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Orange

THERE are three principal varieties of the Orange (Aurantium), the sweet, or China Orange (Citrus aurantium); the bitter, or Seville Orange, (or Bigarade), used because of its bitter rind for making marmalade; and the Bergamot Orange (Citrus medica bergamot). The Tangerine Orange is a sub-variety of the Mandarin, a small, flattened sort in which the rind separates very readily from the pulp, which is sweet, and delicious of flavour. The table, or China Orange, contains citric acid, citrate of potash, albumin, cellulose, water, and, when sweetly ripe, 8 per cent of fruit-sugar. Orange-peel affords a considerable quantity of fragrant aromatic oil, with a bitter principle, especially in the rind of the Seville Orange, which is darker in colour, and possesses tonic properties. Chemically the peel affords also hesperidin, a volatile oil, gallic acid, and cellulose. In the seventeenth century this peel was slowly masticated (when first nicely candied) for curing heartburn through an excess of acid in the stomach. If made into marmalade, the rind of the Seville Orange powerfully restrains immoderate fluxes of women. The leaves, and flowers, of the Orange tree have sedative virtues, and are esteemed as useful against epilepsy, or other convulsive disorders; a tea is also made from them for hysterical patients. Orange-flower water (l'Eau de fleur d'Oranger) is frequently taken in France by ladies as a mild soporific at night, when sufficiently diluted with sugared water. Thousands of gallons are drunk there in this way every year. Dried Orange berries may be had from English druggists; and if a teaspoonful of these be crushed, and infused in a teacupful of quite hot water, the clear liquid will make a gentle sleeping draught, without giving a headache next morning. In Great Expectations (by Charles Dickens) "Mrs. Pocket looked up from her book, and, smiling upon Pip, in an absent state of mind asked him if he liked the taste of Orange-flower water, this question not having any bearing, near or remote, on any foregone, or subsequent transaction."

The Orange berries furnish a fragrant oil, essence de petit grain, and contain citrates, and malates of lime, and potash, with hesperidin, sulphur, and mineral salts. The flowers yield a volatile odorous oil, acetic acid, and acetate of lime; the juice of an Orange consists of citric, and malic acids, with fruit-sugar, citrate of lime, and water. As an appetizing and energizing bitter tonic, the Seville Orange-peel can well take the place of cinchona bark; indeed, the Pharmacopeial tincture of Quinine contains that alkaloid, and the Orange bitter, on equal terms. They are each antidotal to malarious fever, and ague. Our two great Universities are nobly loyal to Orange Marmalade, of which a notably superior kind is made at Oxford, and is now sent from thence far and wide; its extra bitterness, and manifest purity, fully commend such popularity. A saying goes there that no undergraduate can pass his "little go until he has consumed his own weight of Marmalade; which conserve got the name "Squish" first at Oxford. Orange oil is an essential oil extracted from the rind of both the bitter and the sweet Orange; it is used in liqueur-making, and in perfumery. Professor Kirk, of Edinburgh, in his Papers on Health, admonishes persons concerning this fruit when eaten recklessly; "We have known most serious stomach disturbance caused to healthy persons by eating the whole substance of an Orange, except the outer rind. Some parts of the inner rind, and the partitions of the fruit, will act with certain individuals almost like poison; these portions should therefore be always rejected; the juice is most beneficial." Common Oranges, if دو cut through the middle while green, and dried in the air, being afterwards steeped for forty days in oil, are used by the Arabs for preparing an essence famous among their elderly women, for restoring a fresh dark, or black colour, to grey hair. To make a syrup of Orange flowers: "Take four pounds of clarified sugar, and boil it to pearl; put into it several handfuls of perfectly fresh, and well-picked Orange flowers, and give them a good boil. Take it off the fire, and allow the flowers to infuse for two hours; then put it back over the fire, and boil it up a few more times. Place a sieve over an earthenware dish, and pour in the syrup so as to strain out the flowers; then put it again over the fire, and bring it out to small pearl. Allow it to cool in an earthenware dish, and pour it into bottles." The white lining pith of Orange-peel yields likewise the crystalline principle, "hesperidin." Dr. Cullen has shown that the acid juice of Oranges, by uniting with the bile, diminishes the bitterness of that secretion; and hence it is that this fruit is of particular service in illnesses which arise from a redundancy of bile, chiefly in dark persons of a fibrous, or bilious temperament. But in the case of other individuals having only a small liver, and proportionate secreting powers of bile-making, Oranges will prove purgative, and induce colicky pains. Fresh Oranges will obviate a craving for intoxicating drinks: they allay thirst, and their fruit acids act beneficially. Because lessening the blood fibrin, which takes on an excess during influenza, Orange juice, if swallowed freely, is found to cut short that malady, and to prevent lung inflammation therefrom. This fruit has lately acquired a reputation for particular benefits conferred on the consumptive. An Orange-cure which proceeds after such fashion is growing in favour, the Oranges being taken repeatedly every day, and always at meal-times. In Florida the said cure is practised systematically, the Navel Orange being chiefly selected, because of its abundant juice, and the specific virtues it is believed to possess for biliary, and bronchial ailments. Dr. Samuel Wesley (Primitive Physic, 1743) advised "for a cold in the head: thin the yellow rind of an Orange; roll this up inside out, and thrust a roll into each nostril." "The Orange," says Evelyn, "exceedingly refreshes and resists putrefaction; the very spoils and rinds of Oranges and Limons, being shred and sprinkled among other Herbs do correct their acrimony." In America Orange tea is taken frequently as a substitute 66 for the China tea, being made by pressing out the Orange juice, and adding it when strained through muslin, to an equal quantity of boiling water, with sugar. Orange butter was a former confection, as told of in the Closet of Rarities (1706). It is made, in the Dutch way, as follows: "Take of new cream a gallon, beat this up to a thickness; then add four ounces of Orange-flower water, with the same quantity of red wine; and being thus become of the thickness of butter, it retains both the colour, and scent of an orange." In former English times it was a custom at dessert to squeeze the Orange juice into a wineglass, and so drink it. "Dr. Samuel Johnson would suffer his next neighbour at table to squeeze the juice of China Oranges into his wineglass after dinner, else perchance, because the good man had neither straight sight, nor steady nerves, the juice would have run aside, and trickled into the Doctor's capacious shoes." In his day a perfumed snuff was made, known as Orangery." "Oh, lord! Sir! you must never sneeze: 'tis as unbecoming after Orangery as grace after meat." Parkinson relates, in his Herbal: "That the seeds (pips) of the Orange, being set into the ground in the spring-time, will quickly grow up; and when they are a finger's length high, being pluck't up, and put among sallets, will give them a marvellous fine spicy aromatick taste which is very acceptable." Spenser, and Milton, tell of the Orange as "the veritable golden apple presented by Jupiter to Juno on the day of their nuptials"; hence has perhaps arisen its more modern association with marriage rites. The delicious perfumes of neroli and napha, exhaled by the flowers, are cordial and soothing: therefore appropriate for the bride; whilst the bridegroom is blithely gay "with joy in his heart, and a gardenia in his button hole." Virgil in classic times wrote about the Aureum malum : "Aurea mala decem misi, cras altera mittam." At Paraguay in South America there are forests of Orange trees, the same region being full of small establishments for extracting the Orange essence, which the natives regard as a valuable curative ointment; they apply it to wounds, and cuts, declaring that it has such healing qualities that it permeates every part of the affected flesh, restoring the injured structures very quickly.

When Alice (in Wonderland) "went for miles and miles down the rabbit's dark hole, she passed cupboards, and book-shelves during her long fall, and from one of the latter she took a jar as she passed, which was labelled in large letters ORANGE MARMALADE; but to her great disappointment it was empty. She did not like to drop the jar for fear of killing somebody underneath, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it." For making Orange Marmalade: "To sixteen bitter (Seville) Oranges allow five lemons, cutting these into thin slices, and removing the pips; put them into a basin, and cover with water. To each pound of fruit put three pints of water, and set it aside until the next day; then boil until the peel can be easily crushed with the fingers, and put it away again until the third day, when to every pound of fruit, and liquor, add one pound of loaf sugar; boil briskly for from threequarters to one hour, or until it sets when tried upon a plate." This is a reliable recipe which has proved highly successful, and the Marmalade will keep good for years. Pepys (March 9th, 1669), when at his cozen Turner's house, drank (which he never did before) a glass of a pint, I believe, at one draught of the juice of Oranges, of whose peel they make comfits; and here they drink the juice as wine, with sugar; and it is very fine drink, but, it being new, I was doubtful whether it might not do me hurt." 66 Mandarin, or Tangerine Orange Preserve, may be prepared thus, after a Dutch recipe: "Take two pounds more sugar than the weight of the (Tangerine) Oranges; rasp the peel with a piece of glass (which prevents it from tasting of steel), or with a blunt knife; cut two slits across the bottom of each Orange; lay them in water for two, or three days, changing the water each day; boil the syrup, and pour it when tepid over the fruit; then leave it for a night; let it simmer slowly on the second, and third days; then bottle, and cork well." For Orange jelly, only to be made when Oranges are in season, so as to be juicy, and of proper flavour, ("La gelée d'Oranges à l'Angleterre): "For one mould take eight good Oranges, and two lemons; peel three of the Oranges very finely indeed ; rinse the peel in cold water, and steep it in a small quantity of warm syrup, (three pounds of white sugar to a quart of water, boiled gently for five minutes, and strained, make a very useful syrup); now cut the Oranges into halves, and squeeze out all the juice, but do not make the juice too cloudy by hurrying the process; add the juice of two lemons, and the syrup to taste, with a tumblerful of cold water, and a small quantity of gelatine (Nelson's). Have the mould well set previously in ice, or in quite cold water, as this jelly must set quickly, because the acids are liable to cut the gelatine if it lingers about for at all a long time; try a small quantity in a spoon on the ice, or water, and directly the setting point is obtained, pour the jelly into the mould; of course the quantity of lemon-juice may vary according to the sweetness of the Oranges. The jelly should be carefully squeezed through a double tammy before putting it into the mould, and should be fairly clear; if the colour is too weak add a few drops of carmine. Always take care that the peel of the Oranges is used as thin as it can be made, since only the outermost rind gives the flavour." Or, again: "Take one ounce of isinglass in just enough water to cover it; also the grated rind of four oranges, with four teaspoonfuls of sugar, grating the rind thereupon; then mix it with the isinglass, and simmer over a slow fire with the Orange juice, strained, (one and a half tumblerfuls of this); add a small piece of cinnamon, and a slice of lemon."

For an Orange sweet salad, which will aid the digestion of a substantial meal, and is of itself delicious: "Take eight sweet Oranges, one pineapple, four ounces of white sugar, and (if allowed) a wineglassful of brandy, or sherry; peel, and core the Oranges, and lay them in a glass dish, sprinkling well with the sugar, and with slices of pineapple between, cut thin, having the rough outside taken off; (then add the brandy, or sherry); keep the dish covered up with another inverted dish for an hour." Orange gin is a capital cordial spirit, with tonic qualities superadded: "Take half a gallon of gin, and half a pint of Seville Orange juice, one and a half pounds of loaf sugar, and the rinds of seven oranges pared very thin; put all into a closely covered jar, and let it stand for five days, stirring it twice every day; afterwards strain, and bottle in well-corked bottles for one year; it will then be ready for use, but will keep for any length of time."

OYSTER. (Ostræa edulis).

THE well-known Oyster is a mollusc, possessing a mouth, a stomach, and intestines, but no head, nor eyes; it has a heart, a digestive gland, kidneys and a nervous system; its substance is specially rich in phosphates, such as serve for food to replenish