The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1890-05-07


obovate, pear-shaped thick and thin skinned.
Juicy dry, some with and others without seeds,
some bearing seed at the end, outside OF the fruit
while others present navel-like prOtuberance at
the same point with seeds, and in passing
through these groves it will be observed that
trees will contain but little fruit while 9th
will be loaded to excess From Essay on Linn
it's OfProftable Citrus Culture, by III. j. RudiSH;
American Horticultural Society. 1888.
The above extracts outline the scope OF scien-
tifc naturalists investigation and the breadth of
the fields as applied to citrus fruits. will here
express regret that the treatise of Galleso on the
citrus is out of print and inaccessible to the pub
lie.
1t contains the results of years of patient ex
pertinent and investigation by which estab-
lished the divisions and classification of all the
species then accessible. The work should be in
| the hands of every orange grower who takes
more than mercenary interest in his calling and
| is OF more practical value in promoting exact
| knowledge than all the other works we have
the subject. 1t is not edifying to from time to
time in print, crude remarks on Navels and their
origin, strangely marked hybrids and varieties
| or occasional individual monsters
There are well defined laws of pollen fertiliza-
| ton by which these formed, and l will briefly
comment on the facts discovered by Galesio, our
present knowledges and the possibilities of the
| future.
Although his work was done neatly century
| ago. before the day of Darwin's theories, yet he
recognized in the citrus family the diversity of
| species which have become fixed from the primal
types and comments on their evolution. He d-
vides the citrus of Europe into two sections, the
sour or Bgande orange and the citron. He was
unacquainted with the shaddock and Citrus
NobliS which he describes from the observation of
| others. these traCoablo
| species and varieties in general cultivation.
| These came true to seed in his day which,
| for that reason, he classified species of the
| sour orange, sweet orange lemon and citron We
| now have the lime, bitter sweet and Blood
| anges and perhaps others that come fairly true
| to seed.
| He established the law of direct pollen fertza-
ton as the source of all hybrds and varieties
which could come only from seed, and secuted
| the idea of bud variation then held by cultiva-
| tors which Mr.. Phelps has established being
! due to the direct influence of pollen on adjacent
twig buds which can epropagatedif buddedsoon
after blooming.
| To propagate varieties with certainty, true to
| type, budding wood must be taken before the
bloom comes out. Gallesio searched exhaustively
| to discover when the sweet orange was introduced
into Europe, but could find no data and con-
WINGED himself that it must have been
brought gradually by way of Arabia and
Egypt. 1 am, however, of the opinion it origi-
mated separately in the different places where the
sour orange and the citron were grown together
in Europe well China, hybrids were
| known of the citron till the sour orange was in
| PRODUCED by the Crusaders.
The characteristics of the different strains of
oranges are too diverse to have sprung from the
same source Fortuitous hybrids of excellence
are few and far between, and the tendency of their
seedlings is backward toward the primary types.
All species of citrus were, till the latter part of
the eighteenth century, prOpagated entirely by
layers and gratis, as the tradition and experience
| had been that seedlings, especially of the sweet
orange, would revert towards the sour or bitter
orange. The type, however, had then, by long
| cultivation, become fixed and the same is becom
ing true of the Bloods and Navels. The exceed
| ing diversity and graduation of effect on and of
| the points that go to make up the physical and
Juice characteristics, has produced nnumerable ny
| birds and varieties and our horticultural pro-
| gress demands that similar and inferior varieties
and the strains that form the best types described
Systematically, as with the apple, grape and
| peach.
1t is the labor of generation to fix and develop
oranges like the Washington Navel and Tar
diff, and from analysing the parentage of such
we can gain data to aid in the work of making
artifcialy new varieties
/