g. The Ribbed Orange, with oblong-acute leaves, and a flattened ribbed deep-orange fruit. This is one of the most tender of the varieties ; its fruit is spongy, and of no value.
h. The Sweet-Skinned Orange, with broad taper pointed leaves, roundish rather ovate heavy fruit, and a deep yellow smooth thick, sweet soft rind. This is the Pomme d'Adarn, or Forbidden Fruit, of the shops of Paris. Its pulp is subaoid and pleasant, and as deep a yellow as the rind, which is soft and melting like the flesh of a cling-stone peach ; the aeldity of the pulp is agreeably mixed with sweetness, and renders the fruit extremely pleasant. This is very different from the Forbidden Fruit of the. London shops ; see C. decumana further on.
s. The Mandarin Orange, with flattened rough deep-orange fruit, and a thin rind, which separates spontaneously from the pulp. This sort has been raised in China, where its fruit is chiefly consumed in presents to the great officers of state, whence its name. It is now cultivated in Malta, where it arrives at perfection. Its singularity consists in the rind so completely separating from the pulp when quite ripe that the latter may be shaken about in the inside. In quality this yields to no known kind. There are two sub varieties.
k. The Saint Michael's Orange, with small round pale-yellow seedless fruit, having a thin rind and an extremely sweet pulp. This, when in a state of perfection, is perhaps the most delicious of all the oranges, and it is by far the most productive. Great quan tities are imported from the Azores, where it appears to be exclusively cultivated as an object of 4ade. It is said that 20,000 of these oranges have been packed from a single tree, exclusively of the large quantity which were blown down or rejected as unfit for sale.
Besides these there are numerous other sorts to be found in the gardens of the curious, and in commerce are many kinds about which little is known. these may be mentioned the Egg-Oranges of Malta, which are sometimes sent to England as presents ; they are not however equal in quality to the China or the Saint Michael's varieties.
2. C. Bigaradia, the Bigarade, or Bitter Orange (Bigaradier of the French, Melangolo of the Italians). Branches spiny. Leaves elliptical, acute, with a winged stalk. Flowers very white. Fruit middle-sized, uneven, more or less globose, deep yellow, with an acid and bitter pulp. It differs moreover from the sweet orange in forming
a smaller tree, having broader leaves, and larger and sweeter flowers, on which account it is always selected in preference for the purposes of the perfumer. Its fruit is much more uneven. Numerous varieties of it are known, among which are all those cultivated for the sake of their flowers ; especially the Horned Bigarade, a variegated variety of it, and the Curled-Leaved Bigarade. The following are a few of the most striking forms of this species :— as. The Herhed Bigarade, with a large pale-yellow ribbed fruit, whose sides project into horns. This variety, which is of the same nature as the Fingered Sweet Orange (var. e.), its horned appear ance being caused by the separation of the carpels or fruit-lobes, is in great estimation on account of the powerful and delicious per fume of its flowers. It is the Melangelo a Frutto Cornuto of the Italians.
b. The Female Bigarade, with a deep yellow large coarse fruit, containing orange within orange. The circumstance from which this variety derives its name is not at all uncommon in the genus Citrus, but it exists hers in perhaps the most strongly-marked manner. An orange in its natural state consists of one whorl of carpels, which are consolidated into a round fruit, each of whose lobes is one carpel But it sometimes happens that two whorls of carpels combine to form the same fruit ; in that case the inner whorl is consolidated into a central orange, and the outer whorl grows over it. Or it may happen that three whorls of carpels con stitute the fruit; in that case the innermost whorl will combine into an orange in the centre ; the second whorl will form a coating over it ; and the most exterior whorl will inclose the whole. Finally the carpels may separate wholly, as in the Fingered Citron, or in part, as in the Fingered Orange and Bigarade, and then the fruit consists of a number of lobes more or less distinct. Until the discovery made by Gotha of the real nature of compound fruit, oranges of this kind were looked upon as something wondrous, and many idle speculations existed as to their cause. A figure of this may be found in Risso's I listoire Naturelle des Grangers,' t. 33, without however any explanation of the cause of the monstrosity.