persons thus occupied in the metropolis alone,
and possibly not fewer than ten thousand
persons so engaged throughout the country.

If we consult botanical authorities, we
shall learn that the citrus family embrace
within it the orange, the shaddock, the
citron, the lemon, the lime, and the
forbidden-fruit. Of these there are many
different species, all natives of tropical
countries, where they flourish in great
abundance. According to some authors,
there are as many as seventy-five species of
oranges, both bitter and sweet, forty-six of
lemons, seventeen of citrons, eight of limes,
six of shaddocks, and five of bergamots.

These varieties are now to be met with
in all parts of the East and West Indies,
Australia, Japan, the Cape Colony, in South
America, the Azores, Spain, Portugal, France,
and Italy. It may readily be imagined by
those even who have never quitted Europe,
how highly prized these juicy fruits are by
the parched inhabitants of tropical countries;
how eagerly a small cluster or grove of
oranges or shaddocks is sought and tended
by dwellers in oriental lands. So welcome, so
highly esteemed are those fruits as the
choicest gifts of a bountiful Providence, that
on New Year's Day, on birthdays, at
marriage feasts, and at other festivals, the most
fitting present by which regard and esteem
may be marked, is an elegant little basket
full of oranges and limes.

In years gone by, when steam and
electricity were slumbering agencies, our supplies
of green fruit were necessarily drawn
from those countries only which were near
our shores. Our oranges and lemons in those
days came from Spain and Portugal. Steam
has, however, in this case as in many others,
opened fresh sources of supply, and now-a-
days our fresh-fruit market is well stored
with the luscious productions of the most
distant tropical regions. The West India Islands
furnish us with pine-apples, bananas,
forbidden-fruit, and citrons. The Azores,
Madeiras, Malta, Crete, as well as Spain and
Portugal, send us oranges; while lemons are
sent to us from several islands in the
Mediterranean.

Although we are less dependent upon these
fruits as aliment than the inhabitants of
warmer lands, we are still largely indebted to
them as tending to promote health, especially
for the poorer classes; who have not access to
more costly fruit. An unwise policy, however,
had until very recently levied a customs duty
upon fruit of all kinds, including even oranges
and lemons, which were not competing with
any of their kindred, grown in this country;
where indeed they are never produced but as
rare objects in the hot-houses of the wealthy;
and, even then, turn out to be flavourless
and sickly. A wise policy has so lowered
these fruit duties as to bring oranges within
the reach of the poorest in the land. The tax
which was formerly levied upon them at the
rate of two shillings and sixpence or three
shillings and ninepence per box of about two
bushels each, with a further five per cent
added, is now no more than eightpence the
bushel. The duty on nuts has been reduced
one-half: grapes pay but twopence per
bushel, and apples and pears threepence.

The varieties of oranges most commonly
met with in this country are the Saint
Michael, the Lisbon, the Seville, and the
Maltese. The first named are in greatest
repute amongst us on account of the richness
and delicacy of their flavour, and may be
readily known by the smoothness and thinness
of their skins. They are cultivated, as
their name indicates, at the island of Saint
Michael, one of the Azores or Western Islands,
and also at Terceira and in Saint Mary's of the
same group. The China orange is grown
abundantly in Lisbon, Spain, Malta, and the
Azores: the proper Maltese orange, however,
is a distinct species, having a pulp of a deep
blood-red colour. The Seville orange, coming
only from Spain, possesses a bitter flavour
and thicker rind, and is chiefly employed in
the manufacture of wine, shrub, and marmalade.
Since the reduction of duty it is
computed that the total quantity of oranges
imported into the United Kingdom cannot
be less than three hundred millions in round
numbers, of which one-third, as we have
already stated, find their way to London.

The cultivation of oranges in the Western
Islands was introduced from Portugal; and
so genial were the soil and climate found for
them, that they have now taken the place
of nearly all other produce, and have become
a most important article of trade from those
islands. Saint Michael annually exports two
hundred cargoes of the fruit, amounting to
about two hundred thousand boxes of a
thousand oranges each. Terceira ships twenty
or thirty cargoes. Saint Mary's and Fayal,
however, have not nearly so large an export.
The culture of oranges in all these islands
is now as essential to the well-being of
the inhabitants, as is the growth of rice to
Hindoos, the produce of the vine to the
people of southern France, or the yield of
apples to our countrymen in Devonshire.
Every family however poor has its quinta,
as an orange garden is termed, which may
number from a dozen to a thousand trees.
The marriage-portion of a bride of Saint
Michael consists not of money nor of jewels,
but of a certain number of orange trees in full
bearing; and that villager considers himself
fortunate who can bestow a score of such
trees on each of his daughters.

These quintas are prettily laid out; the
trees being planted in regular rows, with tall
shady hedges about them of some quick-
growing plants, which serve to break the
force of the wind, and so protect the delicate
blossom and tender young fruit during the
equinoxes. They require seven years to
arrive at maturity, during which time green