Citrus tree

“ Citrus nobilis Lour. Mandarin.
A small tree 3.6 to 6 meters in height, with a dense head of upright or willowy, drooping branches; bark dark brownish or streaked with gray; branchlets light green or dark in color, small, slender, round or angled, thornless, or provided with small sharp spines; leaves small, lanceolate to oval, slightly crenate; petioles short, wingless, or with very small wings; flowers terminating the branchlets or axillary, sometimes clustered, 18 to 25 millimeters across, sweet scented; calyx small, shallow, cupped, the petals small; petals white, fleshy, recurved ”

“ There is one species which is fairly hardy, the Citrus trifoliata, from Japan, [191:2] forming a pretty bush with sweet flowers, and small but useless fruit (seldom, I believe, produced out-of-doors) ; it is often used as a stock on which to graft the better kinds, but perhaps it might be useful for crossing, so as to give its hardiness to a variety with better flower and fruit.
Commercially the Orange holds a high place, more than 20,000 good fruit having been picked from one tree, and England alone importing about 2,000,000 bushels annually. ”

“ The orange tree is the hardiest member of the citrus family, and is raised farther north than most fruits that grow in the tropics. There is a variety known as the sour orange, some plants of which have become wild, and are known as bitter-sweets. ”

“ The most interesting plants of to-day are a Santalacea, a climbing species, racemis subpendulis, of Citrus—Citrus scandens, Cardiopteris of which I found old fruit alone, a new Roydsia, R. parviflora mihi.
The vegetation of the plains continues unchanged, a Dillenia with small yellow flowers is common on their skirts, Bignonia cordata occurs as a large tree; no one has seen teak. There is something peculiar in the appearance of the trees of the plains, especially of the Nauclea; they look scraggy. I picked up the flowers of an arborescent Hibiscus, and the fruit of Lagertræmia grandiflora. ”

“ Seedlings are probably the hardiest, and will stand the most neglect, but experience is showing that worked trees are the most profitable to grow. The growth of all kinds of citrus-trees from seed is a very simple matter, all that is necessary being a well-prepared seed bed of friable soil that is partially shaded from the heat of the sun, so as to protect the young plants. Selected, fully ripe fruit from well-grown, prolific, healthy trees is taken, and the seeds sown in rows in the seed bed, or broadcast when weeds are not likely to be any trouble. ”

“ The pepper-tree, with its drooping, graceful, fern-like tops, seems to be always in flower. On the same plant may be seen all stages, from the small flower-buds to the ripe, rose-colored berries. This very popular shade-tree belongs with the sumacs and poison-ivy, and is pervaded with a bitter, milky juice. Various species of acacias were in bloom. Good specimens of phyllodia were obtained from these trees, loaded with their small spheres of fine flowers.
The orange, lemon, and lime, in the genus Citrus, are all examples of plants that may have flowers and ripe fruit at the same time. ”

“ Citrus (orange, lemon, shaddock) : In all regions of no frost. India. Cultivated in Persia, Syria, southern Europe, northern Africa, Spain, China, Japan, Sicily, Australia, Brazil, West Indies, Florida, southern California, Azores.
Order XV.—Meliaceæ: Trees; thirty-seven genera.
Swietenia (mahogany) : Large tree. Tropical and sub-tropical. West Indies, Bahamas, Central America, southern Florida. Cultivated in southern British India.
Order XVI.—Iliciniæ: Trees and shrubs; three genera.
Ilex (Paraguay tea) : Small tree. Paraguay. In Parana, ten million pounds produced annually. ”

“ Trees in full bearing often yield up to 40 cases, but these are usually old seedlings, which bear a very heavy crop one year and a comparatively light crop the next. All the instances I have quoted are from worked trees, which are found to give the most regular and constant yields. Until quite recently, citrus-trees were almost entirely grown from seed in this State, with the result that we have a very large number of types, and many crosses between different species. ”

“ It is possible to bud as you propose, and it is not necessary to go back to the old stock. Work in above the forks.
No Citrus Fruits on Lemon Roots.
Would it be any advantage to bud the Washington Navel on grapefruit and lemon roots?
The grapefruit or pomelo is a good root for the orange, and some propagators prefer it. The lemon root is not used at present, because of its effect in causing a coarse growth of tree and fruit and because it is more subject to disease than the orange root. In fact, we grow nearly all lemons on orange roots. ”

“ Citrus mitis Blanco. Calamondin.
A small, somewhat spiny tree, 4 to 6 meters tall; young growth greenish; leaves elliptic oblong, 4 to 9 centimeters long and about 4 centimeters wide, crenulate; base acute; apex usually emarginate; petiole scarcely winged, 10 to 15 millimeters long; flowers axillary, solitary, rarely in pairs, 21 millimeters in diameter, fragrant; petals white, reflexed; stamens 18 to 20, unequal; filaments united into groups; ovary globose, 6 to 8 loculed; style slender, distinct; stigma knoblike; fruit globose, orange [13] yellow, 2 to 4 centimeters in diameter ”

“ Shaddock—Citrus decumana, Willdenow.
I take this species first, because its botanical character is more marked than that of the others. It is a larger tree, and this species alone has down on the young shoots and the under sides of the leaves. The fruit is spherical, or nearly spherical, larger than an orange, sometimes even as large as a man’s head. The juice is slightly acid, the rind remarkably thick. Good illustrations of the fruit may be seen in Duhamel, Traité des Arbres, edit. 2, vii. pl. 42, and in Tussac, Flore des Antilles, iii. ”

“ Citrus webberii var. montana. Cabugao.
A shrubby tree with slender branches and small, weak spines, sometimes absent; young growth green; leaves 8.5 to 14 centimeters long, 3 to 3.5 centimeters broad, ovate to ovate oblong, crenate, dark green above, shining; base broadly acute to rounded; apex blunt pointed, usually retuse; [15] petiole 24 to 38 millimeters long, with narrow wing margin, in large leaves sometimes 17 millimeters broad; flowers not seen; fruit roundish oblate, about 45 millimeters across, somewhat corrugate, 8 loculed. ”

“ Your citrus trees will not be injured for a time unless mold should set in from the wet sacks. Get them into the ground as soon as the soil comes into good condition, and cover the top for a time after they are planted to protect them against frosts. This would be better than to hold them too long in the balls, but do not plant in cold, wet soil; hold them longer as they are. ”

“ The fruit of a tree, Citrus medica, indigenous to northern India, but largely cultivated in the countries situated around the Mediterranean and in other countries. It is cultivated both for the pleasant acid juice of the fruit and for their fragrant rinds. Only the latter are of value for our purposes. It occurs in European commerce under the name of Citronat or citron peel. Good commercial citron peel should be29 in quarters and as fresh as possible, which is shown by its softness, the yellow color, and the strong odor. Old peel looks shrunken and brownish and has but little pleasant odor. ”

“ They are generally potted in black mud, low down in the pots, as if mud were a scarce article; they are watered and ventilated by accident rather than by system, and their tenacity of life affords a delightful proof of the accommodating spirit of the citrus tribe, which have this good quality at least, that they love life too well to be easily pushed out of it. We repeat that every seedling citrus will produce fruit some day if you only wait long enough and manage the plants properly. ”

“ The general remarks I have given respecting our fruit soils apply with equal force to those best adapted for citrus culture—viz., they must possess perfect drainage, and be of a friable nature. We are growing most of the best varieties of citrus fruit, the original trees from which they are now being propagated having been introduced into the State from the most celebrated citrus-producing districts in the world, and, as stated and shown by the accompanying illustrations, they are all doing well. ”

“ The governor stood up and came to the open French windows that faced the fields of sugar-cane. In the near distance were clumps of fruit trees, of hedges of lime and flowering shrubs, rows of orange trees, mangoes, red and purple, forbidden-fruit and grapefruit, the large scarlet fruit of the acqui, the avocado-pear, the feathering bamboo, and the Jack-fruit tree, with its enormous fruit like pumpkins. Parrots were chattering in the acacia and in the Otaheite plum tree, with its bright pink blossoms like tassels, and flanking the negro huts by the river were bowers of grenadilla fruit. ”

“ Any member of the citrus family, whether citron, shaddock, orange, lemon, or lime, may be raised from seeds with the greatest ease, and every seedling plant will become fruitful when of a proper age to produce fruit, provided it has the advantage of proper management. As a matter of course, a large proportion of the pretty little seedlings we meet with in ladies’ plant houses and window gardens are not properly managed, and are not likely to live to a fruit producing age. ”

“ But the orange itself, which is so hardy, has an advantage over many other varieties of fruits and can be shipped into any market in the world. For the citrus fruit is not perishable in the same sense that the plums and peaches are and after being removed from the trees may be kept for weeks with advantage without being destroyed by decay or losing its beauty. ”

“ Nut-trees, already lively with sap, project their white branches like gnarled fingers; everything else is green; winter lays no hand on this eternal spring. The thick lustrous leaf of the orange-tree rises from amid the foliage of the olive, and its golden apples glisten in the sun by thousands, interspersed with gleams of the pale lemon; often in these shady lanes do its glittering leaves flash out above the crest of the walls. This is the land of the orange. It grows even in miserable court-yards, alongside of dilapidated steps, spreading its luxuriant tops everywhere in the bright sunlight. ”

“ The gardens are planted with evergreens; the sun shines bright and warm; snow is nowhere to be seen, except on the most distant hills towards the north. The citron trees, which are planted against the garden walls, are now, one after another, covered with reeds, but the oranges are allowed to stand quite open. A hundred of the very finest fruit may be seen hanging on a single tree, which is not, as with us, dwarfed, and planted in a bucket, but stands in the earth free and joyous, amidst a long line of brothers. ”

“ This mingling, in the most friendly manner, of the old forest trees with familiar fruit trees introduced from distant lands and laden with golden fruit, is a most beautiful sight. The fruit trees stand their ground even against the most aggressive shrubs, and it is often no easy matter to reach the ripe hiding fruit in the dense network of branches thrown around and between the branches of the imprisoned tree. What a blessing these acid fruits are to the natives, sweltering under the rays of the tropic sun! ”

“ Venerable cryptomeria-trees, worthy of a California grove, stretch the great buttresses of their roots over the ground of the court-yard, and one thatched roof lovingly embraces the trunk of a crooked old tree that almost rests on it. Wistaria vines, thick, gnarled, and lichen-covered with the growth of years, hang in giant festoons from the trees, roll in curves and loops over the ground, and, climbing to the top of the tallest pines, hang their clusters of pale-green leaves like blossoms against the dark evergreens. ”

“ When the orange, lime, citron, or common lemon become established under conditions that are favourable for their proper development, they apparently become as hardy as the indigenous plants, and are able to hold their own against them, thus showing how well the climate and suitable soils of coastal Queensland are adapted for the cultivation of citrus fruits. ”

“ The sample of cashew preserves examined had the following composition:
Citrus Fruits. —The term “citrus fruit” is applied to that class of fruits represented by the orange, lemon, grape fruit, and lime. In the United States extensive areas are devoted to the production of citrus fruits, and it is claimed by connoisseurs that some of the best varieties grown anywhere in the world are the products of this country. Florida and southern California are two localities where the development of the citrus fruit industry has been carried to the greatest extent. ”

“ The native orange on this south side of the equator is not orange at all, even when ripe, but its peel is a deep, dark, beautiful green, and its flavor unequaled. The big Citrus decumana, the pomelo of China, the pumplemoos of Java, the Batavian lime in British India, the shaddock of the West Indies, and the grapefruit of Florida, appears in the passers, but is coarse, dry, and tasteless, save for the turpentine flavor, which does not lurk within, but stalks abroad. ”

“ Countless varieties of smaller trees flourish in this gloom, and force their way between the colossi of vegetation, for instance, the wild cherry, wild plum, a small chestnut, and several species of nut trees; beneath these the bushes and cactuses spread with an incredible variety, and relieve the gloom with their magnificently coloured perfumed flowers, which seem to maintain an eternal rivalry with the blossoms of the llianas swinging from tree to tree in the airy height. ”

“ From their home in subtropical Asia the lemon, lime, and orange have invaded every part of the tropical world. Once, in the most remote part of the Sierra Maestra Mountains in eastern Cuba, where only by the most arduous cutting could a passage through the dense tropical forest be forced, the writer found within a few square rods an orange and a tree from tropical India. Such cases could be multiplied, and all over the world we see this endless struggle of plants to conquer new territory, often at the expense of existing vegetation. ”