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founded the Adam's apple with the pompolmoes or pampelmous, and have joined the two under the name of Citrus decumanum.

grafting upon the bigarade. At Salo it is grown from seed, but is used only as a subject upon which to graft the orange.

Sloane, in his work on Jamaica, gives us a figure and description which is entirely suited to the genuine Adam's apple, afterwards adding that there exists a variety having the color and flesh of the orange. He characterizes in like manner and connects the two species in his Latin Synonyms. I have preserved in this article only what belongs to the Adam's apple, leaving for the article upon the Pampelmous, that which is peculiar to it. Rumphius, like Sloane, confounds rubente, fructu violaceo, medulla acida. them in his herbarium amboinense, and these writers have been imitated by Linnæus and the botanists who have followed him.

There are many plants of it at Versailles, at the Jardin des Plantes, and in the gardens of Paris.

The fruit is good for nothing, and is sought for its beauty only, as it is neither edible when raw, nor agreeable for confits.

Adam's apple is one of the hybrids earliest known. We find a description of it in the History of Jerusalem, by Jaques de Vitry, and in the greater part of the works by Arabian authors, who knew it under the names of laysamou or zambau.

Marco Polo found it in Persia in 1270. It was known as Adamo by the ancient Italian writers upon agriculture, such as Gallo and others, and by the Spaniard, Herrera, under the names of toronjo or samboas. Mathioli calls it lomia; Ferraris calls it lumia valentina, a name also given it by Volcamerius.

This fruit is known in Liguria under the different names of pomo d'Adamo, of pompoleon, and of decumano. At Versailles it is called pompoleon; also by the gardeners of Paris.

Adam's apple is reported under the name of Citrus aurantium maximum, in the Table of the Botanical School, belonging to the Museum of Natural History at Paris, where are cultivated several fine and vigorous trees.

It appears to be a lumie, or a hybrid of orange and citron. (I have placed this among the lumies, because it shows traits of them; but I own that I have never tested it by the seed-bed, as I have done with all other races which give seed. I pro pose to try it at once, and shall not be surprised if the result shows, in this plant, a fifth species of agrume. I have already many reasons for supposing so.) The tree resembles the Chinese citron. Its branches short, often flattened, bear large leaves, which are sometimes lanceolated, sometimes notched at their edges (crenated), sometimes quilled. They are of a very deep green, and have two very prominent wings to the petiole. The flower, arranged in large clusters, is very large and fleshy, like that of the citron, and entirely white like that of the orange, having thirty or forty stamens. The fruit is round, and four times larger than the common orange. Its rind, smooth as an orange, is green at the commencement, and at maturity is a pale yellow. It is thin, and marked in places by slight clefts, as if it had been bitten. To this peculiarity it owes its name of Adam's apple. Under this skin, which is insupportably bitter, one finds a second, like the citrons, thick, white, leathery, and bitter. This encloses a pulp divided into eleven very small sections, which contain an insipid, slightly acidulated juice. The seeds are covered by a reddish pellicle, and are formed by two whitish cotyledons.

This variety is cultivated in Liguria only by amateurs and seedsmen, and is multiplied by

HYBRIDS-NO. XXVII.

Citrus aurantium Indicum folio petiolo alato, sorpe in summa teneritate violaceo; flore hinc albo, inde exterius

Bigaradier a fruit violet.

Arancio forte a frutto violetto

Citrus aurantium violaceum: Oranger violet. (Desfont., Tab. de l'Ec. de Bot., p. 138.

The violet-fruited Bigarade is a singular va riety, and very little propagated. It is not it in the works of botanists who immediately folspoken of by Ferraris or Volcamerius, neither is lowed or preceded them. We find it described only by a few modern writers.

I have seen the fruit only in a painting owned by M. Michel, (editor of the Treatise upon Trees,") who obtained it from the heirs of the celebrated Duhamel; and the plant in the orangery of the Museum of Natural History,

Paris.

of the ordinary bigarade, having the same leaf.
This, which is a fine plant, has the appearance
less that the top is a little more bushy.
One would not notice anything remarkable, un-

I should have classed it among the varieties of the bigarade, had not the spring growth revealed to me a phenomenon, which convinced me that it was but a hybrid.

Its shoots are of two kinds; the one are whitish deep violet color, as those of the lemon. This as those of the orange, the others are of a very violet color characterizes also a part of its flowers, which grow upon the same branches with with violet in the same way in which the red those entirely white. Its fruit is likewise shaded orange is shaded with blood color. I do not know the nature of its pulp. I am told that it is yellow and sharp, as in the bigarade.

It is easy to conceive that this variety owes its origin to the influence of the pollen of the lemon tree upon the seed from which it has come.

It is one of the most singular results of impreg nation.

It is desirable that this hybrid be multiplied, on account of the beauty of both fruit and flower.

HYBRIDS NO. XXVII.

Citrus aurantium Indicum fructu stellato.
Bigaradier a fruit etoile,

Arancio melarosa.

Aurantium stellatum et roseum. (Fer., p. 393.)
Aranzi stellati. (Vole.. part 2, p. 190.)
Citron mellarosa. (Calvel, n. 12.)

The starred orange is a fruit whose rind presents ribs a little raised, running from the peduncle or stem, and ending in a small mamelon or nipple, which crowns them.

These fruits are known in Liguria by the name of melarosa, because of an odor of rose which some pretend to find in them. This plant is small, and the branches thin and pliable; the leaf is oblong and lanceolate, with winged petiole; the fruit is small and flattened. Its rind, divided

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Bigaradier limo-citre a fruit melange, ou la Bizarrerie. Bizzaria Arancio di bizzaria.

Mala limonia-citrata-aurantia, vulgo la Bizzaria, (Petrus Nato. Florentiæ, 1674.)

Orange hermaphrodite (Et. Calvel.)

Bizaria Cedrati della bizaria. (Volc., t. 2, p. 171.) The mixed-fruit bigarade, or the bizarrerie, is, perhaps, the most pronounced, and the most singular of hybrids.

It was discovered at Florence in 1644 by a gardener who had obtained the plant from seed, and not dreaming of the phenomenon which lay hidden in it, he had condemned it, according to usage, to be grafted. Happily, after some years, the graft perished, and the forgotten tree, already adult, sent forth wild branches which produced these marvellous fruits. The gardener, surprised, multiplied the new variety by the graft, and made it quite profitable to himself. He making a mystery of its origin, everybody thought that the wonder was owing to the industry of the gardener, who had mingled by the graft the buds of these three species. But the singularity of the phenomenon attracted the attention of philosophers, and a physician succeeded in obtaining from the gardener the avowal of the true origin of this tree. To Pierre Nato, a doctor of Florence, we are indebted for this anecdote. He published at this time a very learned dissertation upon this hybrid, of which he gave the history and a very minute description. I have many times compared it with the specimen of the tree which I own, and also with those at Genoa, in the garden of M. Durazzo, and have found that they corresponded in every particular with the description.

The bizarrerie is a bigarade, bearing at one and the same time bigarades, lemons, citrons of Florence, and mixed fruits.

The tree looks like a bigarade. Its leaves are shaped sometimes like those of the orange, and often like those of the citron, sometimes uniting the two. There are striped, there are long, there are quilled ones. Most of them have the winged petiole, like the orange leaf. The flowers bloom in spring and in autumn, having, like the leaves, divers forms. Some have petals, white inside, while the outside is shaded with red, and set themselves as citrons. Others, nearly white, with corolla much larger and more pronounced, produce mixed fruit, while still others have a perfectly white corolla, producing nothing but bigarades. Some have no pistil, and drop off.

The fruit follows the caprice of the rest of the tree. One sees sometimes a bigarade in form of a lemon; others are mingled lemon and orange, at times round, sometimes having a nip ple at the summit. Others have skin of an orange and pulp of a citron. These trees bear also citrons of many forms, of which some unite the cit

ron and the orange, and, finally, there are fruits of which the outside and inside show four parts crossed, of which two are citron and two are orange, while by the side of these are oranges perfectly formed, without the least mixture. It is necessary to say that the orange is always a sour fruit, and that the citron is the citron of Florence.

The bizarrerie was at first multiplied by means of the graft. It has been remarked that the buds, of which it was difficult to distinguish the nature, developed often only simple oranges or citrons.

There is another caprice of this tree still more singular-that of a citron coming from a bud which grew at the,axil of an orange leaf, and conversely the orange from a bud of which the leaf is citron. This phenomenon deceived so often the gardeners, who obtained from their graft a simple orange or citron, that recourse was had to layers, and only thus can this beautiful tree, with all its caprices, be multipled.

It is cultivated only among amateurs, aud is common in Tuscany; but I have seen it in Genoa only in the garden of M. Durazzo.

ART. IV.-Of the Street-fruited Orange. Citrus aurantium Sinense flore icosandrio, corolla alba, folio petiolo alato, fructu globoso aureo, medulla dulci,

SYNONYMS OF SWEET ORANGE.
Oranger a fruit doux; Orange douce.
Arancio domestico; Arancia dolce.
Aranci; Citroni. (Matiol.)

Aranzi. (Giustin. Hist. of Genoa.)
Melangolo: Melarancia. (Font.)
Naranzi. (Mang.)

Narendj hælu. (Forskal Flor. Egypt. Arab.)
Auranticum succo dulci. (Salm.))
Aurea malus fructu dulci.

Aurantium fructu dulci. (Volc.)

Aurantium vulgare medulla dulci. (Ferr.) Arancio dolce; Arancio di Portogallo; Arancio di Malta; Melarancio; Arancia da mangiare. (Targ.) Citrus aurantium. (Lima)

The orange of sweet fruit presents a large num ber of well-marked varieties, and but few subvarieties. Among the varieties are two which bear the characteristics of the type. First is the common sweet orange, or Portugal; second is the China orange.

It is useless to endeavor to ascertain whether Nature created originally the first, of which the fruit has a little thicker skin, or whether it is a variety of the second; therefore, we will take one for type, and this will be the aurantium vulgare; and we will place the aurantium sinense at the head of varieties, of which there are eight. First. The type, or Portugal orange. Second. The China orange. Third. The red-fruited orange.

Fourth. The dwarf, sweet-fruited orange.
Fifth. The olive-shaped orange.
Sixth. The double-flowered orange.
Seventh. The sweet orange, with edible skin.
Eighth. The pompelmous.

We have

The hybrids are very numerous. put two among the bigarades, as that species dominates in their characters. Two others have been ranked among citrons, and three among lemons.

We shall give to the list of oranges but three hybrids, in which the traits of the orange are conspicuous:

First. Is the sour lime, with orange flowers.

Second. The variegated lime, or orange with white fruit.

Third. The striped lime, or Turkish orange, with variegated leaves.

I have seen many sub-varieties which are connected to these hybrids, but I consider it useless to describe all these sub-divisions, whose additional characteristics furnish nothing new. Any person adopting the principles of my theory could class them for himself on occasion, and connect them to the variety to which they belong.

Neither have I thought it my duty to place in this arrangement a great number of other singular races, of which one finds the names in mod. ern works, without their characteristics being there determined. They do not exist in the gardens of Italy and Provence, nor in those of Spain, where I have sought for them in vain. I have come to believe them but imaginary varieties, or else species of India, not known in Europe. Some botanists have also founded species upon the presence or absence of the thorn (Citrus inermis).

I have already remarked that this part, so natural to the orange, is sometimes lacking in individuals produced by an extraordinary fecundation.

This phenomenon, analogous to that of the scarcity of hair, which distinguishes sterile beings in the animal kingdom, forms one of the traits accompanying often the choicest varieties; but it does not of itself constitute a variety.

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The China orange is a variety excelling all others in the perfection of its fruit, of which the juice is the sweetest, the most abundant, and the most perfumed. The skin is always smooth, glossy, and so thin that one can scarce detach it from the pulp. This is characteristic of this variety.

The orange of China grows from seed, as does that of Portugal, and I have in my garden many individuals of it which have grown from seeds of ordinary orange. It has, commonly, a thorn by the side of the bud, but there are those from seed which lack this part.

Rumphius reports under the name of aurantium sinense, or, lemon manistsjing, a species of sweet orange, at Amboyna, which seems to be the same as this. He says that that tree grows higher and more rounded at top than the sour orange, a difference which also distinguishes them among us; that its leaf, furnished with a thorn, is long and winged; that its fruit, round and large, is of a blackish-green color, and its juice is sweet and vinous.

He adds that there is a second variety with fruit smaller and less sweet, and a third, of which the tree grows extremely high, and hus flowers and fruit larger than ordinary oranges. An examination of their nature would be nec

It is because of these reflections that the thorn-essary in order to decide whether they belong to less orange has not been placed in this table.

VARIETIES-NO. XXX.

Citrus aurantium Sinense vulgare fructu globoso, cortice

crasso, medulla dulci, vulgo Portugal. Oranger a fruit doux or de Portugal. Arancio dolce: Portogallo.

Aurantium vulgare medulla dulci.

Aurantium vulgare fructu dulci: Aranzo dolce. (Vole., p. 187.)

Aurantium Olysiponense; Appel Sina of Lisbense. Oranje appel. (J. Commelyn.)

Arancio di Portogallo.

Citrus aurantium Olysiponense: Oranger de Portugal.

(Desf.)

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The orange of Portugal, or common sweet orange, is a tree growing to a great height when raised from seed. Its leaf is green, having a winged petiole, its shoots are whitish, its flowers entirely white and very odorous, though not equal in perfume to those of the bigarade.

our European varieties.

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Aurantium Philippinum fructu medio, medulla dulci pur-purea. (Fer., p. 4:29.)

Orange rouge de Portugal: Orange grenade.
Orange de Malte. (Nouv. Dict. d'Hist. Nat.)

occurs, if oranges are left upon the trees after the month of May.

The red-fruited orange is a singular variety. Its appearance, its leaf, its flower, are all exactly like the common orange. Its fruit alone is distinguished by a color of blood, which develops itself gradually, and like flakes. When the fruit begins to ripen it is like other oranges; little by little spots of blood-color appear in its pulp; as it advances to maturity these enlarge, becoming deeper, and finally embrace all the pulp and spread to the skin, which is, however, but rarely Its truit, ordinarily round, is sometimes flat-covered by the peculiar color; yet this sometimes tened, sometimes a little oblong. The rind, less than an eighth of an inch in thickness, is of a reddish yellow, and full of aroma; the inner skin is a sallow white, spongy and light. The sections, nine to eleven in number, contain a sweet juice, very refreshing and agreeable; its seeds are white and oblong, germinating very easily and reproducing usually the species with little change. There is a variety with no thorns; it is the race cultivated mostly by grafting, and is seen in all countries where this method of propagation is followed. In places where the orange is grown from seed, it is rare to find it deprived of thorns.

VARIETIES-NO. XXXI.

This orange is multiplied only by grafts, having few seeds, and those of little value. This is a proof that it is a monster; if it were the type of a species it would yield more seed and reproduce itself by seed. Its branches are without thorns, its fruit is sweet, but less so than the China oranges, and it has thicker skin.

It is cultivated largely in Malta and in Prov. ence. In Liguria it is found chiefly among amateurs and seedsmen.

I would here remark that the greater number of botanists, in describing the India oranges, speak often of varieties which are distinguished by a cinous pulp: Medulla vinosa, (Rumph.) Cum pauca

Citrus aurantium Sinense fructu globoso, cortice tenuis vinositate, (Ib.) Medulla vinosi saporis, (Kæmph.) It simo, lucido, glabro, medulla suavissima. Oranger de la Chine.

appears very probable that they have intended

to express by the word vinosa (wine-like) the blood-color which distinguishes our red orange. If this be so, our orange is of Indian origin evidently, and may well be a hybrid of the Citrus aurantium vulgare, and some one of the species of India.

VARIETIES-NO. XXXIII.

Citrus aurantium Sinense pumilum fructu dulci. Oranger nain a fruit doux.

Arancio nano dolce.

Aranzo nano dolce. (Vole.)

Aurantium humile pumilum foliis ovatis, floribus sessilibus. (Millar.)

The sweet-fruited dwarf orange was still, at the middle of the seventeenth century, confined to China. Ferraris says that it was not culti vated at the Phillipines, and that the Chinese carried large quantities to Manilla. It is to be sup posed that since then it has been naturalized in Europe. I have found it in the Hesperides of Volcamerius, and it appears that it is reported by Millar in his dictionary, where he gives two varieties of dwarf orange, only one of which is called a sour fruit.

It is unknown in Liguria and Provence.

VARIETIES-NO. XXXIV.

Citrus aurantium Sinense fructu oliviforme, dulci medulla et cortice.

Oranger a fruit oliviforme, a ecorce et jus doux.
Arancio a scorza dolce oliviforme.
Aurantium Sinense fructu olivæ, etc.

The dwarf, olive-shaped orange is still peculiar to China. Ferraris says of it, that it was unknown in his time, except in that country, and I do not know that it has been naturalized in Europe since then. I have not found it in any botanical work. Its fruit is shaped like, and no larger than, a Spanish olive; the juice is very sugary, and the skin sweet.

VARIETIES-NO. XXXV.

Citrus aurantium Sinense flore semipleno, fructu sepe fætifero, medulla dulci.

Oranger a fleur double et semi-double, souvent portant

un fruit dans l'autre, a jus doux.
Arancio a fior doppio.

Aurantium flore pleno. (Volc.)
Oranger a fleur double. (Calvel.)

The double-flowered orange is distinguished only by a multiplicity of petals, increasing the size of the flower at the expense of the sexual parts, which are lacking.

I have never seen one of entirely double flow

ers. The one I own has semi-double.

I have before remarked that this variety often gives fruit which encloses a second within itself, and that this is frequent in all these monstrous varieties and in hybrids.

VARIETIES-NO. XXXVI.

Citrus aurantium Sinense fructu dulci, cortici eduli. Oranger a fruit donx et a ecorce douce. Aurantium Lusitanicum pulpa, cum cortici manducanda et dulci. (Volc.)

Anrantium Philippinum sapore dulci, cortice flavo eduli. (Fer.)

Malus aurantia cortici eduli. (Spanish.) Naranja caxel. (Clus.) Aurantium dulci corticf; Oranje appel met Zoete Schil. (Commelyn.)

The orange of edible skin is unknown in Liguria. It came, originally, from the Phillipines, and I have seen it at Seville. The fruit is sweet, and its skin has, at maturity, less of piquance than that of our oranges.

I have observed, however, that we also have varieties with thick skin, which acquire a cer

tain sweetness when the fruit remains on the trees until August. The orange of edible skin does not merit cultivation, except for completing collections.

VARIETIES-NO. XXXVII.

Citrus aurantium decumanum fructu omnium maximo, medulla dulci.

Oranger Pompelmous.

Arancio massimo,

Pampelmus. (Meister.) Itin. (81 Linn.)

Malus aurantia utriusque India fructu omnium maximo et suavissimo, Belgis orientalibus Pompelmus. Virginiensis nostratibus ab inventoris nomine, qui ex India orient, ad oras Americanus primus transtulit. Shaddock. (Pluken. Almag.. p. 259.)

(Sloane Voy. to Jamaica, p. 41, tab. 12.) Limo decumanus; Pompelmoes. (Rumph.) Aurantium Indicum maximum, vulgo Pompelmoes. (Volc.)

Aurantium fructu maximo India orient. (Borrh.) Called Chadock, or la Tete d' Enfant, or Pampelmouse. (Millar Dict.)

The Citrus decumana has been often confounded with the pomum Adami, both varieties being of an extraordinary size, consequently the name decumana or decumanus, which signifies ten times greater (derived from decem), has been applied indiscriminately to both. They present, however, traits so different that it is necessary to put the first among varieties, the second among hybrids.

The aurantium decumanum is the same as the limo decumanus of Rumphius, and the malus aurantia fructu omnium maximo et suavissimo of Sloane, and is a veritable orange tree, bearing extraordinarily large fruit, yet having all the characteristics of the orange.

In India this variety gives a numerous gradation of sub-varieties, described principally by Rumphius in his herbarium amboinense, and of which some are perhaps hybrids crossed with bigarades, citrons, and lemons.

This writer describes some having red and sweet fruit; others with fruit sour and skin edible; still others with insipid fruit and bitter

skin.

Sloane confounds also this orange with the Adam's apple, and after having reported it as lescente humanum caput excedente of many botathe malus aurantia fructu rotundo maximo palnists, he calls it the malus aurantia utriusque India, fructu omnium maximo et suavissimo of Pluken, which is the true pompelmous.

Linnæus, who wrote after these, united them the Adam's apple in the malus aurantia fructu under the same name, and appeared to indicate pelmous in that of Meist. marimo of Sloane, and the pom

* * * *

All this clearly proves the existence of a sweet orange, extraordinarily large, whose hybrids and varieties are so numerous that they cause confusion in names.

This orange is not connected with the aurantium maximum of Ferraris, which appears to be a hybrid of two oranges, and which has traits peculiarly its own.

I do not know whether this tree is cultivated in Europe. I have many times visited gardens in Italy and Spain, where they pretended to have it, but have always found it was but the Adam's apple. I have, however, seen one of its fruits brought from America, and preserved in spirits of wine, at the Muscum of the Botanical Garden, Paris. Its size is truly extraordinary. I have never seen an Adam's apple approaching it in

volume. Its outer skin is smooth, and of the color of the orange, which it exactly resembles, in form.

I do not know the nature of its inner skin and pulp, but the descriptions of Rumphius and others teach us that there exist several varieties, some having sour and some sweet fruit. I have a fancy that the fruit at the Museum belongs to these last; for the sour fruit is said to be a pale yellow, the color of the Pomme d'Adam-very far removed from the beautiful, golden fruit at the Museum.

Millar says that this orange was carried from India by a Captain Shaddock.

There is a certainty respecting the origin of the Adam's apple, though the history of the pampelmous is obscure. We know that the first, resembling the pampelmous in size, and attached to it by many varieties, has been cultivated in Europe for more than 500 years. It is possible that the English isles received it from Asia, but it is certain that the Spaniards, who acclimated it upon the continent, brought it from Spain, where it was cultivated from the time of

the Arabs.

HYBRIDS-NO. XXXVIII.

Citrus aurantium Sinense limoniforme folio petiolo alato, fructu flavo oblongo papilla carente, cortice erasso, medulla amara.

Lime a fleur d' orange.

Aranzo a frutto limoniform, vulgo Limia.
Aurantium limonis effigie.
Aranzo limonato. (Volc.)

The lemon-shaped orange is a true lime. It is known, however, by the name of limia. The fruit has the shape of a lemon, and juice of a bigarade; the leaves and flowers are also like the latter. It is a hybrid of these two species. They cultivate it but little in Liguria. I have a specimen which I keep to complete my collec

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(Volc., p. 195.)

Bonte orange appel. (Commel.)
Aurantium virgatum. (Fer.)
Oranger Suisse or Rega.

Oranger a feuille et fruit tranche de blanc. (Encycl.)

The orange with variegated fruit is a hybrid of the lemon. Its leaf is edged with a yellowish white border, which is due to the mixture of this species. Its fruit, before maturity, is whitish, striped by some greenish lines, which become yellow as the fruit ripens; while the white ground changes to orange-color. Its pulp is sweetish and has little perfume.

This variety is cultivated in Liguria only by collectors and seedsmen. It is very ornamental in gardens, but grows slowly, and gives but little fruit. The seedsmen of Nervi carry it to Paris, where I have seen some very good roots.

VARIETIES-NO. XL.

Citrus aurantium Turcicum folio augusto maculato, fruetu oblongo, cute albida striis variata virentibus, evanuentes in maturitate, cortici crasso, medulla amara.

The striped orange is a sub-variety of the Turkish orange, with willow leaves, and has a similar appearance,

Its leaf is a little shorter and straight, and is a little more irregularly edged, with a whitish yellow border.

The fruit is yellowish, and striped with many greenish bands which cut it in its length. The pulp is bitter and juice insipid. I consider it a hybrid of the lemon, for it appears to have received from it the yellow with which it is striped.

It is cultivated in Liguria by amateurs and seedsmen.

ART. V.-Of Monstrous Fruits.

No genus of plants is so much disposed to yield monsters as the Citrus. These are of two kinds, monstrous races and monstrous fruits.

We have seen that monstrous races are due

only to an extraordinary fertilization modifying within the ovary the germs that give them birth.

We have observed that the monstrous fruits appeared also to be produced by the action of a forced fertilization, which caused a modification in the forms of the ovary.

The first fact appears carried to the last point of evidence. It establishes the influence of the pollen upon the organization of germs, without, however, destroying the pre-existence of these embryos in the ovary.

The second fact is not so well established, but the consequences of it are much more important. So that whoever succeeds in confirming it by exact and repeated experiments will have fixed a principle of vegetable physiology now uncertain; and which has been judged until the present time, by a system of analogy, with the animal kingdom. He will have determined the measure of co-operation which the male principle has in reproduction.

The fact of monstrous races can be reconciled with the pre-existence of the germ in the ovary; for this germ, receiving life but by the agency of the fertilizing part, may, by this operation, be altered in the principles of its organization, and give but vegetable mules.

But the fact of monstrous fruits would appear to destroy the theory of this pre-existence. Here the pollen changes the form and nature of the ovary, and multiplies the embryos in this envelope in a singular manner, such as the aurantium fætiferum, the corniculatum, the digitatum, and the orange that I have obtained with a lemon border.

The aurantium fatiferum presents a super-fœtation, an imperfect development of many germs enclosed one within another, or united under the envelope of an exterior germ. These germs-did they exist in this ovary, or have they been formed there by the pollen which has fertilized it? This is the problem which remains to be solved.

On the one hand I observe that these monstrous developments have place, very often, in flowers of which the fertilization has been forced by a superabundance and mixture of pollen. On the other I see that this phenomenon is very frequent in the monstrous races, such as plants with double flowers, and appears to show modifications in the germ analogous to those which produce the change of sexual parts into petals.

These two observations may be the base of

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