The Orange Tree.
Aurantia malus.
A beautiful and valuable tree, native of Spain, Italy, and the East. It grows to a considerable bigness, and its branches spread irregularly. The bark of the trunk is brown and rough, that of the branches is smooth and greyish. The leaves are large, and very beautiful; they are oblong, and moderately broad, and the foot stalk has an edge of a leafy matter on each side, giving it a heart like appearance. The flowers are white, large, flagrant, and very beautiful. The fruit is enough known.
The sour, or Seville orange, is the kind used in medicine, but the peel of this more than the juice or pulpy part. A pleasant syrup is made of Seville orange juice, by melting in it twice its weight of the finest sugar; and a syrup equally pleasant, though of another kind, is made of an infusion of the peel: but the great use of the peel is in tincture, or infusion as a stomachic. It is for this purpose to be pared off very thin, only the yellow part being useful, and to be put into brandy or wine, or to have boiling water poured on it fresh or dry. If a little gentian and a few cardamon seeds be added to this tincture or infusion, it is as good a bitter as can be made: it prevents sickness of the stomach and vomitings, and is excellent to amend the appetite.
