THE PINE- APPLE. 341 



tribe made it a rule to keep his trees rather cool, and with 

 plenty of air in mild weather, till the fruit was fairly set ; 

 after which he found that he could apply more heat with 

 out the risk of the fruit failing. 



The orange-tree prospers in a rich, fresh, and rather 

 strong soil ; and, in this country, it is the practice to mix 

 with it a considerable portion of well-rotted manure. When 

 grown in pots or boxes, the plant should be shifted, and 

 the earth partly renewed, every spring. In summer, co 

 pious waterings are given, and the leaves are syringed once 

 or twice a week. The heads are kept thin, and any branches 

 which inconveniently cross each other are removed. When 

 planted against trellises, they are trained in the fan form ; 

 and in laying in the shoots, allowance is to be made for the 

 size of the leaves in the different species. 



THE PINE- APPLE (Bromelia Ananas L. or Ananassa 

 sativa) is comparatively of recent introduction into Bri 

 tain. It was nearly unknown to English horticulturists in 

 the beginning of the eighteenth century ; for Thoresby, the 

 Leeds antiquary, kept a leaf of the pine-apple in his mu 

 seum as a curiosity. It is now largely and successfully 

 cultivated in all the principal gardens in Britain. Its cul 

 ture requires all the ingenuity, judgment, and watchfulness 

 of the skillful and diligent horticulturist; and we shall, 

 therefore, treat of it at considerable length. It derives its 

 name from the general resemblance of its fruit to a large cone 

 of a pine-tree. The fruit is a kind of pulpy strobilus, 

 formed of coadunate berries, and crowned at top with a tuft 

 of small pointed leaves. The flavor of the pulp is of the 

 most exquisite kind. The plant is herbaceous, and the fruit- 

 stem, which generally appears in the second or third year, 

 is surrounded with long serrated leaves, resembling those 



