Please see the [Transcriber’s Notes] at the end of this text.

THE
DIFFERENT MODES
OF
CULTIVATING
THE
PINE-APPLE,
FROM
ITS FIRST INTRODUCTION INTO EUROPE
TO THE
LATE IMPROVEMENTS OF T. A. KNIGHT, ESQ.

BY A MEMBER OF THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

WITH
Twenty-four Engravings on Wood,
EXHIBITING THE BEST PLANS OF PINE-STOVES AND PITS.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR
LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN,
PATERNOSTER-ROW.
1822.

London:
Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode,
New-Street-Square.

INTRODUCTION.

A considerable interest has been excited in the Horticultural world by the experiments of T. A. Knight, Esq. on the culture of the Pine Apple. Our object is to add our efforts to those of that eminent Horticulturist, in promoting the culture of that king of fruits.

The means which we consider as most likely to attain our object, is the bringing together accounts of all the different modes of treating that Plant, which have hitherto been adopted in Europe; and the sources from which we have drawn the means, are the different publications which have appeared on the Pine Apple, and our own observations on its management, by those Gardeners who are its most successful cultivators.

The British publications which treat exclusively, or principally, of the Pine Apple, are:

1767. John Giles, of Lewisham. A Method of raising Pines and Melons, 8vo.

1769. Adam Taylor, Gardener at Devizes, in Wiltshire. A Treatise on the Ananas and on Melons, 8vo.

1779. William Speechly, Gardener to the Duke of Portland, at Welbeck, in Nottinghamshire. A Treatise on the culture of the Pine Apple, and the management of the Hot-house, &c. 8vo.

1808. William Griffin, Gardener to J. C. Girardot, Esq. at Kelham, near Nottingham. A Treatise on the culture of the Pine Apple, 8vo.

1818. Thomas Baldwin, Gardener to the Marquis of Hertford, at Ragley, in Warwickshire. A Treatise on the culture of the Ananas, &c. 12mo.

The Authors who have treated on the Pine Apple, as a part of their general subject, include nearly all those who have written on Horticulture since the commencement of the 18th century; the principal are, Bradley, Miller, Justice, Abercrombie, M’Phail, and Nicol, in their respective works; and T. A. Knight, Esq., and Peter Marsland, Esq., in the Transactions of the London and Caledonian Horticultural Societies.

The Foreign publications on the Pine Apple are few, and of little value; because the Continental Gardeners have never been very successful in its culture. Professor Thouin and M. Bosc, are the principal French Authors who have noticed the subject, and this only in general works, such as Rosier’s Dictionary, &c. Kirchner is almost the only German writer who has written on this fruit, in his Practische Anleitung für Gartenkunst, published in 1796, and devoted more particularly to the culture of the Pine and the Grape. Some other foreign tracts on the subject in the Banksian Library are merely translations from La Cours chapter on the subject, and from English authors.

The most eminent cultivators of the Pine Apple in England, at the present time, are, Mr. Thomas Baldwin, Gardener to the Marquis of Hertford, at Ragley, in Warwickshire; Mr. William Griffin, Gardener to Samuel Smith, Esq., at Woodhall Park, Hertfordshire; William Townsend Aiton, Esq. Gardener to the King, at Kensington; Mr. James Andrews, Commercial Gardener, Lambeth; and Mr. Isaac Oldacre, Gardener to Lady Banks, at Springrove, Middlesex.

A number of other gardeners might be mentioned, as excelling in the culture of this fruit; but the above have been first-rate cultivators for several years.

On the Continent the Pine Apple is cultivated most extensively in Russia; it occurs but seldom in France or Germany; and only in a few gardens in Italy. It has happened to us to have visited the principal Continental Gardens, as well as the English ones alluded to above, and various others; and we mention this to justify the extension of our remarks, not only to domestic, but foreign practices; and to account for our not confining ourselves merely to what is contained in books, but discussing also the modes of culture actually practised in different gardens. We shall first notice the introduction of the Pine Apple into Europe, and next the different varieties in cultivation; we shall then glance at the Continental practices, and finally detail those of our own country.

This Day is published,

By Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown, London,

An ENCYCLOPÆDIA of GARDENING;

Comprising the Theory and Practice of Horticulture, Floriculture, Arboriculture, and Landscape Gardening; including all the latest Improvements, a general History of Gardening in all Countries; and a Statistical View of its present State, with Suggestions for its future Progress, in the British Isles.

By J. C. LOUDON, F.L.S. H.S. &c.,

Author of “A Treatise on forming and improving Country Residences.”

Complete, in One large Volume, 8vo. of 1500 Pages, closely printed, with Six Hundred Engravings on Wood, Price £2. 10s.

This Work claims the Attention of the Public:

1. By the comprehensiveness of its plan, by which, for the first time, every part of the subject of Gardening is brought together, and presented in one systematic whole.

2. By its being the only work which contains all the modern improvements in Gardening, foreign as well as domestic.

3. By the addition of a Kalendarial Index, by which the practical part of the work may be consulted monthly, as the operations are to be performed; and a copious General Index, by which the whole may be consulted alphabetically. Thus the work will serve as a Gardener’s Kalendar, and Gardener’s Dictionary: both, it is confidently hoped, far more complete than any hitherto presented to the public.

By means of a copious page, by condensed descriptive tables of fruits, culinary vegetables, and flowers, and by the local introduction of such illustrative engravings as greatly shorten the necessity of verbal description, this immense body of matter has been comprised in one thick volume.

CONTENTS.

ON THE
CULTIVATION
OF THE
PINE APPLE.

CHAP. I.
OF THE PINE APPLE.

Its Culture in the West and East Indies.—Introduction to Holland.—To England.

The Pine Apple is the Bromelia Ananas of Linneus; of the artificial class and order Hexandria Monogynia; and of the natural order of Jussieu, Bromeleæ. The generic name was originally Ananas, from Nana, its common name in the Brazils; and the Queen Pine is named the Ananas Ovata, in the earlier editions of Miller’s Dictionary; but Linneus changed it to Bromelia, in memory of Olaus Bromel, a Swedish naturalist, and included under it the Karatas, or Wild Pine, till then considered a distinct genus. The English name of Pine Apple appears to have taken its rise from the resemblance of the fruit to the cone of some species of the Pine tree.

There are twelve species of Bromelia, described by Persoon; the fruit of all which may be considered edible, and is occasionally made use of by the natives. Six of these species are naturalized in the West Indies; and the rest are found wild in Chili, Peru, and other parts of South America.

The Bromelia Ananas is the only species in general cultivation; it is cultivated abundantly in both the Indies, and in China. It is said to grow wild in Africa; but Linneus ascribes it to New Spain and Surinam; and Acosta (Histoire Naturelle des Indes,) says, it was first sent from the province of Santa Croce, in Brazil, into the West, and afterwards into the East Indies and China. Persoon considers it as a native of South America; and Baron Humboldt and the Prince Maximilian found it in the Caraccas, in the Brazils.

Whichever way it was introduced from South America to the West Indies, its culture in these islands, and particularly in Jamaica, has been carried on for an unknown length of time. It is vulgarly supposed in this country, that it grows wild there; but, from the best information which we have been able to collect, the true Ananas is only cultivated in gardens, or grounds under spade culture; and there much in the same way as cabbages are in this country, and produces its fruit in from fifteen to eighteen months after planting the crown. The common weight of the fruit is from half a pound to three pounds; and it abounds chiefly in the dry season. In the rainy season, which includes nearly half the year, ripe Pine Apples are more scarce in the gardens of Jamaica than in the hot-houses of England.

In the neighbourhood of Calcutta it is cultivated in the same manner as in Jamaica, and, when liberally supplied with water, by a system of surface-irrigation, the first is said to attain a large size, and to be in season most months of the year.

The first attempts to cultivate the Pine Apple in Europe seem to have been made about the end of the seventeenth century, by M. Le Cour (or La Court, as written by Collinson), a wealthy Flemish merchant, who had a fine garden at Drieoeck, near Leyden. Of this garden he published an account in 1732, and died in 1737.

It was visited by Miller and Justice, who speak of its proprietor as one of the greatest encouragers of gardening in his time; of having curious walls and hot-houses; and as being the first person who succeeded in cultivating the Pine Apple. It was from him, Miller observes, (Dictionary, Art. Bromelia,) that our gardens were first supplied, through Sir Matthew Decker, of Richmond, in the year 1719; though, as a botanic plant, it had been introduced so far back as 1690, by Mr. Bentick, afterwards Earl of Portsmouth.

“When I say,” observes Mr. Cowel of Hoxton, in his Curious and Profitable Gardener, Lon. 1730, p. 27. “that the first Pine Apples that were cultivated in England, were in Sir Matthew Decker’s gardens at Richmond, I mean the first that were cultivated with success, were in those gardens; for long before we had plants of them brought to us, but had not before that time conveniences for bringing them to fruit, or even of keeping the plants alive.”

“The Pine Apple,” he adds, in the same page, “is now (1730) found in almost every curious garden.”

The fruit of the Ananas was sent to Europe, and especially to Holland, as a preserve, for many years before the Ananas plant was introduced.

That it found its way even to England in this state, so early as the sixteenth century, is evident from what Lord Bacon says of it in his Essay on Colonies; and also from a picture in the possession of the Earl of Waldegrave, representing Charles II. in a garden, and Rose, the royal gardener, presenting his Majesty with a Pine Apple. This picture, Lord Walpole informs us, was bequeathed by Mr. London, who was Rose’s apprentice, to the Rev. Mr. Pennicott, of Thames Ditton, by whom it was presented to himself. It does not appear, however, that the Pine was cultivated either by Rose or London, otherwise it would certainly have been noticed in the publications, which, if not written by, at least passed under the name, and received the sanction of London and Wise; and also of Evelyn, Ray, Rea, and other gardening writers of these times. In short, it is evident from Ray’s letters, that the idea of heating green-houses by fire was quite new in 1684, and first adopted by Mr. Watts, gardener, to the apothecaries at Chelsea in that year; and Miller states, (Dict. Art. Tan,) that there were very few tan-beds used in England before the year 1719. The Pine Apple, therefore, could not be cultivated in the seventeenth century in England.

Of late years the Pine Apple has been sent to England in abundance, attached to the entire plant, and a cargo has arrived from Providence Island, in the Bermudas, in six weeks. This facility of cultivation, and their more general culture, has greatly lessened their price, and rendered them common. They are sold in fruit-stands in the London streets, in one or two places, during the summer months; and moderate-sized fruit may be had from half-a-crown to a crown each; or at two shillings a pound.

CHAP. II.
OF THE VARIETIES OF THE PINE APPLE.

Of the Pine Apple, as of most other fruits that have been long in cultivation, there are many varieties. The principal part of those cultivated in this country have been obtained from the West India islands; but some also have been raised in this country from seed.

Speechly states, that, in the year 1768, he raised seventy plants from seeds that were sent to the Duke of Portland from the West Indies, most of which varied distinctly either in the leaves or fruit, but the quality of the latter was very inferior.

The most esteemed varieties in present cultivation are:

1. The Old Queen. Fruit oval-shaped, and of a gold colour. Esteemed the hardiest kind, and fruited in fifteen or eighteen months. The fruit grows to a large size, often weighing from three to four pounds. It is much more certain of shewing fruit at a proper age and season than most of the other sorts, and has a just preference in most hot-houses.

2. Ripley’s New Queen. A sub-variety of the Old Queen, with a large elegant fruit; fruited also in an equally short period.

3. Welbeck Seedling; fruit small, generally broader at the head than at the base; of a pale yellow, or sulphur colour, with very flat pips; flesh white and tender, rich in flavour, with less acidity than is found in most other pines. Hort. Trans. iv. 213.

4. Pyramidal, or Brown Sugar-loaf. Cone-shaped, and dark coloured till it ripens; the leaves brownish, the flesh yellow.

5. Prickly Striped Sugar-loaf. Cone-shaped, the fruit of a golden colour, the leaves striped with black or purple lines.

6. Smooth Striped Sugar-loaf; similar to the above, but the leaves not prickly.

7. Havannah. Tankard-shaped; dark coloured till it ripens.

8. Montserrat. The leaves of a dark brown, inclining to purple in the inside; fruit middle-sized and tun-shaped, and the pips or protuberances of the fruit larger and flatter than in the other kinds.

9. King Pine, or Shining Green. The leaves of a grass-green, with few prickles, the pulp hard and rather stringy, but of good flavor when ripe.

10. Green, or St. Vincent’s Pine. A rare variety; when ripe the fruit is of an olive hue, middle-sized, and pyramidical.

11. Black Antigua. The fruit is shaped like the frustum of a pyramid: leaves of a brownish tinge, and drooping at the extremities, with strong prickles, thinly scattered. The pips of the fruit are large, often an inch over; and it attains a large size, weighing from three to four pounds. It is of a dark colour till it ripens; very juicy, and high flavoured.

12. Black Jamaica. The fruit is large, and the plant similar in character and habits to the above.

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.

CHAP. III.
FOREIGN MODES OF CULTIVATING THE PINE APPLE.

Culture of the Pine Apple in Holland,—France,—Germany,—Italy, &c.

The horticulture of the continent is, in general, copied from that of Holland, as was our culture, and that of every other country two centuries ago. Excepting in Holland, therefore, the English gardener will find very little to learn in other countries; but it is worth while to know how little is to be known in one quarter, that we may be the more assiduous in our attention to such quarters as are likely to furnish us with information.

For this purpose, we shall take a short view of the culture of the Pine Apple in the principal parts of the Continent.

Whether Le Cour was the first who imported Pine plants from the West Indies, is less certain than that he was the first to attempt their culture with success. Professor Bradley, in his General Treatise of Husbandry and Gardening for July 1724, p. 206. gives a description of the Pine Apple, and the introduction of it into Holland by Mr. Le Cour. He says, that there were in the Amsterdam gardens about two hundred plants, chiefly from Surinam and Curaçao, but some from the Dutch factories in the East Indies, which were in good health; but the art of bringing them to fruit was not known till Mr. Le Cour took them in hand. Miller says, that after a great many trials, with little or no success, Mr. Le Cour did at length hit upon a proper degree of heat and management, so as to produce fruit equally good (though not so large), as that which is produced in the West Indies. About the year 1737, the year before his death, Mr. Le Cour published a quarto volume in Dutch, containing the result of his observations on gardens, trees, and flowers; with explanatory descriptions of his stoves.

From this work, and from the statements of Professor Bradley, (Treatise on Husbandry and Gardening, for June 1724, p. 161.) we learn that Le Cour’s mode of treating the Pine plant was very similar to that adopted at Sir Matthew Decker’s garden at Richmond, to be afterwards described; but we shall give this gentleman’s practice, as related by himself.

Sect. I.
Culture of the Pine Apple by Mr. Le Cour in the beginning of the 18th century, at Drieoeck, near Leyden.

I distinguish, he says, three different species of Pine Apple; the first and best has green leaves, garnished with fine prickles, fruit of which I have had seven inches high, and thirteen inches in circumference; this sort, if it is kept cool before it shows fruit, and then advances slowly by somewhat more heat, grows larger and more pointed than that which has been kept warmer and in a growing state during winter. The leaves of the second sort are larger and broader, of a darker green mixed with red; it does not produce fruit of so large a size, but its knobs are broader and larger, yet flatter; the unripe fruit being of a reddish brown, and when ripe of a deep yellow, with brownish yellow spots on the knobs; this sort has not so pleasant a taste as the first, which, when unripe, is of a darker green, and when ripe, with lighter yellow knobs, on which account I cultivate chiefly the following sort.

This is called the Smooth Ananas, on account of its being without prickles, but the ends of the leaves grow longer, narrower, and more upright: the fruit is smaller. The Ananas cannot bear the cold of our winter, and must have in summer a more permanent warmth and less change in the winter than we commonly have in our climate; and must therefore not only be put during the winter into stoves, but even during the summer under glass frames, and the pots placed in a hot-bed of tan. However, it is with these plants, as it is with all others from a warmer climate; when they by degrees have been accustomed to our colder climate, they become more hardy, and can bear more cold and change of weather, and therefore produce better fruit than those which are sent to us from abroad and have been reared in a warmer country more congenial to their nature. It is therefore necessary that we should try to get plants that have already been accustomed to our country, by propagation from suckers for a number of years, for in that case they may be reared with very little trouble.

The most convenient time to take away the suckers is from the middle of June to the end of the month. Both suckers and crowns must be put in sandy earth in little pots, as in this manner they strike their roots best; but when the plants have grown larger, they must be transplanted in the following year in richer and less sandy earth, and in larger pots, care being taken that the earth is not loosened from the roots in shifting them. The most convenient time for transplanting them is in March, when the plants must be taken from the hot-house and put in a bed of earth under a frame. Care must be taken in shifting them into other pots, to make the earth adhere well to the roots, and to water them well afterwards, and not to use too large pots, as they take up more room, are not so easily handled, and are less proper for growing large fruit than those of a moderate size; the most convenient pots for transplanting are ten inches in diameter within the rim, seven inches at bottom, and ten and a half inches deep.

The plants, when growing, commonly require a great deal of water, and more when they set their fruit. They should then be watered frequently all over their leaves. Afterwards they must be treated with more caution, and be less watered; for too much water would be injurious about the time of the ripening of the fruit, which would get watery, and of a transparent greenish yellow, and be of inferior taste and smell. Too little water dries them up, and makes the marrow perish in the leaves, the first signs of which are, when you hold the green leaves towards the light, you will perceive them speckled with yellowish spots. To produce proper fruit, the plant of a sucker or crown must have grown well and bulky, at least for three years; the first sign of setting fruit is, that its leaves spread a little, and the plant opens a little in the heart where the fruit soon shews itself like the head of a large nail. As the fruit and stalk grow higher, the fruit grows rounder, with pointed little leaves like thistles, on some reddish, and on others whitish spreading leaves. After the fruit has grown about a month, and is of the size of a walnut, there appears out of each knob a three-leaved pointed little flower, which, in the Common Ananas, is of a pale blue colour; on the Red Ananas, deep blue; and on the third sort, the Smooth Ananas, almost violet. This flower does not fall off with the increase of the fruit, but shrivels up, and leaves some visible remains behind when the fruit has attained its full maturity.

The time, from the beginning of the fruit to its perfect maturity, cannot be limited to a certain number of days and weeks, since it depends very much on the weather of two summers following. During the spring, when the plants are in the hot-house, a very natural growth may be obtained by heating the stove, and by the sun shining at right angles on the glass, which growth may be continued during the summer. In autumn this cannot be the case, because the sun has less power, and the rains common to that season diminish it still more; therefore, from December at latest, more and more artificial heat must be given to the plants, until they begin in the middle of February, or at farthest in the beginning of March, to show their fruit, which then, with good summer weather and proper treatment, will attain to maturity in the beginning of July, and thus are five months ripening; the fruit, which shows itself in the beginning of March, wants at least a fortnight more to ripen; that which appears in the middle of March wants a month more, and consequently is six months coming to maturity; that which shows itself in April wants still more, and seldom becomes so ripe as to obtain its proper taste and smell. The agreeable smell which the ripe Ananas emits on lifting up the sashes, is the surest proof of maturity: it is then of a deep yellow, and the knobs have brownish yellow spots.

The time for removing the plants from the bark bed into the flued pit, and hence again into the bark bed, cannot be fixed, as this depends on the weather, and on the length of summer or winter. In some years I have been obliged to put them in a hot-house in September, and keep them there until April; but in common years they are moved into the hot-house on the 10th or 12th of October, and from thence again into the hot-bed of tan in the middle of March. The flues must be dried by heating them before the plants are brought into the hot-house, not only to remove the damp which, on the first heating, is powerful and injurious, but also to discover whether there are any openings by which the smoke may escape into the hot-house, for they must be carefully stopped up. This pit or wintering house may be of any convenient length or breadth; supposing two joined together, then the fire flues ([fig. 1.] a. a.) may be formed at the extreme ends; the smoke may first enter and fill a vault of the whole width and length of the pit (b.); it may afterwards enter a flue (c. c.) and pass round the pit, and then out by a chimney in the back wall.

1

The sashes of the pits at Drieoeck are six feet wide, and three and a-half feet broad, and each has a cover of boards which are raised up and let down by means of cords and pullies, the better to retain the heat in the winter months ([fig. 2.]) Their slope forms an angle, with the horizon of about twenty degrees.

2

In these pits a boarded stage is formed, on which the plants are set, so as to be almost touching the glass during winter; during summer a bed of tan is substituted for the boarded stage, and no fire-heat is applied, but the plants plunged in the tan.

The following is the general course of temperature aimed at:—

Temperature during the first fourteen days in October, when the plants are removed from the hot-beds of bark to the stages in the flued pits, 87° Fah.

Temperature from this time till the 20th of the January following, from 55° to 64°.

Temperature from January to March not under 55°. Lowest degree admissible during winter 42°. Highest summer heat 105°.

Temperature of the bark hot-beds, in which the plants are placed to fruit when air is given, 103°.

Ordinary summer heat for the fruiting plants 96°.

In Holland and Flanders, at the present day, the Pine Apple is never grown in any other manner than in pits and hot-beds. The crowns and suckers are struck and forwarded, from three to six, or nine months, in hot-beds, and afterwards removed to pits. These pits differ from ours in being rather steeper in the roof, and generally the fruiting pits have a passage at the back, with a flue against the back wall, and an entrance door to the passage at one end. In some the passage and flue are in front, and in others a passage and flue are conducted round the house, leaving the pit in the middle; but this is rather an uncommon form, and chiefly to be met with in pits or stoves for ornamental plants. The fuel in general use is peat, and the glass is well covered with boards and matting or canvas or thatch every night after sun-set, excepting in the warmest part of the season.

The soil used by the Dutch is good garden earth, mixed with a third part of well-rotten hot-bed dung, or cow dung, and a sufficient quantity of sand to render it free and pervious to moisture. The gardeners there are by no means so particular in the article of soil, as many are in this country; their object seems to be to make it rich and free; without being very anxious as to employing virgin soil only, or any particular kind of dung. They generally, however, keep the mixture some time in heaps, and turn it over once or twice before using it. At the same time we have seen them shifting Pines, and using a black rich earth newly dug out of an adjoining plot of turnips; only mixing it with a little rotten dung and white sand.

They shift their plants in spring, and refresh the surfaces of the pots in autumn, and they seem on the whole to fruit them in larger pots than we do; but they leave off shifting them nine or ten months before the fruit is expected to appear, wishing to have the pots filled with roots at this crisis. They seldom fruit a crown plant under two years, and more generally three, from the time it is taken from the fruit; large suckers they fruit earlier, according to their size when taken off the mother plant; some which come out from near the bottom of the stem they earth up, and do not take off at all. These come early into fruit, but it is not large.

Sect. II.
Culture of the Pine Apple in Germany.

The Germans took their horticulture from the Dutch, as they did their landscape gardening from the French. They seem to have tried the culture of the Pine Apple almost immediately after its introduction to Holland; for, according to Beckmann, it was ripened by Dr. Kaltschmidt at Breslaw in 1702, who sent some fruit to the Imperial Court; but he states also that its culture was first attempted by Baron Munchausen, a great encourager of gardening, and a botanist who had a fine demesne and garden at Schwobber, near Hamelin, in Westphalia. From the account of these gardens in the Neuremberg Hesperides, they appear to have been grown both in pits, and on stages in larger houses.

The king of Prussia grew the Pine Apple extensively at Potsdam; he followed the Dutch manner in every thing, and had a gardener from that country who attended exclusively to the forcing department at Sans Souci. The quantity of glass there was greater than any where else in Germany: the whole was kept in high order and good culture for many years; but after the king’s death, in 1786, it soon fell into neglect; the glass of most of the peach-houses and vineries was removed or destroyed; the Pine plants were neglected and diminished in numbers, from time to time. In 1813 the royal gardens at Sans Souci contained only about two dozen of Pine plants, which were kept in a lofty opaque roofed conservatory, and these, as may be easily imagined, were by no means in a thriving condition.

Before the French Revolution, the Pine Apple was cultivated at most of the court gardens in Germany; but in the year 1814, there were very few in the empire.

Sect. III.
Culture of the Pine Apple in Russia.

The Pine Apple is extensively cultivated in the imperial gardens in the neighbourhood of Petersburg and Moscow, and also in those of a few of the greatest nobility and mercantile men adjoining those cities. Nothing can be more wonderful than to contemplate the resources by which this plant, requiring not less than from 50 to 70 degrees of heat at all times of the year, is preserved in existence through a winter of seven months, during the whole of which the ground is covered with snow, and Fahrenheit’s thermometer, often for weeks together, at 20° below Zero.

The head gardeners of the emperor, and the great nobles of Russia, are, for the greater part, Britons; and the sort of houses they erect, and the mode of culture they follow, is as nearly as circumstances will admit, those of Speechly or Nicol.

The culture of the grape is, to a certain extent, combined with that of the Pine Apple; the former is trained on the rafters, and the latter grown in a pit, surrounded by flues and a path. In addition to the flues, many of the fruiting-houses have stoves built in them, on the German construction, which are used in the most severe weather. Sometimes there is a double roof of glass; but more generally the roof, ends, and fronts, are covered with boards; which not only prevents the weight of sudden falls of snow from breaking the glass, but by admitting of a coating of snow over them, prevents, in a considerable degree, the internal heat from escaping. This covering, or a covering of mats or canvass, as practised near Moscow, and from which the snow is raked off as fast as it falls, is sometimes kept on night and day for three months together. The plants being all the while in a dormant state, it is remarkable how little they suffer.

The best ranges of hot-houses in the neighbourhood of Petersburg, have been imported there from Leith, or London. At Moscow, where the same facility of importation is not afforded, they are constructed on the spot, in a very rude manner; in the best of them, the interstices between the sashes and rafters are so large, that they have to be stuffed with moss. Still it is astonishing how well the Pine Apple is preserved in them through a long winter, and what excellent peaches and grapes they produce during summer. The cause seems to be owing to the great care and skill of the gardeners, in keeping the plants in a dormant state, when there is but little light; and in applying powerfully all the agents of growth and culture, during the short, but warm Russian summer.

There are some German gardeners in Russia, who cultivate the Pine Apple in pits as in Holland; and crowns and suckers are forwarded in this way by them, and also by the British gardeners settled in that country.

Sect. IV.
Culture of the Pine Apple in France.

The culture of the Pine Apple does not appear to have been commenced in France till after the middle of the eighteenth century, and then only in the royal gardens at Versailles, in those of the Duke of Orleans at Mousseaux, and one or two others. It has never been cultivated by above a dozen persons in that country; nor is it grown by so great a number at the present time. The best are in the garden of M. Boursault, within the boundary of Paris; and the next those of the king at Trianon and Versailles, and of the banker Lafitte, at his country-seat, a few leagues from the capital.

M. Boursault grows them in low houses, which may be termed pits, being without glass in the front or ends; the plants are plunged in tan, and kept as near the glass as possible; and the soil used is good garden earth, or free soil (terre-franche), with about half its bulk of poudrette, or desiccated nightsoil. M. Boursault tried them formerly in the poudrette alone, but found they did not succeed so well as when a smaller quantity was used. He produces fruit from half a pound to two pounds in weight, and it is said of a good flavour.

Rosier states, that M. Mallet, a curious horticulturist, grew ananas in a peculiarly constructed frame of his own invention ([fig. 3.]); but we could see none of these frames in use in any way, and were informed by different persons, that they were too expensive in their first cost to succeed.

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The Pine plants in the royal gardens, did not appear to us so well cultivated as those of M. Boursault; they were very much drawn, and seemed too sparingly watered. All the Pine plants which we have seen in France, and also in Italy, had this yellow sickly appearance; and the fruit produced was universally of small size; one of three pips is thought worth presenting to table. It is certainly a very singular fact, and not hitherto explained, that the Pine plant in a climate where it gets more light than in Germany, Britain, or Russia, should yet be less green than in those countries. Had the reverse been the case, the circumstance would not have been surprising; but that more green should be produced in the northern hemisphere, and under the torrid zone, than under what might be considered as a happy medium between two extremes, is astonishing, and leads to a suspicion of deficiency of management. The cause seems referable to deficiency of water, and too great heat during night; for during day they have the precaution to shade them from the sun’s direct influence.

Sect. V.
Culture of the Pine Apple in Italy.

The Pine Apple was grown in Italy before the revolution, by the Pope, at Naples, and by the king of Sardinia, at Turin. The late king of Sardinia sent his gardener to England, to study the culture of this fruit; and he returned and published in 1777, a pamphlet on the subject. He recommends it to be grown in pits, much the same as those of the Dutch, but without flues, which is still the general practice in Italy. After the possession of Piedmont by the French, the royal palaces and gardens were neglected, and in 1819, when we saw them, they were not restored.

At the royal gardens, and those of Prince Leopold, at Portici, near Naples, a few Pines are grown in pits, by two German gardeners, that of Prince Leopold, an intelligent man and a good botanist; but the plants, notwithstanding the fine climate, are etiolated, slender, and pale, with very small fruit. The pits were entirely sunk in the ground, narrow, and without flues, and they were shaded in the day-time with a net. It appeared to us, that they were much too tenderly treated; if uncovered in the night-time, or planted in the open garden, and left exposed all the summer, and covered with double glass frames during winter, without any fire heat; but, if occasion required, surrounded by linings of dung, we have no doubt they would succeed much better.

At Caserta, a royal palace about eighteen miles from Naples, the Pine Apple is grown in a style much superior. The gardens and grounds there, were laid out by M. Græffer, a German gardener, who was formerly a partner in the firm of Gordon, Thomson, & Co. London nurserymen. The hot-houses are built exactly in the English style; the Pines raised and forwarded in pits, and fruited in broad low houses, with vines trained under the rafters, in Speechly’s manner. M. Græffer died in 1816, and his son has still the care of the royal gardens, and in 1819 had the Pines, in what would be considered in this country, middling good order. They were certainly of a much less vivid green than those of England or Holland, and the fruit was smaller; M. Græffer, jun. never having been out of Italy, was not aware of the difference; but on enquiring into his mode of treatment, we were led to suspect a deficiency of water and of moisture, by watering the flues and paths of the house, and too great a heat kept up during the night. The air of Italy is, at most periods of the year, much drier than that of the north of Europe; that of France and Germany is also drier than the air of Holland, Britain, and Russia; and perhaps this difference in atmospheric moisture, and the overheating at night, may, in some measure, account for the difference in the colour of the foliage of the Pine and other plants kept under glass in France and Italy.

There are some Pines grown at Rome, Florence, and Genoa; but they are not much better than those of Portici. The greatest number, and the finest plants and fruit which we saw in Italy, was in the Vice-regal gardens at Monza, near Milan, under the management of a most intelligent Italian gardener, a pupil of Professor Thouin of Paris, Signior Luigi Vilaresi. The treatment is in all respects that of the Dutch; the plants are forwarded in frames, and sometimes in the open air for a month or two during summer; they are fruited in large pits, with a walk behind, and when more plants come into fruit than are wanted, they are retarded, or preserved, by being placed in a division of the pit without bark, and where they receive abundance of air in the day-time, but no water. The plants here were large and long-leaved, but still not so green and stocky as those of England, and the fruit did not appear to be above one and a half, or two pounds in weight. On enquiry, we found no air was ever left to the pits in the night-time.

Sect. VI.
Culture of the Pine Apple in other parts of Europe.

The Pine Apple has been fruited at Stockholm, and in one or two places besides in Sweden; and also in the Court gardens at Copenhagen, and by De Conninck, and some of the rich merchants of Denmark; but we could hear of none being grown in either of these countries, when we visited them in 1813 and 1814.

It is said to be cultivated in Spain, near the sea coast; and also at Lisbon. We know it was grown by the late M. De Vismes, near the latter city; and we believe it is now grown by some English merchants at Seville; but this is all we know. It does not appear to be grown in European Turkey.

CHAP. IV.
OF THE DIFFERENT MODES OF CULTIVATING THE PINE APPLE WHICH HAVE BEEN, AND ARE PRACTISED IN BRITAIN BY PRACTICAL GARDENERS.

The Pine Apple plant, as already observed, seems to have been first introduced by Mr. Bentick, afterwards re-introduced from Holland in 1719, and then first cultivated for its fruit in Sir Matthew Decker’s garden at Richmond. Here, according to Professor Bradley, the gardener, “Mr. Henry Telende, imitated so successfully M. Le Cour’s newly discovered method of cultivating this delicious fruit, that he is likely to ripen forty of them in the present (1724) autumn.” (Husb. and Gard. for June 1724, p. 161.) He elsewhere tells us that “the late instance of bringing the Ananas or Pine Apple to perfection in England, by the ingenuity of Mr. Telende at Sir Matthew Decker’s, has so far gained upon the curious, that already many of our nobility have undertaken the same improvement; and ’tis not to be doubted but a year or two more will make this undertaking much more general.” He mentions “their being brought to extraordinary perfection at the garden of the right honourable Spencer Compton, Speaker of the House of Commons, at Chiswick; and at that curious gentleman’s, Mr. John Warner, Rotherhithe.” He informs us that an excellent stove on a new plan, with a bark pit, was built by William Parker, Esq. near Croydon, in Surry, to make “experiments in ripening fruits that has not been tried;” and that Mr. Fairchild, in 1722, built one at Hoxton for Pine Apples and other tender plants, in which the fire flues were raised above the surface of the floor, by which means all danger from damps was avoided. Mr. Cowel, as before observed, ([p. 4.]) states that in 1730 Pine Apple stoves were to be found in almost every curious garden. Mr. Telende’s mode of cultivating the Pine Apple is detailed by Professor Bradley in 1724, and the most generally approved mode of culture from that time to the middle of the eighteenth century may be considered as given by Miller in his Dictionary. The improvements which have since been made by practical gardeners, may be ranged under the heads of Justice, Speechly, Abercrombie, M’Phail, Nicol, Griffin, Baldwin, Andrews, Oldacre, Gunter, Grange, and Aiton. To each of these names we shall devote a section; and under each, consider in succession, the form of house, soil, general treatment, insects, and fruit produced.

Sect. I.
Mode of cultivating the Pine Apple practised by Mr. Henry Telende, in the Garden of Sir M. Decker, at Richmond, 1719, to 1730, or later.

Form of House. For the education and ripening of this fruit, Mr. Telende employed a frame made of deal, closely jointed: the length eleven feet, divided equally into four lights; the width seven feet and a half; three feet high at the back, and about ten inches in front. The pit was somewhat more than five feet deep in the ground; the sides were lined with brick, and the bottom covered with pebbles.

The stove or fruiting-house used was that with iron plates over the flues; which, for greater warmth, was covered thick with thatch, and the glasses were well guarded with shutters; and that the fire might be constant, he burnt only such turf as is commonly used in Holland, agreeable to M. Le Cour’s method.

General Management. About the middle of February, he “puts in as much hot dung or horse-litter as will raise the bed about a foot high, and then lays on the tanner’s bark as equally as possible, till the case of brick-work is filled, beating down the tan gently with a prong, or pressing it down easily with a board. A bed of this kind will take up three hundred bushels of tan, and if it be well made, will heat in about fifteen days, provided the frame and glasses are set over it. When the bed breathes a right heat, which we are to judge of by a thermometer, the plants are brought from the stove to it, either to have their pots quite plunged into the bark; or, if upon opening the holes for them, the bark be found too hot, then to be set in only half way, laying a few pebbles under the bottom of each pot, that the water may pass freely through them. Care must be taken not to remove the pots in frost or snow; and to examine the bed from time to time, whether the bark grows mouldy, musty, or dry, which it will often do in the summer: in such case, it must be watered to recover its heat. A bed thus prepared and managed will maintain a constant degree of heat, sufficient to give these plants the utmost vigour they require, from the end of February to the end of October; and then the plants must be again removed into the stove or conservatory. In excessive heats the glasses are tilted up at the back of the frame; and when the evenings are cool, the bed must be carefully covered with substantial mattresses of straw. A bed of this kind sinks about a foot, which is convenient; for otherwise the plants would be too tall for the frame, before the time of housing them.

“The thermometer used by Mr. Telende had a tube twenty-four inches long, and one-eighth of an inch in diameter. When the spirit rose only to fifteen inches, he accounted the air cold for his plants; at sixteen and a half temperate; at eighteen warm, which was his standard for Pine Apple heat; at twenty inches, hot air; and at twenty-one inches, sultry.”

Insects. Nothing is said on this subject.

Fruit produced. Mr. Cowel says (Curious and Profitable Gardener, p. 27.) that all gentlemen who had eaten Pines abroad allowed those raised by Mr. Telende to be as good and as large as they found in the West Indies. Bradley says, forty Pines were likely to ripen in the autumn of 1724.

Sect. II.
Of the Culture of the Pine, as given by Phillip Miller in his Gardener’s Dictionary.

Form of House. It was formerly the practice, Miller observes, to build dry stoves, in which the plants were kept in winter, placed on scaffolds, after the manner in which orange-trees are placed in a green-house; and in summer, in hot-beds of tanners’ bark, under frames. But it is now the practice, he adds, to erect low stoves, called the succession-house, with pits therein for the hot-bed. It is also necessary to have a bark-pit under a deep frame, for bringing forward the suckers and crowns to supply the succession-house.

Mr. Miller’s fruiting-house has upright glasses in front, high enough to admit a person to walk upright on the walk in front of the house. Over the upright glasses there must be a range of sloping glasses, “which must run to join the roof, which should come so far from the back wall as to cover the flues and the walk behind the tan-pit; for if the sloping glasses are of length sufficient to reach nearly over the bed, the plants will require no more light: therefore these glasses should not be longer than is absolutely necessary, that they may be the more manageable.”

The difference between this stove and that of Speechly is, that in the latter the sloping sashes reach to the back wall, by which means, instead of a useless opaque roof over the path, an excellent place is formed for training a vine; and this being at all times the hottest part of the house, such vines as are there trained will produce very early and high-flavoured fruit.

The succession-house of Miller has no upright glass, and only a walk at the back of the house: the bark-pit may be partly sunk in the ground, if the situation be dry; or if wet, kept above it. The flue makes three returns against the back wall, beginning from the level of the walk. Many persons, he says, have made tan-beds, with two flues running through the back wall, and covered with glasses, like common hot-beds; but, besides the inconvenience of taking off the glasses when the plants want water, the damps rise in winter when the glasses are closely shut, and there is danger of the tan taking fire.

The improvement on this plan consists in detaching the flue from the back wall, and separating it from the tan by a vacuity of two or three inches; or, what is still better, placing the flue in front similarly detached, and surrounded by air on all sides.

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Soil. “As to the earth in which Pines should be planted, if you have a rich good kitchen-garden mould, not too heavy, so as to detain the moisture too long, nor over light and sandy, it will be very proper for them without any mixture: but where this is wanting, you should procure some fresh earth from a good pasture, which should be mixed with about a third part of rotten neats’ dung, or the dung of an old melon or cucumber bed, which is well consumed. These should be mixed six or eight months at least before they are used, but if it be a year, it will be the better; and should be often turned, that their parts may be the better united, as also the clods well broken. This earth should not be screened very fine, but only cleared of the great stones. You should always avoid mixing any sand with the earth, unless it be extremely stiff, and then it will be necessary to have it mixed at least six months or a year before it is used: and it must be frequently turned, that the sand may be incorporated in the earth, so as to divide its parts; but you should not put more than a sixth part of sand, for too much is very injurious to these plants.

General Management. “There are some persons who frequently shift these plants from pot to pot; but this is by no means to be practised by those who propose to have large well-flavoured fruit: for unless the pots be filled with the roots by the time the plants begin to show their fruit, they commonly produce small fruit, which have generally large crowns on them; therefore the plants will not require to be potted oftener than twice in a season. The first time should be about the end of April, when the suckers and crowns of the former year’s fruit (which remained all the winter in those pots in which they were first planted) should be shifted into larger pots. The second time for shifting them is in the beginning of August, when you should shift those plants which are of a proper size for fruiting the following spring. At each of these times of shifting the plants, the bark-bed should be stirred up, and some new bark added, to raise the bed up to the height it was at first made; and when the pots are plunged again into the bark-bed, the plants should be watered gently all over their leaves, to wash off the filth, and to settle the earth to the roots of the plants. If the bark-bed be well stirred, and a quantity of good fresh bark added to the bed, at this latter shifting, it will be of great service to the plants; and they may remain in the same tan until the beginning of November, or sometimes later, according to the mildness of the season.

“In the summer season, when the weather is warm, the plants must be frequently watered; but you should not give them large quantities at a time: you must also be very careful that the moisture is not detained in the pots by the holes being stopped, for that will soon destroy the plants. In very warm weather they should be watered twice or three times a week; but in a cool season, once a week will be often enough; and during the summer season, you should once a week water them gently all over their leaves, which will wash the filth from off them, and thereby greatly promote the growth of the plants. During the winter season, these plants will not require to be watered oftener than once a week, according as you find the earth in the pots to dry: nor should you give them too much at each time; for it is much better to give them a little water often than to over-water them, especially at this season.”

Insects. After describing the white scale or mealy pine-bug (coccus hesperidum, L.) he says, “wherever these insects appear on the plants, the safest method will be to take the plants out of the pots, and clear the earth from the roots; then prepare a large tub, which should be filled with water, in which there has been a strong infusion of tobacco-stalks; into this tub you should put the plants, placing some sticks across the tub, to keep the plants immersed in water. In this water they should remain twenty-four hours; then take them out, and with a sponge wash off all the insects from the leaves and roots, which may be easily effected when the insects are killed by the infusion; then cut off all the small fibres of the roots, and dip the plants into a tub of fair water, washing them therein. Then you should pot them in fresh earth, and having stirred up the bark-bed, and added some new tan to give a fresh heat to the bed, the pots should be plunged again, observing to water them all over the leaves (as was before directed), and this should be repeated once a week during the summer season; for I observe these insects always multiply much faster where the plants are kept dry, than in such places where the plants are sometimes sprinkled over with water, and kept in a growing state. And the same is also observed in America; for it is in long droughts that the insects make such destruction in the sugar-canes. And in those islands, where they have had several very dry seasons, they have increased to such a degree as to destroy the greatest part of the canes in the islands, rendering them not only unfit for sugar, but poison the juice of the plant, so as to disqualify it for making rum; whereby many planters have been ruined.

“As these insects are frequently brought over from America on the ananas plants, those persons who procure their plants from thence should look carefully over them when they receive them, to see they have none of these insects on them; for if they have, they will soon be propagated over all the plants in the stove where these are placed: therefore, whenever they are observed, the plants should be soaked (as was before directed) before they are planted into pots.”

Fruit produced. Miller finds suckers and crowns, if equal in size and strength, fruit equally soon; and has seen as good fruit produced from plants received from the West Indies, as from any he has seen, and some three times larger than any he saw in M. Le Cour’s garden.

Sect. III.
Culture of the Pine Apple, by James Justice, Esq. F.R.S. at Crichton, near Edinburgh, in 1732, and for some years afterwards.

This gentleman was one of the greatest amateurs of gardening of his time, and a most successful cultivator of every thing he attempted. He had a fine garden at Crichton, near Edinburgh, and corresponded with various foreign horticulturists of Holland and Italy, as well as with Miller, Bradley, and other eminent English gardeners of his time.

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Form of House. Justice, writing in 1754, says, “There have of late years been erected in England and Scotland, many sorts of stoves for the culture of the Pine Apple; but I am sure, after many experiments, that the plan here annexed is the best. In this stove, ([fig. 5.]) with one fire, I can do the business of two stoves, which must have two fires, and cultivate the old as well as the young plants.” The front and ends of this house are of glass, as well as the roof; the flue enters from behind at one end, passes along the middle of the house, returns on itself, and then makes four returns in the back wall. The path-way enters from behind, at the end opposite to that at which the flue enters; proceeds to the middle of the house, along the middle, till it meets the flue at the opposite; and then it turns round till it meets the flue against the back wall, close by the furnace. By this arrangement of the walk, no interruption is given to the flue; which is of great consequence, where it has so many returns to perform. A furnace invented by Mr. James Scot, of Turnham Green, a commercial Pine-grower of those days, is recommended. It is cast in one piece, and requires a wrought-iron door and a cast-iron plate to build over the chamber. Justice agrees with Miller in recommending the furnace to be built within the house, (but supplied from without) in order that no heat may be lost.

The plan given requires no succession-house; but he describes a frame used by many persons for growing young Pines, “made in the same manner as common hot-bed frames, but higher and broader; that is, three feet higher at the back, sloping to one and a half in front, and six feet wide.” These cover a tan-pit causewayed at bottom, and surrounded by a stone wall. It is very proper, he says, to have these frames at work as well as the stoves. He also mentions flued pits, such as are described by Miller ([Sect. 2.]) Both stoves and pits he covers with boards, tarpauling, or mats, at night; and the fuel he uses is coal or peat, avoiding wood as of too rapid consumption.

Soil. Two-thirds of good loamy kitchen-garden mould, one-third of old rotten cows’ dung, or hot-bed dung, and to every eight barrowfuls of this a barrowful of sea-sand. He adds, “If your ground is naturally sandy, after having mixed it with the dung above mentioned, add thereto a third of good fat marl; which succeeded so well with me, that in this compost I had much larger fruit than in any other compound which I used to give them, which induced me to put, at all times, a good deal of marl in the compost I used for these plants.” This mixture should lie for six months in those parts of the garden which are airy and least exposed to the sun; after the first three months, turn it over every fortnight. Scots Gardeners’ Directory, 2d edit. p. 124.

General management. The same as is given by Miller. He tried some plants turned out of the pots with their balls, and planted in the bark for the last nine months before the fruit ripened, and found the fruit larger and earlier, but not better flavoured than that of the plants in pots. In shifting, he never cuts off any of the leaves; “for it is certain,” he adds, “that the leaves of all plants and trees bear the same office to them, as the pulmonary vessels do to human bodies.” He waters over the leaves when the plants have shewn fruit; because the fruit stalks, occupying what in young plants was a hollow tube, no injury can happen. P. 129.

Insects. At the first appearance of the bug, he picks off the scale with a pin; and if that does not clean the leaves, he washes with a sponge; and, in extreme cases, uses Miller’s mode.

Fruit produced. The object of all his directions is, “to have fruit large, good, and early, in a right season; viz. from the middle of June to the middle of September, but no later; for the rays of the sun, at that time, have not strength enough to give them that poignancy of smell and taste that they ought to have.” P. 134. “Cut fruit when their smell is strongest and most poignant; if too ripe, they soon turn insipidly sweet, and have no more taste than an orange. Cut them about ten o’clock in the forenoon, with about four inches of stalk to them. When the fruit is to be sent to a distance, cut a day or more before they are ripe, with a larger portion of stalk to them, and wrap them very close in paper, to preserve them from the air; otherwise their flavour will escape.” P. 132.

Sect. IV.
Culture of the Pine Apple, by John Giles, at Lewisham, in Kent, 1767.

This author, who was gardener to Lady Boyd, and afterwards foreman in the Lewisham nursery, says, he writes after many years’ practice and observation; and that his treatise will be found “of more real advantage to a young unexperienced gardener, than his giving a premium of five or ten guineas to a mercenary old one (who perhaps might have had some practice, with a trifling degree of success,) to learn—what? why, to spoil his plants, with the loss of both money and reputation.”

“Notwithstanding the directions of Miller, Hill, (probably alluding to a letter on the Pine Apple in “Gardener’s New Calendar,” written by Sir John Hill, under his assumed name of Barnes,) Meader, &c. who have endeavoured to explore the method how the Pine Apple is to be grown; yet, upon trial, the success has always fallen much short of their expectation. For these reasons, Mr. Giles “presents the public with explicit directions for managing and bringing to perfection the Pine Apple; in which all the obstacles and difficulties which gardeners have met with in raising that fruit are remedied, and the true method pointed out in a clear and satisfactory manner.” Preface, p. vii.

Form of House. The plants are brought forward in pits, and afterwards fruited in a stove forty feet long and twelve feet wide, with a pit six feet wide, surrounded by a path, and a flue which makes three returns in a flue close under the back wall. The front of the pit is about three, and the back about five feet from the glass. It will fruit, he says, a hundred plants annually, they being brought forward in the low pits or frames, and removed to the fruiting-house in September or October.

The obvious objection to the plan of his house is the having no flue in front.

Soil. A rich hazely loam from a well-pastured common. This soil alone, he says, not only answers well for Pines, but for most vegetables.

General Management. He recommends keeping a moist atmosphere in the house, and giving abundance of air when the plants are in fruit. His other directions relate to mere routine practices, and offer nothing else worth quoting.

Insects. A moist atmosphere, he says, will keep down these. “It is only poor plants,” he says, “which are not in a good state of health, that are infested with insects. They are encouraged by the warmth and dryness of the air of the stove, and the bad state of the plants; but where cleanliness and moisture are attended to, there will never be any worth notice.” P. 36.

Fruit produced. He fruits the Queen Pine in two years, at the usual season; but does not state to what size the fruit attains.

Sect. V.
Culture of the Pine Apple, by Adam Taylor, Gardener at Devizes, in Wiltshire, 1769.

This author, who was gardener to J. Sutton, Esq. at New Park, professes “to lay down a mode by which the Pine Apple may be produced in higher perfection, with more ease and less expense than has been hitherto known in this climate.” He offers his treatise with confidence, as not being founded on hypothesis, but on some years’ experience; and it may be depended on, as “it admits of the attestation of many persons whose taste and judgment are unquestionable.”

“The present way,” he says, “of raising Pine Apples, is made so chargeable by the erection of hot-houses, and the consumption of fuel, that many, even of tolerable fortunes, have been deterred by the consideration of it, from raising this desirable fruit. It is farther attended with trouble, and much uncertainty; and the fruit itself rarely answers the expense either in size, number, or quality. But by the practice now recommended, these several inconveniences are sufficiently obviated. There are very few, even of commercial gardeners, who are not able to accumulate the necessary quantity of horse-dung, which is the principal article for this valuable end. And by such application of it, they shall not fail to find their hopes abundantly answered, and their labour well repaid.” P. 3.

Form of House. He both rears and fruits them in a pit. This he forms either of boards, or of brick-work three feet deep, and of any convenient length and width; and on the walls or boards, which inclose the tan, he places a frame two and a half feet deep in front, and four feet high behind. The ends and front are of glass, and the latter is formed into small sashes, which slide in a groove. The back is formed of inch boards, and against these he places a powerful lining of dung.

The pit he fills with tan, or dung, as may be most convenient; dung, he says, does as well as tan, and only requires a little more trouble, which is amply repaid to the gardener by the value of the dung to the garden, when no longer in active fermentation.

An anonymous annotator (to the copy of Taylor’s book, in the library of the Horticultural Society) says, “I find by experience, that the dung of four horses is sufficient to work two frames twenty-six feet each in length, and six in breadth; one for the fruiting-house, the other for succession plants; and that it may be reasonably expected to cut forty fruit yearly after the first year, and the dung as valuable for the field or garden, as if this use had not been made of it.” P. 3.

Soil. “Take one load of mould from under the turf of a good pasture, and, if it be very light, add to it the fourth part of a load of good mellow loam: but if it be of itself of a loamy nature, mix into it two or three bushels of sea-sand. Then take the fourth part of a load of dung from a cow-yard, if it can be thence procured; but if not, take the same quantity of good rotten dung from your old cucumber or melon beds. Mix these well together, and turn the whole three or four times, that it may thoroughly imbibe the air. All the large clods should be well broken, but not sifted or screened, as is the practice with many; so shall you have a compost, which is excellently adapted to the growth and nourishment of the plants.” P. 15.

General Management. He takes great care to keep his plants in a dormant state during winter; but about the end of March and April, he applies linings, and brings them into a growing state, shifting all those not intended for fruiting that season. He covers the frames at night throughout the year with straw, and a sail-cloth over, excepting in the warmest part of summer; at that season, during fine showers, he removes the sashes entirely, and lets the plants receive a gentle watering. He frequently waters over the leaves in the afternoons with a pot having a fine rose, and shuts up early; which he finds produces a moist heat, rapid growth, and keeps down insects. In winter he uses a tin pipe, to keep the water from touching the leaves of the plants; and as he has a very low temperature at that season, he gives them very little.

Insects. These he is not much troubled with; but he says, “Such plants as are attacked by them, should be immediately taken out of the frame, and plunged into a moderate hot-bed made of dung; this hot-bed should be covered with one or two cucumber-frames, adapted to the height of the plants. Let these frames be covered with lights; so as to confine the steam of the dung. As soon as the plants receive the heat of this bed, water them all over the tops of the leaves with cold water. This will effectually destroy the insects; after which the plants are to be restored to the covered frame again. A trial or two of this will convince any person of the infallible efficacy of it.” P. 38.

It thus appears that he destroys them by the operation of the ammoniacal gas, much in the same manner as does Mr. Baldwin.

Fruit produced. He says nothing of the weight of the fruit, but he calculates on fruiting the plants in two years, and ripening the fruit only in summer and autumn, or between July and October inclusive; and he prefers the Queen Pine to all others.

Sect. VI.
Culture of the Pine Apple by William Speechly, gardener to his Grace the Duke of Portland, at Welbeck, in Nottinghamshire, 1779.

The culture of the Pine, Mr. Speechly observes, has already been treated of by many persons, who have varied much in the methods they have recommended. Far from meaning to depreciate their labours, he adds, “my advice and pretensions rest solely upon the success which I have met with in my experiments.” He went to serve the Duke of Portland in 1767, and published his book after eleven years’ experience. He continued at Welbeck till about the year 1800.

Form of House. The great object of Mr. Speechly seems to have been to combine the culture of the Pine and Vine; and for this purpose he adopted one form both for his succession and fruiting-house; training Vines up the rafters, and on the upper part of the back wall.

6

In many places small stoves of a particular construction (in the which the Pines stand very near the glass) are erected solely for the purpose of Fruiting-houses. These, from their being always kept up to a high degree of heat, are by gardeners usually termed Roasters. ([fig. 7.]) When there is such conveniency, it is customary, when any Pine-plants show fruit in the large stoves, to remove such plants (especially the most promising) directly into the fruiting-house; where, from the high degree of heat kept, they generally swell their fruit astonishingly.

It is observable that Pines always succeed best in stoves that have been newly erected; on which account, some of the more curious in the cultivation of this fruit have judged it expedient to pull down and rebuild their Pine-stoves every ten or twelve years. Although I cannot subscribe to such expensive mode of procedure, I shall here beg to state the many advantages that accrue from keeping Pine-stoves in good and proper repair.

First, by keeping the flues clean from soot, and air-proof, they will heat the house better, and much less fuel will serve.

Secondly, by a due attention to keeping the inside of the roof, &c. duly painted, and by constantly white-washing the walls and flues in every part of the house, the plants will be greatly benefited, both from having a better reflection and from cleanliness.

A further advantage in stoves newly built may also here be remarked. Where tan only is used, the beds are always filled at the first with new tan entire; but afterwards, constantly with new and old tan intermixt.

Lastly, it is probable that stoves, newly erected, derive their greatest benefit from the good condition of the glass-work; for, however well it may be kept in repair afterwards, it is certain that there never is so much light in an old stove as was at the first. Dirt will find its way into the cavities between the squares, &c. which, obstructing the sun’s rays, darkens and gives a gloominess to the stove.

7

He describes a Pine-stove to be heated by steam, in which the vapour is admitted to a brick vault, over which is the bed of tan or earth; this is surrounded by a path and smoke-flues, exactly as in the common form of hot-house.

He also gives a plan of a furnace for burning lime as well as heating hot-houses, as erected at Billing, in Northamptonshire, and at Lady E. Ponsonby’s, at Bishop’s Court, in Ireland; and, subsequently, at various other places in that country.

8

In these kiln-furnaces, ([fig. 8.]) the heat, after passing through the limestone in the kiln or crucible (a), enters the flue (e), and passes through it in the usual manner. The grate on which the fuel burns (d) is contrived to draw out by means of a grooved frame (c), as soon as the lime in the crucible is burned, which then falls into the ash-pit (b), and is removed.

Soil. Alter numerous experiments made with mixtures, of cow, deer, sheep, pigeon, hen, and rotten stable dung, with soot, and other manures, in various proportions, with fresh pasture-soil of different qualities, he says, I can venture to recommend the following:

In the month of April or May, let the sward or turf of a pasture, where the soil is a strong rich loam, and of a reddish colour, be pared off, not more than two inches thick: let it then be carried to the pens in sheep-pastures, where sheep are frequently put for the purpose of dressing, which places should be cleared of stones, &c. and made smooth; then let the turf be laid, with the grass-side downwards, and only one course thick; here it may continue two, three, or more months, during which time it should be turned with a spade once or twice, according as the pen is more or less frequented by the above animals; who, with their urine and dung, will enrich the turf to a great degree, and their feet will reduce it, and prevent any weeds from growing.

After the turf has lain a sufficient time, it should be brought to a convenient place, and laid in a heap for at least six months, (if a twelvemonth it will be the better,) being frequently turned during that time; and after being made pretty fine with a spade, but not screened, it will be fit for use.

In places where the above mode cannot be adopted, the mixture may be made by putting a quantity of sheep’s dung (or deer’s dung, if it can be got) and turf together. But here it must be observed, that the dung should be collected from the pastures when newly fallen; also, that a larger proportion should be added, making an allowance for the want of urine.

1. Three wheelbarrows of the above reduced sward or soil; one barrow of vegetable mould from decayed oak-leaves, or leaves of other deciduous trees, and half a barrow of coarse sand, make a compost-mould for Crowns, Suckers, and Young Plants.

2. Three wheelbarrows of swarth, reduced as above, two barrows of vegetable mould, one barrow of coarse sand, and one-fourth of a barrow of soot, make a compost-mould for fruiting plants.

The above composts should be made some months before they are wanted, and very frequently turned during that time, that the different mixtures may get well and uniformly incorporated.

It is observable, that in hot-houses, where Pine-plants are put in a light soil, the young plants frequently go into fruit the first season, and are then what gardeners term runners; on the contrary, where plants are put in a strong rich soil, they will continue to grow, and not fruit even at a proper season: therefore, from the nature of the soil from whence the sward was taken, the quantity of sand used must be proportioned; when the loam is not strong, sand will be unnecessary in the compost for young plants.

I conceive that the urine of sheep contains a greater quantity of mucilage, or oleaginous matter, than the dung of those animals: and this opinion is founded upon observations made in sheep-pastures; where, during the summer months, the effects of both are easily distinguished. I also presume that the reduced sward in the pens receives a very considerable degree of fertility from the feet of the sheep.

Where oak-leaves are not used in hot-houses instead of bark, the vegetable-mould may be made by laying a quantity of them together, in a heap sufficiently large to ferment, as soon as they fall from the trees: they should be covered for some time at first, to prevent the upper leaves from being blown away. The heap should afterwards be frequently turned, and kept clean from weeds: the leaves will be two years before they are sufficiently reduced to be fit for use.

I shall just observe, that it will be proper to keep the different heaps of compost at all times clean from weeds, to turn them frequently, and to round them up in long rainy seasons. If covered, the better: but they should be spread abroad in continued frosts, and in fine weather.

General Management. The pots he recommends are:

I wish it to be understood that the above dimensions are only used for full-sized plants, at their different periods: plants below the standard must have less-sized pots in proportion.

Sometimes, he observes, hot-beds are made for the suckers. When that is the case, they should be prepared at least fourteen days before the suckers are taken off, in order that the violence of the heat may be over: after the bed has been made ten days, it should be levelled, and covered eight or ten inches with tan; and after this has lain four or five days, in case the heat of the bed should not be violent, the pots may be plunged into it.

In respect of temperature and water, he advises only a moderate heat, and not much water, during the winter months; but an increase of both, accompanied with more air, as the season advances.

There is nothing, he says, so prejudicial to the Pine-apple plant, (insects and an over-heat of the tan excepted,) as forcing them to grow by making large fires, and keeping the hot-house warm at an improper season; which is injudiciously done in many hot-houses. It is inconsistent with reason, and against nature, to force a tropical plant in this climate in a cold dark season, such as generally happens here in the months of November and December; and plants so treated will in time show the injury done them: if large plants for fruiting, they generally show very small fruit-buds with weak stems; and, if small plants, they seldom make much progress in the beginning of the next summer.

As the length of the days, and power of the sun increases, the plants will begin to grow, and from that time it will be absolutely necessary to keep them in a regular growing state; for if young plants receive a check afterwards, it generally causes many of them to go into fruit. From the time they begin to grow they will demand a little water: once in a week or ten days, as the weather may prove more or less favourable, will be sufficient till the middle of March, which is the most eligible season to shift them in their pots. If that work is done sooner, it will prevent the plants from striking freely; and if deferred longer, it will check them in their summer’s growth.

In this shifting I always shake off the whole of the ball of earth, and cut off all the roots that are of a black colour, carefully preserving such only as are white and strong. I then put such plants as are intended to fruit the next season into second-sized pots with fresh mould entire.

The bed at this time should be renewed with a little fresh tan, in order to promote its heating, and the pots plunged therein immediately. The hot-house should be kept pretty warm till the heat of the tan begins to arise, as it will be the means of causing the plants to strike both sooner and stronger. As soon as the heat of the bed begins to arise, it will be proper to give the plants a sprinkling of water over their leaves; and as soon as they are perceived to grow, they will require a little water once a week for a short time, and afterwards twice a week till the next time of shifting them in their pots.

During the summer months give the plants plenty of air whenever the weather is warm, and water properly, as has been described: let the pots be kept in a regular constant heat, and clean from weeds; but above all, avoid an over-heat of the tan. Some persons plunge a thermometer in the tan, with the ball of its tube as deep as the bottom of the Pine-pots; and by repeated observations, a point is fixed for the spirits in the part of the tube above the surface of the tan, to show when the pots should be raised. Whether the above, or the putting watch-sticks in the tan (which is the most common method) is practised, too much attention cannot be had whenever there is the appearance of too violent a heat in the tan.

If the above directions are strictly attended to, the plants will be grown to a large size by the beginning of August; when they should be shifted into the largest-sized fruiting-pots, with their roots and balls entire.

But it will be proper here to observe, that in some hot-houses it is found difficult to get plants of the Antigua and Sugar-loaf kinds to fruit at a proper age; and, in that case, I advise the shaving off the roots on the outside, and reducing the balls of them at this shifting. A greater proportion of sand should also be added to the compost, which will be the means of bringing them into a fruiting state at a proper season.

The disproportion of the second-sized and fruiting-pots is so great, as to admit of a good quantity of fresh mould at this shifting, which is absolutely necessary to support the plants till their fruit becomes ripe: it also affords an opportunity of performing the operation of shifting the plants without injuring their roots. As there will be a large space between the ball and the side of the pot, the mould may be put round the ball with great ease; whereas, when plants are shifted into pots only a small size larger than those from whence they were taken, they are generally much injured by the operation of shifting: besides, even with the greatest care, there will frequently be spaces left hollow between the ball and the side of the pot.

A little fresh tan should be added, and the bed forked up, but not to the bottom of the pit, as the tan is liable to heat violently at this season of the year; of which when there is the least appearance, the pots should be raised immediately. The delay of doing it one day may be attended with very bad consequences.

The plants will continue to grow very fast this and the following month, and should therefore be watered pretty plentifully, at least twice a week; and, in the summer waterings, it should be observed, that it will be of great service to the plants to be watered once a fortnight all over their leaves. If the month of October be wet and cold, the plants should not be watered above twice in that month; but if fine and clear, once a week: and here ends the watering of the fruiting plants for the season. I never give them any water in the months of November and December; and during that time I keep the hot-house in a cold state, but a bottom heat is always required; therefore the tan should have been renewed, and the old part of it screened about the end of October or beginning of November: from which time the bed will generally retain a moderate warmth till the beginning of January, when the tan should again be renewed. From that time the hot-house should be kept a few degrees warmer; and, as soon as the tan begins to ferment, the plants may have a little water given them.

In this month (January) some of the plants will appear set for fruiting, which may be distinguished by the short leaves in their centres; and from that time they should be moderately watered (till the middle of March) and the hot-house should be kept pretty warm; a little air should, however, be admitted, whenever the weather will permit.

About the middle of March it will be proper to renew the tan-bed, and, at the same time, the plants should be divested of a few of their bottom leaves; the mould on the top of the pots should be taken off as deep as can be done without injuring the roots, and the pots filled up with fresh compost-earth, which will add to the vigour of the plants, as well as give a neatness to the whole when finished.

It is very injurious to the plants, and greatly retards the swelling of the fruit, to remove them after this season; therefore, in case the heat of the bed should decline, a fresh heat may be got without moving the plants, by taking out the tan betwixt the pots as deep as possible, and filling that space up with fresh tan.—This method is practised by some even at an earlier season.

The plants at this season will demand a kind, lively bottom heat; and whenever the weather will permit, a great quantity of air should be admitted into the hot-house, the want of a due proportion of which would cause the stems of the fruit to draw themselves weak, and grow tall; after which the fruit never swells kindly.

As the fruit and suckers begin to advance in size, the plants will require plenty of water to support them, which may be given them at least twice, and sometimes three times a week; but too much should not be given them at one time; it is better to give them less at a time, and oftener.

Sticks should be provided to support the fruit before it is grown too large; and, in tying them, care should be taken to leave bandage-room sufficient, making allowance for the swelling of the fruit.

When the suckers are grown to about one foot in length, they should be taken off in the same manner that has been described; and from that time the fruit will swell very fast. As soon as the fruit appears full swelled, the watering such plants as produce them should cease: but it is too general a practice (in order to have the fruit as large as can be got) to continue the watering too long; which causes the fruit to be filled with an insipid, watery, and ill-flavoured juice.

It is easy to know when the Pine becomes ripe by its yellow colour; yet they do not all change in the same manner, but most generally begin at the lower part of the fruit. Such fruit should not be cut till the upper part also begins to change, which sometimes will be many days after, especially in the Sugar-loaf kinds. Sometimes the fruit will first begin to change in the middle, which is a certain indication of its being ripe: such fruit should be cut immediately.

Having thus laid down the culture of the Pine-apple plant, whether raised from seed, by crowns, or suckers, to its final perfection in the fruit, I shall now subjoin some hints and observations; most of which, I hope, will be of use.

In treating of the culture of the Pine-apple plant, some persons have recommended the shifting of the plants, from first to last, with their balls entire; also the shifting of them oftener than I have here recommended. These methods I disapprove, for the following reasons:

First, it is observable that the Pine-plant begins to make its roots at the very bottom of the stem; and, as the plant increases in size, fresh roots are produced from the stem, still higher and higher, and the bottom roots die in proportion: so that, if a plant in the greatest vigour be turned out of its pot as soon as the fruit is cut, there will be found at the bottom a part of the stem, several inches in length, naked, destitute of roots, and smooth. Now, according to the above method, the whole of the roots which the plant produces being permitted to remain on the stem to the last, the old roots decay and turn mouldy, to the great detriment of those afterwards produced.

Secondly, the first ball, which remains with the plant full two years, by length of time will become hard, cloddy, and exhausted of its nourishment, and must therefore prevent the roots afterwards produced from growing with that freedom and vigour which they would do in fresher and better mould.

Thirdly, the old ball continually remaining after the frequent shiftings, it will be too large, when put into the fruiting-pot, to admit of a sufficient quantity of fresh mould to support the plant till its fruit becomes ripe, which is generally a whole year from the last time of shifting.

It is an object of emulation amongst gardeners to try to excel their neighbours in the size of their Pines. In order to produce very large fruit, I recommend the following method, which I have often practised with great success.

In the month of April or May, it is easy to distinguish, in a stove of Pines, which plants promise to produce the best fruit: this is not always the case with the largest. A few of the most promising being marked, a small iron rod, made with a sharp angular point, may be thrust down the centre of the sucker; which, being turned two or three times round, will drill out the centre, and prevent its growing. This must be performed on all the suckers as fast as they appear. Thus the plant being plentifully supplied with water, and having nothing to support but the fruit, will sometimes grow amazingly large. But this method should not be practised on too many plants, as it is attended with the entire loss of all the suckers.

It being a practice with some to fruit the Pine by setting the pot in water; while others produce the fruit by setting the plant only in water, (in a similar manner to what is often practised with Hyacinths and other bulbous roots,) the passing over these methods in silence may, by some, be deemed an omission: but as neither of these methods can be reduced to practice with any kind of success, except on fruiting plants, and just in the hot summer months, when the situation of the plant ought to be very near to the glass, they do not seem calculated for general practice.

However, as some persons are inclined to suppose that Pines raised by these methods are generally of superior quality, I shall just beg to say, that the first method, of setting the pot in water, is greatly to be preferred, and that the best time for adopting it is immediately after the plants have shown fruit in the spring.

Mr. Speechly is minute in his directions as to air, water, the use of leaves instead of bark, the application of fire, heat, &c.; but as all these instructions are more to be considered as applicable to the general management of the hot-house, than the particular treatment of the Pine-apple, we do not think it advisable to trouble the reader with their perusal.

9

Insects. Those which more immediately infest the Pine, were first described in Speechly’s book. They are all species or varieties of the Linnean order Hemiptera, and genus Coccus. The first is the brown turtle bug, Coccus hesperidum ([Fig. 9.]) The female has at first the appearance of a flat scale (a); afterwards, when depositing its eggs, it becomes fixed and turgid (b); these eggs (c) are hatched under the mother, who soon afterwards dies; the young insects, seen under a magnifier, appear like turtles in miniature (d). Only the males, (e), which are few in proportion to the females, have wings; these devour nothing, and having performed the office of impregnation, die.

The white scaly bug, C. hesp. var. α (f to l) bears a considerable resemblance to the above; but the scale (f) is somewhat smaller; the colour is white, and the males or flies (l) not so large as those of the brown.

The white mealy crimson-tinged bug, C. hesp. var. ϐ (n and m) differs from the former in being larger and crimson-coloured. Speechly considers it as viviparous. This and the former species are much the most pernicious.

Mr. Speechly’s mode of destroying these and other insects, being much too elaborate for modern practice, it would be a waste of time to repeat his processes. Simple modes are always the most effectual, and nothing can be more so than M’Phail’s mode of applying the steam of water; or Baldwin’s, that of horse-dung.

Fruit produced. Mr. Speechly does not seem to have had a fixed object as to the production of fruit, unless it was to have it good. Some cultivators, as Justice, aim at having all the fruit ripe at that season when they will attain the greatest size and most flavour, viz. in August and September; others aim at having some weekly throughout the year. It would appear that the former was Speechly’s object, and that he did not contemplate the other as now generally practised. “Large fruiting plants,” he says, “will sometimes show their fruit in the months of August and September, but these are generally thought of no value, and, consequently, thrown away. To prevent this, I frequently take such plants out of the hot-house as soon as their fruit begin to appear. I then set them in a shed or out-house for five or six weeks; at the expiration of which time I pot them as in the month of March, after shaking off their balls. After this I plunge them into the tan.”

What was the common weight of the Queen Pines produced at Welbeck, he does not inform us; but a fruit of the New Providence, produced in the gardens at Welbeck in 1794, weighed 5¹⁄₄ lb., or 84 oz. He generally fruited the Queen Pine in the third season, being under two years of time; and the Providence and Antigua in the fourth season.

Sect. VII.
Culture of the Pine Apple by James M’Phail, gardener to the late Earl of Liverpool, at Addiscombe, in Surrey, from 1788 to 1808.

Mr. M’Phail, when in practice, was reckoned one of the first growers of the Pine Apple in England; he grew the plants, and also fruited them chiefly in pits; the pots plunged in bark, and the bark inclosed by a perforated wall of his invention, and heated by linings of dung. He also grew them in larger buildings.