The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-02-17
ALL ABOUT ORANGES
DERIVATION OF THE WORD AND
NATIVITY OF THIS GOLDEN FRUIT.
It's Cultivation Has Spread from
ritory-The sweet Turns Bitter.

orange crop In f1Or1Qa WITHIN the last rev
weeks must have drawn attention to two
facts at least first the important part which
the orange plays in the prosperity of
whole State. as we'll 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 it's native home. Frost,
too, caused serious damage to the orange
groves in southern California in the winter
of 1894.
A word two to it's name The Sanskrit
name is nagrunga, which became narungee
in Hindustani and naranj in Arabic. We
next get naranja in Spanish, and narazi in
Italian. In the latter language the M was
dropped and the word took the form of
amelia. This in turn was Latinized into
rantium, probably because Latin in med
iaeval times was the language of intercom-
munication between nations, and, finally,
owing to false derivation of the first syla-
BILE, 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 is probably the same as the
word still found in Persian for a pomegran-
ate.
The tree which furnishes us with the lus-
cious fruit belongs to the genus citrus. and
It's congeners are, to give them their popu-
the citron, the lemon, the lime. the sweet
lime, and If we add varieties of oranges
which have wrongly been elevated to the
rank of species, the mandarin and the berg
amot.
Like many of the fruits now so necessary
To- TO man , comfort; the orange possesses
the past. 1t may be worth while, however.
TO- gather up what we can All varieties OF
bitter orange and the sweet orange. The
former is known commonly as the brigande,
or Seville orange, the latter name arising
from no fnnf nrin fnxy
OF spain became great center of its Gull
tivation. 1t has, however, very wide
valued the source of orange marmalade,
as well as for the dried rind, which is used
as an aromatic tonic in both the tincture
largely used in perfumery. This
doubtedly the first orange known to the
jewellers around the sunny Mediterranean,
by Europeans often regarded as the home
OF the orange. Greeks and Romans, al
though acquainted with the ''Median apple"
or citron, were ignorant of even the bitter
orange. 1t came to those Mediterranean
shores in a curious way.
1t is found in wild state in northern
India, Sir Joseph Hooker, among others,
recording it from several districts south of
the Himalayas. Fruit two inches in diam
eter, spherical or slightly flattened, bright
In color, UNBEATABLE, of a mawksh bitter
taste, is found on these wild trees. Occa-
s1onally sweet fruit has been exported, but
the statements need confederation.
ITS NATIVE PLACE
De Candolle, one of the greatest author
tiles, thinks that India is not it's native
place, and refers it to southern China aid
Burmah. From this region the tree was
introduced into India. and, becoming known
to the Arabs, was carried by them to Ara
bia about the tenth century of 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 Moorish conquest. from which its spread
seems to be inseparable. In the twelfth
century Crusades brought it from Palestine
to Italy and the south of France. st. Domi-
mic, the founder of the Domincans, is said
to nave planted an orange tree in the gar
be living now and to bear fruit Eli this
time we do not hear anything about the
fury Arab books and chronicles mention
bitter or sour oranges. IN the seventeen
Sanskrit descriptive words FOR the orange
there is no allusion 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, there would
able words to describe it's pleasant character:
but there are none. Had 1T been a fruit in
land, the Greeks would nave become
quainted with it, they did with the
banana. Hebrews with their intimate &C
quaintance and connection with Mesopota-
mia, could hardly have tail ed TO know it.
Mighty Rome would assuredy have intro
duced it to minister to the luxury of the
considerations narrow the question.
There are incidental mentions of it's being
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 Vasco da
CANA in his voyage around the Cape of
Good Hope, in 1897, states that in the isl
ands of Southern Asia there are plenty of
oranges, but all sweet There is
prise at the pleasantness of the TASTE but
an evident knowledge of the sweet orange,
and astonishment that the bitter one is abb
sent. This seems to justify the inference
that the historian knew both very we'll.
statue of the archiepiscopal city of Fer
mo, in central Italy, of the date of 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 new
fruit, although they may have brought
superior variety. This, in fact, seems to
be. more than probable, for they began the
Azores and their own peninsula, and soon
Portuguese and Lisbon oranges became
synonym for the best, while for years the
famous ST. Michael oranges from the
Azores were accounted the most delicious,
long after their culture ceased.
THE SWEET AND BITTER STOCK
curious question will now arise as to
the connection between the bitter and the
sweet orange. Are they such distinct fruits
or plants as to amount to distinct species:
d
stock? Is there any sign of interchange,
or Of reversion? Gallesio, who is looked
upon as most careful observer of the
orange family, says that during a long
series of years he sowed pips of sweet or
anges taken sometimes from the natural
tee, sometimes from sweet oranges grated
on bitter-orange stocks and lemon stocks.
and the result always trees bearing
sweet oranges. He declared that for sixty
years, around his town of Finale, the
same result had been observed, and he
crarge tree from seed of sweet oranges nor
of a sweet orange tree from the seed of
bitter oranges. In 1709 the orange trees of
Fir ale having been killed by frost, the prac-
tice of raising sweet orange trees from seed
was introduced, and every one of these
plants produced the sweet-juiced fruit
These statements of a competent authority
would appear to be conclusive, but such is
not the case. Mr.. Macfayden, the author of
the Flora of jamaica" another competent
observer, says that sit is a well-established
fact, familiar to every one who mas been
any length of time in the island, that the
seed of the, sweet orange very frequently
grows up into a tree bearing the bitter
fruit, numerous well-attested instances of
which have come to my own knowledge. l
am not aware, however, that the seed of the
bitter orange has ever grown UP into the
sweet-fruited variety" He therefore con-
cludes that the bitter orange is the original
stock and points out that in certain soils the