CULTURE OP THE PINE- APPLE. 435 



clean water which it ought not to be. But they will soon outgrow this 

 effect of the bath, and anything is better than mealy bug. An equally 

 efficient, and more cleanly remedy, is to wash the whole plant over 

 with spirits of wine, diluted with half water. With a long-handled 

 paint-brush in skilful hands, this may be done with considerable 

 despatch. Part of the liquid must be allowed to penetrate the axils of 

 the leaves. This mixture will not disfigure the most tender foliage, 

 and kills every bug that it touches. Red spider is sometimes seen on 

 pines, but never where the culture is skilful. It is readily destroyed 

 by sulphur fumes from hot-water pipes. 



Diseases and Malformations. The pine-apple is singularly free from 

 disease ; in fact, under the conditions here prescribed, no plant is more 

 easily grown, or more healthy. Occasionally, however, when suckers 

 are removed too early from the parent plant, and potted before they 

 have become firm, a species of canker will be developed which will 

 cripple, if not ruin, the plant, running right through its centre, and 

 causing even the fruit-stalk to wither up before the fruit is ripe. 

 The best preventive is never to pot immature suckers ; remedy for 

 canker there is none. 



Another peculiar disease occasionally affects the fruit : all is fair 

 and beautiful outside, but when cut open, instead of the viscid rich 

 juice so much prized, out rushes a mass of semi-putrid-looking water. 

 This may be called fruit-dropsy ; it arises perhaps from an excess of 

 moisture during the flowering period, or a plethora of water at either 

 root or fruit during the swelling or ripening period. Its cause, 

 however, is not certainly known, and there is no cure for the disease 

 once it is developed. A dryish atmosphere, free ventilation, and 

 plenty of sunlight during the entire period of flowering, are the likeliest 

 antidotes to fruit-dropsy. 



Malformation may be classified under an excess of suckers, the mul- 

 tiplication of gills, double or cockscomb crowns, excessively large 

 crowns, and irregular development of the pips. Most of these evils 

 are simply remedied ; the first two by timely thinning, or their entire 

 removal if not needed for increase. The gills, as a rule, should be 

 taken off. A cockscomb crown can never be changed into a regular 

 crown, but its sides may be shortened by twisting out the centre, and 

 their numbers reduced, or the grotesque form stamped out of a collec- 

 tion by never propagating from plants that have once formed such 

 crowns. The crown may be kept small by inserting a small sharp 

 knife into its centre shortly after the pine has flowered, and turning 

 it sharply round, when the centre will be cut out. Plants with many 

 crowns may have the worst-set ones removed in an early stage, leaving 

 one only in the best position. The best means of securing a regular 

 development of all the pips is to take every care against drip, cold 

 draughts, an excess of vapour, and scorching, during the period of 

 inflorescence. 



FF2 



