Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/677

ORANGE 663 common in our markets ; its chief consumption is in making marmalade, and its rind is used as a tonic aromatic in several medicinal prep- arations; the peel is also candied and used in flavoring puddings and other cookery. This is the brigarade of the French, who have sev- eral varieties of it, including those with purple and double flowers. The ordinary oranges of commerce are sub varieties of the sweet orange, although they differ greatly in sweetness, and are distinguished by the names of the countries producing them, or the ports whence they are shipped; the Messina, St. Michael's, Maltese, and other oranges from the south of Europe are medium-sized, smooth, rather thin-skinned, and somewhat flattened fruit, with an abundant but not very sweet juice ; these are imported in boxes, each orange being wrapped in soft paper. The St. Michael's orange is seedless, and the blood orange of Malta has a crimson pulp. The mandarin or noble orange, which originated in China, is one of the most highly esteemed of all the varieties, and when oc- casionally offered in our markets it brings the highest price ; it is a small, flattened, smooth fruit, of a rich color ; the rind, when the fruit is fully ripe, separates spontaneously from the pulp, which is exceedingly rich and agreeable ; this is so much unlike other oranges that it has Mandarin Orange. been regarded as a distinct species and called citrus deliciosa. In China it is held in high regard and used as presents to the mandarins ; it was introduced into Europe early in the present century, and is now cultivated in Al- geria, the Azores, Brazil, and other countries. The Tangerine oranges are regarded as subva- rieties of the mandarin; the small Tangerine is only the size of an English walnut, while the large is twice that size, and they incline to a pyriform shape. The Havana oranges, which also come from other parts of the West Indies, are large, often rough- skinned, and very sweet; as they are imported in bulk, they are picked in a very green state, and are rarely seen in the market in their best condition. A similar or- ange from Florida, having a shorter voyage and gathered when more nearly ripe, is gen- erally of a better quality. The navel orange of Brazil, rarely offered for sale, is of superior excellence; it is usually seedless, very sweet, and has often a small protuberance at the up- per end, from which it receives its name. The myrtle-leaved orange, which can hardly be re- garded as a variety of commerce, is sold by the florists for a table decoration; it is a dwarf sweet orange with small leaves, and flattened fruit 1 to 3 in. in diameter ; it is a profuse bearer, producing fruit when only 4 to 6 in. high, which remains on for several months. The chief use of the orange is as a dessert fruit, and to afford a refreshing beverage in fevers, but the useful products of the tree are not con- fined to the ripe fruit. The yellowish fine- grained wood is used for inlaid work and for making small turned articles; and straight shoots of suitable size, with the bark on, are imported for walking sticks. The leaves of the tree are bitter and aromatic, especially in the bitter orange. In the lemon-growing dis- tricts of the Mediterranean the lemon trees are grafted upon orange stocks; these put forth vigorous shoots, which are allowed to grow several feet long, when they are cut and ta- ken to the distiller, who prepares from them an aromatic water called eau de naphre, or ex- tracts their essential oil, known as essence of petit grain ; these shoots are also used for walking sticks. The true essence of petit grain is distilled from the small unripe fruits which fall during the summer; these are carefully gathered for the distiller, and give a volatile oil of a flavor superior to that from the leaves ; the essence produced from the bitter orange is more valuable than that from the sweet, and that from the berries is preferred to the prod- uct of the leaves ; these oils are used in the manufacture of eau de cologne and other per- fumes, and are but little known to our com- merce. The flowers of the orange, on account of their charming fragrance and pure whiteness, are considered essential to the bridal wreath, and the trees are cultivated by florists solely for their flowers; the bitter orange is pre- ferred, as its flowers are more fragrant, and there are double and free flowering kinds es- pecially suited for this use. By distillation with water orange flowers afford an essential oil, the essence or oil of neroli, and the water from which this is separated is sold as orange- flower water. The oil received its name from having been used in the 17th century by Anne Marie, wife of the prince of Nerola, or Nero- li, as a perfume for her gloves. It possesses in a concentrated degree the fragrance of the flowers, and is much used in perfumes of vari- ous kinds ; orange-flower water is employed in pharmacy to flavor mixtures, and sometimes in cooking. The oil of orange peel, or oil of orange, as it is known in commerce, is con- tained in the rind of the fruit in vesicles large