13. Providence Pine. There are two varieties, the white and green; the fruit is larger than that of any of the kinds cultivated in this country; the form inclining to pyramidical; the colour, at first, brownish grey, but, when mature, of a pale yellow. The flesh yellow and melting, abounding with quick lively juice. Speechly produced in the gardens at Welbeck, in 1794, a fruit that weighed five pounds and a quarter, or eighty-four ounces, and from a plant that was not a large one. Griffin had, in 1803, two plants placed under his care, which fruited in July 1804; the fruit of one plant weighing seven pounds two ounces, and the other nine pounds three ounces, avoirdupois. This sort, and the two preceding, require generally three years, and sometimes four or five, to produce their fruit.
14. Blood-red; fruit equal in bulk at both ends. Pips of moderate size; colour brick-red; flesh white and opaque; leaves of a changeable hue; the flavor of the fruit being inferior to that of most others; this is to be considered merely as a curious variety. Hort. Trans. iv. 214.
15. Silver-striped Queen. Leaves beautifully striped with white, yellow, and red; but the plant, though elegant, is a reluctant fruiter.
16. Variegated-leaved Pines. Besides the Striped-leaved Queen, there are several sorts with beautifully varied leaves and fruits; but in general they are tardy in fruiting, and more to be considered as ornamental than as useful varieties.
To these may be added, as sorts not generally known, or of inferior value:
The Smooth Pine. Miller.
The Smooth Long Narrow-leaved Pine. Ibid.
The Grunda Pine. Ibid.
The Bogwarp Pine. Ibid.
The Surinam Pine. Ibid.
The Antigua Queen. Speechly.
The Green Providence, or Old Providence, from one of the Bermuda islands of that name.
New Sorts. Pine plants are frequently imported from the West India islands, and in this case generally bear their names. In general, however, these plants are far inferior, both as to kinds and condition, to those grown, and to be procured from nurserymen in this country. They are generally infested with the bug, and very uncertain in their time of fruiting, as well as to its flavor. If these were to be enumerated, the list of pines known in this country would amount to upwards of forty sorts. Specimens of above thirty sorts are grown in the gardens of Mr. Gunter, at Earl’scourt.
The Pine Apple, as every gardener knows, is propagated in the same manner by all those who grow it; that is, by that singular production in which the fruit terminates, called a crown, and by suckers; these are planted in small pots, or in beds of rotten tan, earth, or dung, at first, and shifted in regular gradation into pots of different sizes, at the discretion of the cultivator.