No allusion to the sweet orange occurs in contemporary litera ture at this early date, and its introduction to Europe took place at a considerably later period, though the exact time is unknown. It was commonly cultivated in Italy early in the 16th century, and seems to have been known there previously to the expedition of Da Gama as a Florentine narrator of that voyage ap pears to have been familiar with the fruit. The importation of this tree into Europe is usually attributed to the Portuguese who first circumnavigated Africa and found the way to India and China although Gallesio suspects that Genoese merchants of the 15th century, who must have found it growing abundantly then in the Levant, may have introduced it.
The prevailing European names applied to the orange are suf ficient evidence of its origin and of the line taken in its migra tion westward. The Sanskrit designation nagrungo, becoming narungee in Hindustani, and corrupted by the Arabs into niiranj (Spanish naranja), passed by easy transitions into the Italian arancia (Latinized aurantium), the Romance arangi, and the later Provencal orange. The true Chinese sweet orange, however, was undoubtedly brought by the Portuguese navigators direct from the East both to their own country and to the Azores, where now it grows luxuriantly. Throughout China and in Japan the orange has been grown from very ancient times, and it was found dif fused widely when the East Indian archipelago was first visited by Europeans. In more recent days its cultivation has extended over most of the warmer regions of the globe, the tree growing freely and producing fruit abundantly wherever the temperature is sufficiently high, and enough moisture can be supplied to the roots ; where night-frosts occur in winter or spring the culture be comes more difficult and the crop precarious.
Cultivation.—The orange flourishes in any moderately fertile soil, if it is well drained and sufficiently moist ; but a rather stiff loam or calcareous marl, intermingled with some vegetable humus, is usually considered most favourable to its growth. Grafting or budding on stocks raised from the seed of some vigorous variety of sour or sweet orange, trifoliate orange or the so-called rough lemon is the plan usually adopted by the cultivator. The seeds, carefully selected, are sown in well-prepared ground, and the seed lings removed to a nursery-bed in the fourth or fifth year, and, sometimes after a second transplantation, grafted in the seventh or eighth year with the desired variety. When the grafts have acquired sufficient vigour, the trees are placed in rows in the per manent orangery. Propagation by marcottage or air-layers is oc
casionally adopted; cuttings do not readily root, and multiplica tion directly by seed is always doubtful in result, on account of the lack of uniformity among the seedlings. The distance left between the trees in the permanent plantation or grove varies according to the size of the plants and subsequent culture adopted. The ground is kept well stirred between the trunks, and the roots manured with well-rotted dung, guano or other highly nitrogenous matter; shallow pits are sometimes formed above the roots for the reception of liquid or other manures; in dry climates water must be abundantly and frequently supplied. Between the rows melons, pumpkins and other annual vegetables are frequently raised. In garden culture in southern Europe the orange is sometimes trained as an espalier, and with careful attention yields fruit in great pro fusion when thus grown. In favourable seasons the oranges are produced in great abundance, from 400 to i,000 being commonly borne on a single plant in full bearing, while on large trees the lat ter number is often vastly exceeded. The trees will continue to bear abundantly from 5o to 8o years, or even more ; and some old orange trees, whose age must be reckoned by centuries, still produce a crop; these very ancient trees, are, however, generally of the sour or Seville orange. Oranges intended for export to colder climates are gathered long before the deep tint that indi cates maturity is attained, the fruit ripening rapidly after pick ing; but the delicious taste of the China orange maturing on the tree is seldom thus acquired. Carefully gathered, the oranges are packed in boxes, each orange being wrapped in paper, or with dry maize husks or leaves placed between them. The immense quanti ties of this valuable fruit imported into Britain are derived from various sources, the Azores ("St. Michael's" oranges), Sicily, Portugal, Spain and other Mediterranean countries, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Florida and California, South Africa and Australia. In Florida the sour orange has grown, from an unknown period, in a wild condition, and some of the earlier botanical explorers re garded it as an indigenous tree; but it was undoubtedly brought by the Spanish colonists to the West Indies, and was probably soon afterwards transplanted to Florida ; its chief use in America is for stocks on which to graft sweet orange and other species of Citrus.