THE PINE-APPLE. 257 



wheat, which are plentifully produced in the wild fruit, 

 but are rare in cultivated specimens, owing to the extreme 

 succulence attained by every part. "When present at all, 

 it is found that the cells which contain seed lie near the 

 centre of the fruit, while the abortive seed-cells are mostly 

 situate close to the rind, a fact which led Professor Martyn 

 to conclude that some of the flowers might be male and 

 others hermaphrodite. 



In the West Indies the Ananas has been commonly 

 grown from seed, but the ordinary mode of propagation 

 in this country was by means of planting the crowns, 

 which, however, are now less in repute than formerly, the 

 suckers or shoots from the middle of the stem being pre- 

 ferred. The first great improvement which took place in 

 their cultivation was the substitution of hotbeds of horse- 

 dung and tan for fire heat, an increase both in size and 

 excellence following the adoption of a system recommended 

 also by the comparative cheapness. The plant, however, 

 was still looked on as a triennial, a date of duration rather 

 arbitrarily assigned to it, since, though it is certainly its 

 nature to bear fruit once only and then to perish in its 

 native tropics, this aim and end of its existence is not 

 unfrequently accomplished within the course of a single 

 year, while all the care bestowed upon it by our gardeners 

 often failed to obtain the desired consummation before 

 the lapse of four years. Of late, however, so great has 

 been the progress of the craft both in knowledge and skill, 

 that fruit is now produced in fifteen months or less, and 

 with a comparatively small amount of care and labour, 

 which a short time ago cost three or four years of con- 

 tinual toil and expense. Formerly, too, it was considered 

 impossible to "swell off" a pine in winter, so that if a 

 plant showed fruit late in the autumn, it was forthwith 

 consigned to the rubbish-heap, cast out and trodden under 

 foot as a useless bringer of untimely births. Now, how- 

 ever, they are at liberty to bear and bring forth when they 

 will, sure of a glad welcome at any time for the tender 

 progeny, for it has been found that the grand secret of 

 fostering them into perfection consists more in the pro- 

 portioning of heat to light than the unvarying amplitud 



17 



