258 



PINES IN THE AZORES. 



By Dr. M. Grabham. 

 While on a visit to St. Michael's, Azores, recently.^ I was much 

 interested in the Pine-apple cultivation which i-* extensively carried on 

 ill that island, and I w..s particularly struck with the method usually 

 employed by the growers for hast ning tlie plants into flower. When 

 the plants have reached an advanced stage of growth, and are appa- 

 rently fully grown, a slow smouldering fire of damp and green leaves 

 is made in the gLisshouses and kept up for about eight or ten da\s, 

 n-t longer. The windows and doors are kept seo rely closed during 

 this time so that the atmosphere in the houses becomes densely charged 

 with smoke. It is generally believed that the smoke s imulates the 

 plants to bloom, and not the heat generated by the fire which i^ said 

 to be not appr. ciable. Should the plants prove stubborn, the process 

 is repeated after an interval of several weeks; but one application of 

 smoke is, I understand, generally sufficient. I was told that tho life 

 of the p' ant was artificially shortened in this manner, from eighteen 

 to eleven months. The plants are timed to attain their full growth in 

 August or September, the " '^moke" is then given, and the fruit matures 

 in December or January, when the best values i.re obtained The 

 discovery of the smoking process, which dates back to more than a 

 decade, was made quite accidentally; a planter having made a 

 smouldering fire in one of his pineries for the purpose of destroying 

 an iu sect pest, was surprised to observe that his plants burst in lo 

 flower prematurely. — {Gardeners' Chronicle ) 



THE COMPOSITION OF JAMAICA FRUITS. 



By H. H. Cousins, M.A., F.C.S. 



I. Pine -APPLES. 



A collection of Pine-apple varieties is grown at the Hope Experiment 

 Station in parallel beds on a light and porous soil The plants are set 

 I'ather close and the fruit obtained last season wjs fairly representative 

 of the grade of pines producible on the lighter soils of the Liguanea 

 plain. 



The specimens were not selected as being especially fine, but as 



average fruits. 



The results of our analyses are as follows : — 



