The queen of the citrus fruits, Citrus Aurantium, and other varieties. The other citrus fruits are the lime, the lemon, the citron, the bergamot, and the shaddock. In Europe the orange grows as far north as 42°. It will not do that in our country east of the Rocky Mountains. They grow the best in the world in Florida; they also grow in Louisiana and Mississippi, and a few in Texas, Georgia, and Alabama. In Arizona they grow to perfection, and in California they are a staple crop, being chiefly of the seedless Navel, so called; they are a Bahia orange.

Our Consul there found that they grew wild in the surrounding jungles. He sent a few cuttings to the Agricultural Department at Washington, and Mr. Saunders succeeded in growing a few of them, some of which he gave to Mrs. Luther C. Tibbetts, of California, who took them to her husband, Luther C. Tibbetts, at Riverside, California. He succeeded with them, and to him is due the honor of introducing the Navel orange from Bahia, Brazil, Into California

The orange is a native of India, and grows wild along the southern slope of the Himalaya Mountains among the tributaries of the Ganges. They were brought to the United States from Europe. The seedling orange tree is known to exist over six hundred years. The seedling trees live much better and longer than the grafted trees; in fact, grafting is a devitalizing process as far as the orange goes, if it does not apply to all grafted trees. The grafted orange-trees give us better fruit and commence to bear earlier, but their limit of useful life is about twenty-five years.

The chemical analysis of the orange is as follows : Water, 88.3; proteids, .8; fat, .6; carbohydrates, 9.7; ash, .6. Fuel value per pound, 220.

Really the best oranges I ever tasted I bought in Acapulco, on the western coast of Mexico. They were a very small yellow orange, grown on the mountain-slopes, and were probably seedlings, as the Mexicans did not give much care to improving the natural character of their fruits.

The sweet orange is the Citrus Aurantium, as before stated. The bitter orange is the Citrus Vulgaris. We have no use for it except for its bitter peel now and then, and to send it to the Scotchman with which to flavor his Dundee jam or marmalade.

We all know of the uses of orange blossoms, for their lovely perfume, for the adornment of the bride where they are classic, and for the making of orange flower water. In the orange countries we see the blossoms on the trees and the fruit of the last season still hanging, truly an enchanting scene, and the melting odors from the bloom render the surroundings ravissement

The best oranges we get, as I have said before, come from Florida. The Indian Rivers are the best of these. They also send us some very fine Navels. The special oranges are the Mandarins and the Tangerines, the Chinese types, those little oranges which slip from their skins like walnuts from their hulls, and in doing so do not soil your kid glove; they have a flavor and odor of their own, and to some they are very palatable. There is another little curiosity of the citrus type, the cute little Cumquat, or Chinese orange. They are a condensation of lusciousness and full of aroma. You eat them skin and all, and to the sick and weary invalid they are often a revelation, and help his lagging digestion. They come to us from Florida. Jamaica sends us good oranges, but California can supply the world. Manifest destiny, it appears now, will soon literally smother us with such luxuries from our new colonial possessions.