258 OUR COMMON FEUITS. 



of either, and that by lessening the temperature of the 

 pinery at night, or in dark sunless days, these children of 

 a land where winter is unknown may brave his frowns with 

 impunity, and their growth, though it may be retarded, 

 will still steadily continue, and an uninterrupted succes- 

 sion of heirs to the crown keep up the glory of the family 

 through every change of season. They make most pro- 

 gress, however, in spring and autumn, for, accustomed in 

 their native climate to grow beneath the shades of loftier 

 vegetation, they shrink from the unmitigated glow of even 

 an English summer sun; and, except when the nearly 

 ripened fruit requires just a few finishing touches of power- 

 ful solar influence to bring out its fullest tones of colour 

 and taste, loves best that the bright rays should gleam 

 into its greenhouse abode only through a leafy screen of 

 vines trained over the rafters. Too much air, however, 

 can hardly be given, for though fruit will swell to an un- 

 healthy corpulence when grown in close pits, the flavour 

 proves far inferior to that borne by plants more happily 

 situate in light and airy houses. As regards vegetable as 

 well as animal life, " the worth of fresh air" is only now 

 beginning to be generally understood ; but the appearance 

 of the denizens of such different abodes pleads powerfully 

 as plainly in favour of the attendance of " the Cheap 

 Doctor;" for when grown in pits, the leaves of the pine- 

 apple are long, thin, narrow, and flabby, and the tall slim 

 fruit-stalk so weak that it cannot without support stand 

 upright under the weight of its watery tasteless fruit ; 

 while plants that have been reared in houses ever rejoicing 

 in the surrounding light and air have short, thick, and 

 broad leaves, stiif as those of an aloe, and sturdy unbending 

 fruit-stalk, proudly upbearing its luscious load of sweet 

 well-flavoured fruit, crowned with a well-proportioned 

 coronal -of short vigorous leaves seldom exceeding half the 

 height of the fructal cone, for an over-luxuriant crown 

 would only betoken an undue drain upon the wearer. 

 Some of the finest pines, indeed, in point of flavour, that 

 have ever been grown beneath an English sky, matured 

 their fruit beneath its full influence, in the free open air. 

 This experiment was tried in 1847, at Bicton, in Devon- 



