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418 EBUITS IN THEIR SEASON
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Summer's Light Fruits Have Long Since Fl...
other , and peeping * forth like the progeny of an opossum from the mother ' s pouch : some of the oddest irregularities of nature are to
be found claiming kindred with our simple yellow ball , and turning the common expression " as round as an orange" into a piece of most
contemptuous irony . It may not be uninteresting to particularize a little more minutely some of these vagaries .
The Malta Blood Orange offers no visible peculiarity until it begins to ripenwhen a red stain appears withinspreads over all
, , the pulp , and then comes out upon the rind , though rarely extending all over it . It has but few seeds , and these are nearly always
barren . Before modern experiments had demonstrated the fallacies of ancient superstition on gardening subjects , a " graft" was as
much the matter-of-course solution of any singular vegetable phenomenon as a " spell" was of any extraordinary animal affection ;
and accordingly it was a general belief that this sanguineous tinted fruit was the product of an orange grafted on a pomegranate , a
notion now ascertained to be quite incorrect , though it is still supposed to be a cross , but only between an Indian and a European
species of Aurantium . The Turkish Orange has a number of narrow radiating stripes extending from the top ' of the fruit towards
and sometimes quite to the stalk , the predominant color of the fruit being pale yellowand the stripes at first greenafterwards red .
, , The Horned Orange grows out into protuberances of different sizes , sometimes conical , sometimes . shaped like the claw of a tiger , giving
the normal sphere a deformed and monstrous appearance . The cause of this singular eccentricity is traced by Lindley to a monstrous
separation of the carpels or parts of the ovary ; while another yet more extraordinary variation of form—in which but half of the fruit
is globular , a number of misshapen prominences completing its figureand presenting an appearance very like a bird's-nest with a
, number of unsightly young ones putting forth their little heads from it—is considered to arise from the growth of a
supernumerary row of carpels beyond the legitimate number which form the ordinary ovary , and which develop into little oranges , deformed ,
perhaps , from not having room to expand within the larger one . Yet another notable variety of the sweet orange is that which is
known at Paris by the name of " Adam ' s apple , " having received this title in consequence of its being eatable throughout like an
apple , the skin being soft and melting as the fiesh of a peach . But , however strange the form assumed by some of the sweet
oranges , yet greater singularities are met with when we come to the tribe of Bigaradiersour Bitter or Seville Oranges . Trees of
, this kind are generally less tall than those which bear sweet fruit , the foliage is thicker and the leaf-stalks have larger wings . The
flower too is larger and more odorous , and therefore preferred for the purposes of the perfumer . The fruit has a more rugged rind
and a redder color when ripe , every part of the tree , in fact , being on a sort of stronger scale— " an orange pushed to excess , " as liisso
*
418 Ebuits In Their Season
418 _EBUITS IN THEIR _SEASON
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Feb. 1, 1861, page 418, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01021861/page/58/
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