Home › O › Orange (Properly Citrus aurantium)

Orange (Properly Citrus aurantium)

properly Citrus aurantium, the sweet orange. The leaves are ovate, oblong, acute, slightly serrulated; petiole more or less winged; the pulp is sweet.

It is a native of India, and by some botanists is believed to be only a variety of the citron (C. medica). It was intro- ORANGE duced into the S. of Europe about the 12th century, having been brought into Arabia about three centuries earlier. It lives about 600 years. Among the many varieties are the China orange, which is the common orange of the markets; the blood, or Malta orange; the St. Michael's ORANGE orange; the noble, or mandarin orange; the navel, or seedless, etc. The orange contains malic acid; the rind is bitter and aromatic; the fruit itself is said to be disinfectant. Orange poultice has been recommended in India in skin diseases. There are various allied species, specially the bitter, or Seville orange, C. bigaradia, largely imported for the manufacture of candied orange peel, etc. It, too, has run into several varieties. In Florida and Southern California vast orange plantations are providing immense crops of many varieties of the orange. In 1918-1919 California shipped over 49,063 carloads of citrus fruits, worth more than $100,000,000.