1871.] SEEDLING PINE -APPLES. G5 



SEEDLinSTG PIHSTE - APPLES. 



I BELIEVE there are not many gardeners who have had much experi- 

 ence in raising and cultivating seedling Pine-apples. It is a subject 

 seldom spoken of or commented upon in the horticultural press. It 

 so happens that I have thirty -four distinct varieties of seedlino-s 

 under my care at the present time. In many instances their charac- 

 ters are very distinct from each other, and easily detected at first sicrht 

 by cultivators of the Pine -apple. One of thera is likely to become 

 the tallest and most robust in cultivation, while at the same time it 

 forms a plant of handsome proportions, its leaves being as straight as 

 an arrow and covered with an unusually dense and light - coloured 

 bloom, the spines being wider apart than in any other variety with 

 Avhich I am acquainted. This plant has been grown under great 

 disadvantages, as I never was able to keep the bed in which it was 

 plunged more than at 'a temperature of 60°, in consequence of the hot- 

 water pipes settling down late in the autumn — and, owing to circum- 

 stances, they could not be raised to the proper level till the folio win o- 

 spring. The sucker from which the plant was grown was weak, 

 having been taken from a sickly plant which had to be stripped of 

 every leaf, and scrubbed and otherwise cleansed to get rid of scale. 

 The small sucker made its appearance from this roughly-handled stool 

 late in the autumn of 1868; and on the 2d of January 1870 I cut 

 a fruit from it weighing almost 7 lb. On the same date I cut a smooth 

 Cayenne 5| lb. weight, and sent them both to the dessert on the same 

 day. When the seedling was cut, the juice flowed from it, covering the 

 bottom of the plate as if a sauce had been poured over it. The 

 smooth Cayenne, in comparison with the seedling, was dry and juice- 

 less. True, the latter grew in the row of plants next the outside of 

 the bed, and probably had even less bottom-heat than the seedling. 



I may state that the dwarfest of the seedlings does not measure 

 more than 1 2 inches in height, and it is expected to show fruit very 

 soon ; so that in one batch of seedlings we have the extreme of stature 

 at least, showing that the Pine -apple from seed is as variable as anj'- 

 other fruit. So far as I am aware, the Pine -apple in a cultivated 

 state seldom forms a perfect seed ; but exceptions in this case as in 

 all others occur now and then. The fruit the seed was taken from 

 in this instance was a Montserrat grown by my predecessor here. 

 Thirty-four varieties became strong enough to be pricked off, grown on, 

 and fruited by the late Mr Stevenson. The Montserrat fruit in ques- 

 tion was cut in 1860, and was pronounced bad, or not in good condition, 

 and when shown to Mr Stevenson he discovered the seeds and sowed 

 them. Many fruit of their first produce he sent to the London Fruit 



