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Citrus fruit

Citrus Aurantium - This species includes the group sinensis or ordinary sweet oranges with which we are all familiar, such as Washington Navel, Mediterranean Sweet, etc.

Citrus Vulgaris - This is the sour or bitter bigarade orange commonly grown as an ornamental tree. This may more properly be called the Seville orange.

Citrus Decumana - Here are included the pomelos or grapefruits, the shaddock, etc. They are vigorous growing trees with very dark green leaves, very prolific in bearing.

Citrus Medica - The citron, lemon, sour lime and sweet lime all belong to this species. They are, in general far more sensitive to frost than the three preceding species.

Citrus Japonica - This includes the kumquats or kin kans, all small bushy plants from Cochin China. Fruits, small with mostly acid pulp and sweet rinds, valuable for preserving.

Citrus Nobilis - This is the Mandarin or kid-glove orange. Here belong such small, oblate, loose-skinned varieties as China, King, Dancy tangerine, and Satsuma.

Citrus Trifoliata - This is the only deciduous orange. The fruit is not edible. It is very hardy, being used as an outdoor ornamental in the Eastern States as far north as Washington City. In certain locations climatic and other conditions permit the growing of all the above enumerated citrus fruits. The sweet oranges are the citrus fruits of most commercial importance.

Experience has taught that no variety of citrus is pre-eminently useful for all portions of the world where this fruit is grown. As an illustration we have the Bahia, or Washington navel orange, which is pre-eminently adapted for California, but of little value in Florida or the west Indies, since it produces only a small crop except on rough-lemon stock, which stock is only adapted to a restricted area. Certain varieties of pomelo have exquisite flavor when fruited in Florida, but are not of the same excellence when grown in California. The pineapple orange and the Indian River orange are among the finest of fruits when grown in the sections where they originated.

It becomes necessary, therefore, to test the particular variety in the section into which it is to be introduced. Some of the varieties are excellent in places far removed from one another, as is illustrated by the Satsuma, or onshu, an introduction. from Japan, and the Bahia orange, which was brought from Brazil. The last-named variety produces fruit of excellent quality when grown in Florida, but, as stated, is not prolific except on rought-lemon stock. Frequently the most important varieties of citrus for any given locality are those which have originated as seedlings in that section, and ocasionally they may arise as bud varieties.

How to grow an orange tree