THE PINE-APPLE. 259 



shire, where some plants in pots, to which no fire heat had 

 at any time been applied, were placed out after they had 

 blossomed, in the month of May, in beds of leaves in the 

 open garden ; a bank was thrown up around them to keep 

 off currents of cold wind, and the whole surface of the 

 ground, for some distance, covered with charred hay, the 

 black substance so increasing the heat-absorbing power of 

 the ground as to repel night frosts and maintain a healthy 

 growth during the day-time. Though the temperature of 

 the immediate spot was occasionally below forty degrees, 

 some nights had been frosty, and some days quite sun- 

 less the fruit matured to an average weight of 4 Ibs., and 

 in one instance to 6 Ibs., and its flavour was perfect a re- 

 sult which could not be attributed to high temperature 

 or long-continued sunshine, and, therefore, could only be 

 traced to the free access of air constantly passing over the 

 plants to nourish and invigorate them. So bold a system 

 could, however, be hardly relied upon as generally appli- 

 cable, and the special advantage it offers is combined with 

 others in one of the newest modes of culture, which con- 

 sists in heating the pine-pit with pipes of hot water under 

 its beds of tan, while other pipes, communicating with the 

 outside at some distance from the pit, keep up a continual 

 supply of pure air. 



So delicate a feeder, subsisting principally upon the 

 lighter elements, can afford to be very indifferent to the 

 grosser aliment derivable from soil, and the Ananas is 

 therefore content to root in the poorest substance that 

 can form a vehicle for its delicate nourishment. Sandy 

 soil, taken from heaths or commons, is much used, on 

 account of its porosity, and one famous pine-grower re- 

 corded that he had made the experiment of planting it in 

 mere moss mixed with broken pots, when the plant made 

 quite as much progress as those in rich compost, an evi- 

 dent proof that water and air constitute the principal 

 food of the pine-apple. Dr. Lindley yet further asserts, 

 that all iheBromeliacece, as plants of this family are termed 

 under the modern nomenclature, are capable of existing in 

 a hot dry air without even contact with the earth, on which 

 account, he says, they are favourites in South American 



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