Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1873-08-07
ABOUT ORANGES.
The Sale Of the Blossoms Grown MT the
Tuilcrics.

orange blossoms grown within the
Tuileries and Luxembourg orangerics
has just taken place, as usual. under
the supervision of the Director of the
Public Domains. In no CITY of the
world are those blossoms 50 generally
employed rs in Paris =; chemists use
every part Of. pistil, leaves, and petals
for pharmaceutical purposes perfum
ers extract nm essence called ''Portu-
gal" from the rind OF the fruit, aud
distil the most delicate eau dc. fleur
d'orange for tho skin; confectioners
frost the, buds over WITH gu.
gar, and? employ the water for
pasti1les; cooks owe the success of q
number of entremets to its flavor, and
many are the invalids who feel relieved
by the soothing effects of orange-flower
tea. Any traveller who has visited the
department oftthe Yariwill remember
that every other cottage in the villages
around Grasse bears the sign OF an
orange or orange tree painted over the
door, for every inhabitant either sells
or manufactures a liquor or an essence
from the product of the trees or flowers.
1t has been remarked that nature was
never more bOunteous than when she
showered down perfume on the valleys
and environs of Grasse, the streets of
this busy little town being the filthiest
and narrowest of any in the south of
France.
Although the orange has row become
as common fruit with us as the apple,
there is poetic fancy connected with
Southern orange groves which our
Northern oranges do not inspire. The
Seville orange goes by the name of
narln8, whence the Spanish naranga,
and our derivate orange, but It is not a
native OF Spain. Tho original orange
tree was conveyed from India to Pales-
tine and Syria, whence the crusaders
brought it to Marseilles with the april
cot and Damascus plum. The Geuoese
were the first to discover it's value as an
article of trade, and as early as 1896 We
read OF q prince purchasing orange
trees at Nice, but the oranges sold
were the bitter and intensely sour fruit,
which royalty, in such distant DAYS.
did not dlsdain to eat with salt.
We read that Charles TX. of France
was astonished ct the thickness and
beauty of the orange forests of Hyeres.
The French called these Wild oranges
brigadiers, just as they now call the
wild cherry bigarreau." The sweet
orange was first brought from China,
and tho earliest of them grew in Por-
tugal, Africa, and along the Med1ter-
rauean, the Bidah and Maltese orange
soon becoming famous. There are four
historical orange trees-one ut Nice, in
1873, which had attained the prodi-
gious height of fifty feet, and under the
shade of which forty guests sat down
to table. An orange Is still shown At
the Convent of st. Sabina, little way
out OF Rome, which was planted by st.
Dominic. in 1860; there is another at the
Fund.- Monastery, Naples, planted by
st. Thomas d'Aquinas, and the fourth
is the Grand Bourbon, at the Yer
sailles Orangery. The history of the
Grand Bourbon is recorded in the
Royal archives, as follows: In 1921 a
Princess of Navarro planted within q
box In the garden of Pampeluna the
five small seeds of a bitter orange. In
1899 Catherine do Folk, being DESTROYS
to offer to Anne de Bretagne a very
rare present, sent her the box in which
the five seeds had grown up and formed
five small orange trees; she also sent
the history of their origin and culture.
In the course of time these trees came
down to the Constable de Bourbon,
who greatly priced them, and had them
transplanted, rs his predecessors had
successively done, and thus promoted
their growth. These orange trees were
the pride of his gardens at the Chateau
de Chantelles- en- Bourbonnais, When
Francis /. con6scated the property the
trees were carried to Fontainebleau.
We find them mentioned in Dan
geau's Journal, under the date of 9TH
of June, 1857: "Toward five this Of
ternoon the KING went on foot to the
orangery, wither the fine orange trees
have been conveyed from Fontaine-
bleau." The tree referred to in the
inventory OF the Constable's posses
sions was put down as an s'oranee tree
with five branches, brought from Pam
peluna." Three of these five stems
have grown together, and form but one
trunk, but the other two part some
way up the trunk, and form two sepa-
rate orange trees.
One of the most singular botanical
facts related of any tree is that the
same orange bush often contains flow
ers, green fruit and fully ripe fruit at
the same time, and few know that this
it is which caused early poets to call it
the emblem of brides, "for," as says
an old Latin chronicler, t'my bride
is my children's mother, comely
flower by the side of her small fruit. "
Another curious fact in regard to
orange trees is that they can be trans
planted at any age, even very old
trees. In tropical countries the best
transplanting seasons are December
and June, on account of tho frequent
rains. There are several methods of
rearing sweet oranges. Many plant
the seed and wait for five or seven years
before the fruit grows this is the long,
slow way. The best is to obtain sour
orange trees of the proper size, and
bud them with sweet orange buds in
the same way as peach trees. The or
binary time of their bearing after that
is three years.
The limits of this paper do not ad-
nit of further detail on the sale of ar
tificial orange flowers in Paris, but this
article slone brings in several millions
yearly, and employs many hundred
hands, both for manufacturing and ex-
portation. Kid, wax, and muslin are
the materials employed with such rare
art and ingenuity.