Navel Orange (1869)

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   From Wednesday's NEW YORK TIMES:

An Orange Whose Season Has Come
By DAVID KARP

RIVERSIDE, Calif.
FIFTY miles east of Los Angeles stands the most revered and historic fruit tree in the United States. This centenarian might pass for any old orange tree, were it not for the unusual grafted roots that sustain it, like arterial bypasses, and the entourage of heaters ready to coddle it during freezes.

The tree, one of two from which all Washington navel oranges in California descended, is guarded by a locked fence and commemorated by a bronze plaque. It was propagated from trees imported from Brazil in 1870.

The Washington, a large, easily peeled, seedless orange, caused a sensation when it was exhibited at a citrus fair 124 years ago. The new variety, with its built-in trademark — a rudimentary second fruit in its blossom end — helped create an orange empire that once stretched from Pasadena to Redlands. The navel orange came to be regarded as a sacred tree in Southern California.
(...)
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   OED has 1888 for "navel orange."  The revised entry has--what?

   September 1869, OVERLAND MONTHLY AND OUT WEST MAGAZINE (American Periodical Series online, but the MOA also has this periodical), pg. 0001:
   Near by (Bahia, Brazil--ed.), was a fine plantation, belonging to the same person, with an orange grove, said to be the finest in South America, producing the variety known as the navel orange, so called from a little proturberance in the rind, containing the seeds.  The pulp of the orange is solid throughout, and deliciously sweet.  No variety so fine finds its way to the Northern markets.

   31 December 1871, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 2:
_ORANGE CULTURE IN NEW SOUTH WALES._
(...)  The orange in New South Wales often grows to a very large size.  Some navel oranges, taken from five-year-old trees, and grafted on seedlings, were exhibited very recently in the Sydney market, and were found to weigh respectively 22, 22 3/4, and 25 1/2 ounces.

   19 September 1874, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 3:
(From Bahia, Brazil, 14 July 1874--ed.)
   We soon found one, from whom we bought some navel oranges and sapoties (accent on the last syllable.)  As these fruits are unknown in the United States, perhaps it will be well to describe them.  The navel orange is from four to five inches in diameter, has a thick skin, and is very sweet.  The seeds, instead of being in the centre as usual, are contained in a cell about three-quarters of an inch in diameter, situated on the side opposite the stem, where it produces an umbilicated swelling, from which the fruit takes its name.  The sapotie resembles a large plum in size and shape, but it contains two small seeds in its centre, and has a skin like that of a peach, except that it is of a dirty cinnamon color.  It's taste is sweetish and agreeable, although unlike that of any of our Northern fruits.  Sapoties and oranges are sold at the same price--two cents each--and our refreshments cost us the nominal sum of six cents per head.