his work Hesperides, sive De malorum aureorum cultura et usus Libri Quatuor, published at Rome in 1646, figures and describes (pp. 403, 405) such an orange. The mandarin orange of China, sometimes regarded as a distinct species, C. nobilis, is remarkable for its very flat spheroidal fruit, the rind of which readily separates with the slightest pressure; the pulp has a peculiarly luscious flavour when ripe. The small Tangerine oranges, valued for their fine fragrance, are derived from the mandarin.
Diseases.—Several are caused by fungi, others by insects. Of the fungus diseases that known as foot-rot in Florida and mal-di-gomma in Italy is very widely distributed. It occurs on the lower part of the trunk and the main roots of the tree, and is indicated by exudation of gum on the bark covering the diseased spot. The diseased patches spread into the wood, killing the tissues, which emit a foetid odour; the general appearance of the tree is unhealthy, the leaves become yellow and the twigs and young branches die. A fungus, Fusarium limonis is found associated with the disease, which is also fostered by faulty drainage, a shaded condition of the soil, the use of rank manures and other conditions. For treatment the soil should be removed from the base of the trunk, the diseased patches cut away and the wound treated with a fungicide. Decay of oranges in transit often causes serious losses; this has been shown to be due to a species of Penicillium, of which the germinating spores penetrate the skin of damaged fruits. Careful picking, handling and packing have much reduced the amount of loss from this cause. Another fungus disease, scab, has been very injurious to the lemon and bitter orange in Florida. It is caused by a species of Cladosporium, which forms numerous small warts on the leaves and fruits; spraying with a weak
- ↑ The modern Arabic name, Borṭuḳān (that is, Portuguese), shows that the China apple reached the Levant from the West.
