The encyclopædia britannica; a dictionary of arts, sciences, literature and general information . less bitter in flavour. The Sweet or China Orange, including the Malta or Portugalorange, has the petioles less distinctly winged, and the leavesmore ovate in shape, but chiefly differs in the fruit, the pulp ofwhich is agreeably acidulous and sweet, the rind comparativelysmooth, and the oil-cells convex. The ordinary round shape ofthe sweet orange fruit is varied greatly in certain varieties, insome being greatly elongated, in others much flattened; whileseveral kinds have a conical protuberance
The encyclopædia britannica; a dictionary of arts, sciences, literature and general information . less bitter in flavour. The Sweet or China Orange, including the Malta or Portugalorange, has the petioles less distinctly winged, and the leavesmore ovate in shape, but chiefly differs in the fruit, the pulp ofwhich is agreeably acidulous and sweet, the rind comparativelysmooth, and the oil-cells convex. The ordinary round shape ofthe sweet orange fruit is varied greatly in certain varieties, insome being greatly elongated, in others much flattened; whileseveral kinds have a conical protuberance at the apex, others aredeeply ribbed or furrowed, and a few are distinctly horned or lobed, by the partial separation of the carpels. The two sub-species of orange are said to reproduce themselves infallibly byseed; and, where hybridizing is prevented, the seedlings of thesweet and bitter orange appear to retain respectively the moredistinctive features of the parent plant. Though now cultivated widely in most of the warmer parts ofthe world, and apparently in many completely naturalized, the. Orange (Citrus Aurantium, var. amara), from nature, about one-third natural size, a, diagram of flower. diffusion of the orange has taken place in comparatively recenthistorical periods. To ancient Mediterranean agriculture it wasunknown; and, though the later Greeks and Romans werefamiliar with the citron as an exotic fruit, their median apple appears to have been the only form of the citrine genus withwhich they were acquainted. The careful researches of Gallesiohave proved that India was the country from which the orangespread to western Asia and eventually to Europe. Oranges areat present found wild in the jungles along the lower mountainslopes of Sylhet, Kumaon, Sikkim and other parts of northernIndia, and, according to Royle, even in the Nilgiri Hills; theplants are generally thorny, and present the other charactersof the bitter variety, but occasionally wild oranges occur withswee
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