The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1895-02-05
CALIFORNIA; BEST PRODUCT
A Little History of Orange
Nomenclature.
Orange Cultivation Antedates Trust.
worthy History.
Under - Multiplicity OF Names the Fruit
ITSELF Has Always Been
Popular.

last few weeks muat have drawn atten
ton TO two faets at least; first, the i'm
portant part which the orange plays il
| the prosperity OF whole state, as wei
as in the food market. and. secondly
that even ia Florida, with its balml
bsoezss, she orange tree is exposed Il
risks which ID is unable to meet, be-
cause IL is removed from Its native home
Gays Robert Blight. ia the New Yorl
Evening Post.
| A wor d or two ss TO it's name. The
Sanskrit name is nagrunga, which be-
cams nsrungee in HindustRni and
naranj in Arabic. We next get naranjs
in Spanish, and narazi in Italian. IL
the latter language the IN" was
dropped and the word took the form Of
arancia. This in tarn was Latinizod
into surantium, probably because
Latin in medieval times was the Ian
guage OF intorcom municstion between
nations. snd finally, owing to false
derivation of the fret syllable from the
Latin for gold we get the French form
which the word bears in our own lam
guage-orange. The original root mar
is probably the ssme as the word still
found in Poreian for pomsgranste.
HISTORY OF THE ORANGE.
The tree which furnishes us with the
luscious fruit belongs to the genus citrus.
and its congeners are. TO give them their
popular names. the ohsddock or "grape-
fruit the citron, the lemon, the lime,
ths sweet lime. and, if we add varieties
OF oranges which have wrongly been
elevated to the RANK of species, this
mandarin and the bergamot
Like many Of the fruitu now 40 mecca.
sary to mans comfort, the orange pos
aesses q history that is almost lost in
the mists OF the past. IL may be worth
while, however, to gather up what we
can. All varieties of "orange" seem to
be reducibe to two-the bitter orange
and the sweet orange. The former IL
known commonly as the bigersde, or
Seville orange, the latter name arising
from the fact that the ancient historic
town OF Spain became a great center OF
it's cultivation. Ii has. however, a very
wide range, even in Europe, where it
has long been valued as the source OF or
ange marmalade, as well as for the dried
rind, which is used as All aromatic tom
10 in both the tincture aud the infusion,
and Tor the essential oil largely used in
psriumery. This was undou btedly the
first orange known to the dwellers
around the sunny Mediterranean
Europeans often regarded as the horne
OF the orange. Greeks aud Romans,
although acquainted with the "MedRn
apple" or ciTron, were ignorant of evsn
the bitter orange. 1t came TO those
Mediterranean shores in curious
way.
1t is found in a wild state in northern
India, Sir Joseph Hooker, among others,
recording it from several districts south
OF the Himalayae Fruit two inches in
diameter. spherical or slightly tiattened,
bright in color, uneatahle, of a nawkieh
bitter taate, ia found on these wild trees.
Occasionally sweet fruit has been re-
ported, but the statements need cor
roboration.
DESCRIBED IN sANsKRIr.
De Csndolle. ons OF the greatest su-
thorities, thinks that India is not its
native place, and refers it to Southern
China and Burmah. From this region
the tree was introduced into India. and,
becoming known to the Arabs, was car.
ried by them TO Arabia about the tenth
century of the Christian era. 1t soon
was found in Mesopotamia and Syria,
then in Egypt and tho rest of North
Africa, and in Spain, borne along in the
tide OF Moorish conquest. from
which its spread seems TO be
insepareble. In the twelfth CEN
tury Crusaders brought it from
Palestine to Italy and the south of
France. st. Dominic. the founder of
the Dominicsns, is said to have planted
an orange tree in the garden of St. Ss-
bina, in 1900, which is said to be living
now and to bear fruit. All this time
we do not hear anything about the
sweet orange. and up to the fifteenth
century Arab books aud chronicles only
mention bitter or aour oranges. In the
seventeen Sanskrit descriptive words for
the orange there is no alusion to q
sweet or agreeable taste, but there ia
reference to the color, the odor, the acid
nature as harmful to the teeth, and to
whence, then. did the sweet orange
become known to European civil
lizstion? II it had bsen cultivated in
Indie. there would have been Sanskrit
name for it and suitable words to de-
scribe its pleasant character; but there
are none. Had il been q fruit in use
when Alexander the Great invaded the
land, the Greeks would have become &C.
quainted with it. as they did with the
banana. Hebrews, with their intimate
acquaintance and connection with
Mesopotamia. could hardly have failed
to know it. Mighty Rome would
assuredly have introduced it to minister
to tho luxury OF ths imperial and
courtly epicures. All these considers.
tons marrow the question.
THE SWEET ORANGE.
There are incidental mentions OF its
being cultivated in Spain and Italy in
the beginning OF the sixteenth century.
II we try back from this period. we fl nd
that the Florentine who accompanied
Vasco de- CANA in his voyage round the
Cape OF Good Hops in l497, states that
in the islands OF Southern Asia there
are plenty OF orangse, but all sweet"
There is no surprise at the Pile assntness
OF tho taste, but an evident knowled &c
of the sweet orange and astonishmsnt
that the bitter one is absent. This
seems to justify the inference that the
historian knew both very we'll. A
statute of the archepiacopal city OF
Fermo, in central Italy, of the date
1888, mentiond, oitrons, sweet or
anges, etc. When, therefore, the
Portuguese brought eweet oranges
from India aud from China, which they
reached in 1918, they brought no new
fruit, although they may have brought
superior variety. This. in fact, seems to