that the extraordinary varieties found in books often owe their existence to the vagueness of their names, which represent ideas far removed from truth, and that the number of true varieties is much less than at first would appear.

Matthius Sylvaticus says that the citrine apples (pomorum citrinorum, Pand. Med., p. 125,) are four in number, the citron tree (citrus), the bi garade tree (citrangulus), the lemon tree (limon), and the lime (lima vulgo dicta), which, apparently, is but the Adam's apple.

Hugo Falcandus talks of lumies (lamias), and I incline to the opinion that they are nothing else than lemons, because he says they are only fit for seasoning food (ad condiendis cibis idoneas). These are all the varieties known in Italy until the middle of the fifteenth century.

The orange tree of sweet fruit appeared about this time, and in Mathioli's day it had been followed by only a very few varieties.

This botanist counts but three varieties of citrons-that of large fruit or citron of Genoa, the citron of Salo, and a third whose fruit is the size

Augustine Gallo, who wrote at very nearly the same epoch, names only three species of orange trees-sweet, sour, and medium.

He mentions but one citron, that of Salo; only one lemon, the Adam's apple, and the limonea, which, he says, is a middle species between the Adam's apple and the lemon, and is, perhaps, a poncire.

It is surprising that Herrera, who lived after these authors, speaks only of the orange, lemon, and azamboa or toronjo, which is the Adam's apple.

Olivier de Serres says "there are known in Italy four species of orange trees, under the names of orange, citron, lemon, and limones, called, also, ponciles, and a fifth, called Adam's apple; and of each of these four there are several sorts, differing among themselves rather in size and taste than in species, their form and color remaining nearly always the same." He cites the cedria, a kind of lemon, called thus in Provence, and the horned orange or bigarade, much valued for its easy growth, adding, "there are sweet and sour oranges, and others partaking of both savors. The same may be said of lemons, citrons, and ponciles." (OLIV., Theatre of Agriculture, p. 632.)

Such was the state of the family of the agrumi in Europe at the commencement of the sixteenth century, but at this time the commercial relations which extended themselves in the countries where these fruits were indigenous, and the multiplication and use of the seed in the culture of these plants increased prodigiously the number of varieties. Thus we see, one hundred years after, Tauara counts eighty-three species or varieties, and this number, has since increased still more rapidly, either in fact or in appearance, until we see the numerous catalogues have be come a subject of despair to the most wealthy and most zealous amateur who would form a collection.

It is impossible to follow the history of all these new varieties. Many have surely been brought from India or China; such as the little Chinese, the myrtifolium, the red orange, the monstrous citron, &c. Others have been formed in our own gardens-such as the citron of Florence, the bergamotte, the poncires, the lustrat,, and the bizaria. We have seen that this last named was born at Florence in 1644, according to the testimony of a Tuscan naturalist, who has preserved for us the history of its appearing in the gardens of that city.

We have also seen that the poncires form constantly in our gardens, whenever we follow the method of seeding.

This great multiplication of hybrids and varieties was the natural result of this culture.

Leandro Alberti bas left us details of its state in Italy, about the year 1523. Navagero, Venetian Ambassador to Charles V., has given us an idea of its progress in Spain; and the relation of the voyage in Provence of Charles IX., by Abel Jouan, enables us to judge of the prodigious multiplication at Hyeres. There remains for us to examine the progress of this culture outside of Europe.

ART. VIII-The Citrus Exotic_in__ America— Naturalized after the Discovery by EuropeansProofs of this fact.

Perhaps no plant has ever spread with so much rapidity and success as the orange tree. After being propagated a short time in the temperate climes of Europe, they have passed into all the lands where Europeans carried their commerce and conquests.

The Portuguese naturalized them at Madeira, in the Canary isles, and in all their colonies in the Atlantic ocean. The Spaniards carried them to America, where, shortly after, we see those new countries, which possessed none of the trees of the old continent, presenting forests of orange trees.

It is surprising that this vast hemisphere, uniting in its extent nearly all latitudes, bad not received from Nature a tree thus suited to its soil, and which has found in its warm, moist climate a position favoring the rich vegetation with which it is endowed.

Had not the original narratives of the first Spanish discoverers of these regions, and the testimony of contemporary historians assured us that America received from Europe these fine trees, one would surely think them indigenous.

But this fact, reported in a very positive manner by all historians of that time, is still further strengthened by proofs not to be doubted without renouncing the principles of just criticism.

We have but to run over the relations by the conquerors and Spanish historians, to see that they never speak of orange trees, although they often give very brilliant descriptions of the delightful gardens of Mexico, especially those of Montezuma. The same silence respecting this tree may be noticed in relations of Peru, Brazil, and other parts of South America.

Now the orange tree is so well naturalized there, that one sees on all sides forests of them; but these forests are in places near habitations, and these trees do not exhibit marks of the great

antiquity characterizing trees indigenous to the New World.

They are generally of a medium size, although their growth is sufficiently vigorous to smother the ancient vegetation, which is overcome on all sides where the orange tree grows.

This single fact convinced one learned travel ler that the orange tree did not exist in Paraguay and La Plata until after the discovery of America by Europeans. (See Voyage in South America by Felix Azara, bk 1, p. 106)

But it is unnecessary to resort to conjectures, when one can rely on unchallenged authorities. I shall cite the Natural History of the Indies by Acosta, an author contemporary with the first conquests by Europeans; the History of Peru, by Garcilasso de la Vega, and the Natural His tory of Brazil by Pison, whose authority is of the greatest weight. The first named thus expresses himself:

"Among the trees carried to America by Europeans not one has taken as rapidly as the orange, lemon, citron, and other trees of this genus.

There are now in certain parts woods of orange trees. Surprised by this. I asked the inhabitants of one isle, Who has filled the fields with such a great quantity of these trees? They replied that it was due to chance, as the fruits fallen from the trees first planted had given birth to numberless other trees; that thus, and by means of rains carrying in all directions fruit and seeds, were formed the tufted woods seen now. This reply seemed to me very satisfactory.

"It is said that this is the most prosperous tree in the Indies, where one finds no section without orange trees, because this earth is warm and moist, a condition required for the growth of this tree.

"We do not see it in mountainous countries, but in flat lands and near the coast. I have never tasted a conserve of oranges as delicious as is made in these isles." (History, Natural and Moral, of the Indies, by Rev. Father Joseph d' Acosta, bk. 4. chap. 31.)

Pison expresses himself in the same way, in speaking of Brazil. "I shall not speak," says he, "of all those plants of which we do not yet know the remedial virtues, or which, carried else where in this country, have been well enough described before me by other writers. Such are the citron, the lemon, the orange, the grenade, the ble of Turkey, etc." (GUILIELMI PISONIS. History, Nat. and Med., of Brazil, bk. 4, p. 107.) Garcilasso de la Vega says as much relative to Peru and Chili, and this writer, descended from the Incas, and who was born at Peru soon after the invasion by the Spaniards, ought to have known the state of that country before the conquest. Here are his words: "Before the Spaniards conquered Peru, it is certain that one saw there neither figs, grenades, oranges, citrons, sour or sweet, pears, apples, apricots, quinces, peaches, alberges, nor any of the plums which grow in Spain. But one can say with truth that all these traits, and many others which I cannot remember, grow there to-day in such abundance that one cares almost nothing for them, any more than other Spanish things which increase much more in those countries of the Indies than in this realm.” (Hist. of the Incas, Kings of Peru, by the Inca, Garcilasso de la .Vega, bk. 9, c. 28.)

Witnesses thus positive leave no doubt upon the origin of the orange trees of America.

That vast hemisphere, whose soil is so fertile, and where is now found nearly all the plants of the Old World, had received from Nature but a certain number of vegetables, which belonged to it, and were unknown to the rest of the world.

Not till after its discovery by Europeans was it enriched with the greater part of those beautiful species given by Nature to countries far removed from it, of which the culture took rapidly in those fine climates.

This fact, whose certainty is so evident, is another convincing proof that each country has had, originally, its species, aud that industry alone has so mingled them in one climate as to greatly obscure their origin.

ART. IX.-The Free Sweet Orange Tree-Prejudices of Agricultural Writers Concerning its Existence-Followed by the Cultivators-Circumstances which have made it Known in Liguria-Advantages of its Culture-Conclusion. It would be interesting to those investigating the history of the citrus, to know whether the orange, naturalized in America, was the sweet orange or the bigarade. I have uselessly read the writings upon the subject for the purpose of learning the truth; none of them speak in a manner to enlighten us. Yet, notwithstanding this silence, all agree that the sweet orange was carried there at the same time as the bigarade, or, at least, soon after.

The woods seen there now are, in part, of this species, and it is natural that, being cultivated in Europe, it should be taken there by preference.

I have several times consulted planters of St. Domingo upon the nature of the orange trees of that country.

According to their reports it would appear that the sweet-fruited orange tree is still in that island-ouly a garden plant-multiplied by graft, and having no thorn. The bigarade tree, on the contrary, (called by them bitter oranges,) is found in the woods in a savage state; but the Spanish colonists have assured me that upon the Continent one may see woods of the two species.

It is surprising that the suceess of those plantations which renew themselves by seed, and give sweet fruit without being grafted, have not enlightened Europeans and led them to multiply these trees by seed. I have no means of ascertaining whether this method is known in Portugal. As to Spain I think it is not practiced there. An attentive examination of the sweet orange trees of that country has satisfied me that all are grafted.

It is certain that the method is still ignored in Sicily and Naples, and not more than half a century has elapsed since its introduction in Liguria.

I do not know, indeed, of any writer on agriculture who has spoken of the sweet orange as a mother-species, capable of perpetuating and reproducing itself by its own seed. All speak only of its multiplication by grafts, or by layers, and the greater part have given methods for moderating the harshness of free fruits by means of infusions of the seed, or other similar proceedings.

We read this, not only in the agriculture of Porta, Charles Etienne, Olivier de Serres, Rozier, Gallo, &c., but again in that of Herrara, himself a Spaniard, and one who should have known the properties of this tree in America. Olivier de Serres expresses himself in these words: "It is requisite to graft these trees in order to make them produce fruits entirely good and delightful, without which means they could not be made to do so." (Theatre of Agri., p. 632.)

Tanara, whose writings date from a century later, is the first to reject all these methods as popular errors, but does not recognize the existence of a free species of sweet fruit, and advises recourse to the graft for multiplying this species, "because [these are his words] the nat ural orange delays twelve or thirteen years to give fruit, and only yields a bad quality." This opinion is followed by all the best writers, and even by the more modern ones.

Ferraris is the only author who has known of the existence of the orange tree of sweet fruit growing from seed. This writer, the first to examine deeply into the culture of this tree, lived in a time (1646) when this method, already spread in America, had probably passed into Portugal and other parts of Europe. He ought, then, to have had an idea of it. Nevertheless, he speaks of it as a peculiarity accorded by Nature to some of the more favored climates, as the Phillipine isles and China (Fer., pp. 44, 450), and he counsels European gardeners to supply by graft the defect of climate. Thus, "in some countries, Nature, more adroit, renders art useless, because the seed of domesticated orange trees give abundantly of sweet fruit without need of being grafted. But this same benefit, accorded not by the most propitious Nature to every climate, admonishes the gardener of the necessity of correcting by graft the natural defect of the wild orange." (Fer.-Hesperides, p. 450.) He also tells of some specimens seen at Corfu, and at Rome, but regards them as phenomena, seeing that he establishes as a maxim that the most perfect seed of the sweetest orange will yield only plants bearing sour and wild fruit, which require to be improved by the graft. (Fer., p. 450.)

Such is the force of habit and prejudice; when an opinion has taken root in the mind of men, it is not sufficient for its destruction that Nature reveals herself by her operations. Prejudice will long contend against belief of facts; and those who dare first to attack these prejudices, must expect censure, and be content to relinquish the honor of their discoveries during life. More than a century has passed since Ferraris remarked that there were climates where the sweet orange reproduced itself from seed, and still the prejudice in favor of the graft exists in the minds of the greater number of agricultural writers.

It is by means of the graft, or by cuttings, that this tree is still multiplied at Salo, in Sicily, and in Naples, and always upon citron trees. It is by graft upon the bigarade that the sweet orange is multiplied at Seville, at Valencia, in Crete, at Nice, and in Provence.

M. Vacca, a land-owner at Finale, and owner of many orange trees, when at Palermo in 1790, was at the country seat of the Marquis Airoldi, then President of Sicily. Seeing only small

trees in these gardens, as well as in all parts of the isle, he expressed astonishment, and gave so ||glowing a description of the Finale orange trees, that he was scarcely believed. But the details given by him were so positive, that M. Airolde, a great amateur of oranges, and a well informed man, decided to make a voyage to Finale, expressly to see our plantations. He came there in 1793-94, and was so surprised by the beauty of our trees, that, on returning to Sicily, he took with him a family of cultivators, in order to conduct his plantations according to the method in Finale.

I know not whether he was made to see that the beauty of these plants was only due to the nature of the tree, which, coming from seed, is more vigorous; nor whether he afterwards introduced at Palermo the culture of free trees. I only know that even at that period the orange at Sicily was but a grafted tree, and that the most beautiful ones there gave only twelve or fifteen hundred oranges each.

This custom of grafting had in its favor several circumstances. The grafted orange gave fruit almost immediately, while a free tree produced fruit only after twelve or fifteen years; this, of itself, would appear important enough to give the preference to the common method. Many other reasons united to sustain it. From the first, it was supposed that the bigarade resisted cold better than the sweet orange (nec hiemem reformidant utpote habitu calidiora. FER., p. 451), and this advantage seemed very important. Afterwards it was said that it had the real advantage of submitting more readily to cultivation in boxes, because it grew more slowly, and remained smaller, than the free orange tree. Finally, the custom of grafting suited the views of the speculating gardeners, as well as amateurs. Both had no other object than to be assured of the varieties they possessed, and which they desired to preserve. The success of the seed was distant and uncertain.

Thus it could interest none but the philosopher desirous to study Nature in her operations; and he would need, in addition to an absorbing love for science, means and leisure in order to devote to this study land and time.

Thus we see why there has been such delay in learning the nature of this species, which, during a number of years, has existed but precariously upon a different species.

But at length chance led to this discovery. The frost of 1709 caused the destruction of all the orange trees in Liguria. To form the seedbeds of the nurserymen the seeds of the sweet orange were used, this being the only fruit sent from southern districts for consumption in Italy. These plants were condemned by the gardeners to be grafted, the same as bigarades had been, but the frost, following that of 1709, destroyed many of these grafts.

Ordinarily, they grafted anew the vigorous sprouts from the trunk. Some were, however, neglected; and these gave, after some years, very fine oranges.

This phenomenon excited the surprise and attracted the attention of several cultivators. They experimented by allowing many of these rejetons to grow without grafting, until a constant and uniform success at length convinced

them that one might have sweet oranges without recourse to the graft.

I have, at Finale, a country-seat, where, in 1718, my grandfather planted a great number of orange trees. The plants, all grafted, were furnished, according to custom, by the nurserymen of Nervi. Placed in these gardens, they made prodigious increase, so that every one was astonished, and imputed this rapid growth to the fresh earth brought to form these artificial gardens, or to the happy exposure of the field, and the abundance of water ornamenting and fertilizing the place.

Peculiar circumstances, which I propose to speak of in the second part of this work, secured them from the frosts occurring in that century (notably, that murderous freeze of 1763,) until 1782, when they were frozen to the stumps. Cut close to the earth, they grew in the spring vigorously, and the sprouts, known to be free, were raised without being grafted.

Unfortunately, a large number perished by the frost of 1799. Yet several stalks escaped, and each of them yielded, in 1806, as many as three thousand oranges.

tion, and a rapid increase, such as had never been seen in the old plantations. The gardens of Finale were soon filled with this new race, called seed orange trees (arancio di grana), and little by little it was also adopted in neighboring districts, chiefly at Savona, at Pietra, and at Spezzia, where they now raise only free trees.

The orange trees of Finale are perhaps the finest to be seen in Europe. Those of Sicily bear very sweet fruit, but not a tree produces more than twelve or fifteen hundred. The trees of the Archipelago, of Salo, of Nice, and of Hyeres, yielded no more than those of Sicity. I have seen those of Murcia, of Tariffa, and of Seville. They seem to me to be no larger than those at Finale.

The monks of Los Remedios, who have, perhaps, the finest garden in Andalusia, assured me that they have gathered from their trees as many as 5,000 oranges each, but nowhere have I seen as large fruit as in the neighborhood of the city of Finale.

The garden of M. Alizeri contains a hundred sweet trees, the smallest of which gives from twenty-five hundred to three thousand oranges. More than half of them bear from three to four thousand.

It is necessary to state that the rejetons (sprouts from the roots) of a tree already adult bear fruit at the end of three years, sometimes even sooner. This has facilitated the observation just spoken of. It is not easy to forget or neglect a small plant, leaving it ungrafted during a sufficient time for seeing it fruit, because it reaches this point only after fifteen or twenty years, but a rejeton is, necessarily, left to grow and gain strength for three or four years, before a choice is made of the most suitable for grafting, and in this interval the rejeton will certainly put forth flowers, which set themselves very easily and give fruit. It is precisely this which has brought about the discovery in question.

The observation respecting free trees, made for the first time at Finale, drew the attention of all the amateurs, and they formed immediately in this country many nurseries of sweet orange After the frost of 1763 these plantations were extended; especially where old trees had perished, the free trees were substituted.

trees.

The success of these plantations justified at once the method that was being tried. Not a single one of these plants failed to bear sweet fruit.

There was the satisfaction also of seeing that these free trees displayed a vigor in their vegeta10

there is one, distinguished as having yielded eight thousand. This beautiful tree grows to the height of nine metres (nearly thirty feet). Its branches, which form a globe, and descend even to the ground, present a circumference of thirty-four metres (more than one hundred and eleven feet). The stem, still young and vigorous, is nearly five feet in circumference.

It is solely by this method (of free trees) that the culture of the orange has been carried to a degree of success rarely seen in exotic plants. In less than sixty years this has advanced the naturalization of the tree much more than grafting and other methods had done in the space of several centuries, and offers an example of what we should expect of all vegetation multiplied by this means.

It has not been without interest, this search to ascertain by what steps this result has been reached, and what circumstances had made it known.

This was the task I imposed upon myself, and which, I think, I have accomplished in this chapter.

I am happy if my investigations shall aid the progress of agriculture, which is the most substantial source of wealth, and the basis of the prosperity of nations.