The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-02-03
HISTORY or THE ORANGE.
Derivation of the word and Nativity
of the Fruit.
Robert Blight, in New York Post.

DeFANauOh OF the " ora anu NnItNtt9
of the Fruit.
Robert Blight, in New York Post
The catastrophe which has befallen the
orange crop in Florida within the last
few weeks must have drawn attention to
two facts at least: First. the important
part which. the orange plays in the pros
perity Of whole state, as well as in
the food market; and secondly. that
even in Florida. with its balmy breezes,
the orange tree is exposed to risks which
it is unable to meet. because it is removed
from its native home. Frost. too. caused
serious damage TO the orange groves in
Southern California in the winter OF
1894
A word or two as to its name: The
Sanskrit name is nagrunga, which became
narungee in Hndustani and uaranj in
Ara We next get narania i'm Spanish,
and nazari In Italian. In the latter lam
guage the m was dropped and the word
| took the form Of aranca. This in turn
/ was Latinized into aurantium, probably
/ because Latin ia AIcdaevial times was the
/ language of intercommunication between
I nations, and, finally, owing to a false DE-
/ rvation Of the first syllable from the Latin
/ for gold we get the French form which
| the name of the fruit bears in our own
/ language-orange. The original root mar
/ il probably the same as the word stil
| found in Persian for a pomegranite
/ The tree which furnishes us with the
luscious fruit belongs TO the genus citrus
and its congeners are, to give them their
popuar names the .shaddock, or grape
/ fruit. the citron. the lemon. the lime the
sweet lime. and, if we add varieties Of or
anges which have wrongly been elevated
/ TO the rank OF species, the mandarin and
/ the bergamot
Like many of the fruits now so nee
essary to mans comfort. the orange pos
/ sesses history which is almost lost IN
the mists of the past. 1t NAV be worth
1 while, however, TO gather up what we can.
I All varieties Of orange seem TO be re-
| ducible to two-the bitter orange and the
sweet orange. The former is known COM
monty as the bigarade, OF Seville orange,
| the latter name arising from the fact
that the ancient historic town Of Spain
became great center of its cultivation.
/ 1t has, however. a very wide range, even
| in Europe, where it has long been valued
as the source of orange marmalade, as
well as for the dried rind which is used
as an aromatic tonic in both the tincture
! and the infusion, and for the essential
oil largely used in perfumery. This was
undoubtedly the first orange known TO
/ the dwellers around the sunny Mediter-
ranean, by Europeans often regarded as
the home orange, Greeks and Romans,
although acquainted with the "Median ap
pie" or citron. were ignorant Of even the
bitter orange. II came to those Medlter-
ranean shores in a curios way
II is found ia a wild state in northern
/ India. Sir Joseph Hooker. among others,
/ recording it from several districts south
/ of the Himalayas. Fruit two inches IN
diameter spherical or slightly 1attened,
/ bright in color, UNBEATABLE, OF mawk
ish bitter taste is found on these wild
trees. Occasionally sweet fruit has been
reported, but the statements need corro-
boration.
I De Candolle. one of the greatest author
/ tiles thinks that India is not its native
/ Mace. and refers it to southern China and
( RlIrmab From this region the tree was
/ introduced into India. and. becoming
I knoyn to the Arabs was carried by them
4 to Arabia about the tenth century OF
I the Christian era. 1t soon was found IN
/ Mesopotamia and Syria, then in Egypt
| and the rest of North Africa. and in
/ Spain, borne along in the tide of the
! Moorish conquest from which its spread
! seems to be inseparable. In the twelfth
! century Crusaders brought IL from Pales-
tine to Italy and the south Of France.
St Dominic, the founder of the Domlni
cans is said to have planted an orange
tree in the garden of St. Saoina. in 100,
which is said TO be living now and to bear
fruit All this time we do not hear any
thing about the sweet orange. and up to
the fifteenth century Arab books and
! chronicles only mention bitter or sour
1 ranges In the seventeen Sanskrit de-
scriptive words for the orange there Is no
aliusion to a sweet or agreeable taste,
but there is reference to the color, the
odor the acid nature as harmful to the
teeth and to the place of growth. When
and whence, then. did the sweet orange
/ become known to European civilization
| If it had been cultivated in INDIA, mere
would have been a Sanskrit name for 1t
and suitable words to describe its pleas
ant character but there are none. Had
If been a fruit in use when Alexander the
! Great invaded the land, the Greeks would
| have become acquainted with H. as they
did with the banana. Hebrews with
| their intimate acquaintance and cOnnec-
ton with Mesopotamia, could hardly have
failed to know it. Mighty Rome would
sssuredIy have introduced it to minister
to the luxury of the imperial and courtly
epicures. All these considerations narrow
the question.
cultivated in Spain and Italy in the begin
ming of the sixteenth century. If we try
back from this period, we find that the
Florentine who accompanied Nasco da
Cana in his voyage round the Cape of
| Good Hope in 1881 states that in the is
lands of Southern Asia there are plenty
of oranges. but all sweet" There is no
surprise at the pleasantness of the taste,
but an evident knowledge of the sweet
I orange and establishment that the bitter
one is absent. This seems to justify the
inference that the historian knew both
very we'll a statute of the archiepiscopal
city Of Fermo, in central Italy. Of the date
1879. mentions citrons, sweet oranges, etc.
When therefore, the Portuguese brought
sweet oranges from India and from China,
which they reached in 1913 they brought
no new fruit. although they may have
brought superior variety. This. in fact,
seems to be more than probable for they
began the culture Of the Chinese stock in
the Azores and their own peninsula. and
soon Portuguese and Lisbon oranges be-