PINE APPLES. 



Pine Apple (Ananas sativus) is a native of tropical America. It passed from 

 Brazil to the "West, and thence to the East, Indies. In some of the hot parts of Asia 

 and Africa the pine apple has become naturalised, and it is cultivated extensively in some 

 tropical countries for exportation, the importations of ripe fruits, chiefly from the Azores, 

 to this country having been considerable within the last twenty-five years. 



Evelyn in his Diary, under the date of August 9, 1661, says: "I first saw the 

 famous queen pine brought from Barbadoes, and presented to His Majesty [Charles II.] ; 

 but the first that were ever seen in England were those sent to Cromwell four years 

 since." John Nieuhoff, who was secretary to an embassage returning to this country 

 from China, accurately describes the pine apples brought thence as a present to Oliver 

 Cromwell in 1657. John Eose, gardener to the Duchess of Cleveland, grew and ripened 

 the first pine apple in England, 1665 and 1672, at Dorney Court, about 2 miles from 

 Eton. This fruit was presented to Charles II. by Eose, which is commemorated 

 in a picture at Kensington Palace, and an engraving of it is given in the Journal of 

 Horticulture, Yol. XXIV., New Series, page 58. 



Eose's pine apple culture was short-lived, for neither Evelyn, London, Wise, Eea, 

 nor Switzer speaks of the pine as an object of cultivation. "About the middle of the 

 seventeenth century it was brought to Holland by Mr. La Court, a merchant, and cul- 

 tivated at Driehoek, his seat, near Ley den ; and from thence it was imported into this 

 country, and first fruited by Sir Matthew Decker, at Eichmond, about 1715 or earlier." 

 (Loudon.) 



Bradley says Mr. La Court began growing his pines without bottom heat, as dry 

 stove plants, but afterwards had recourse to low pits and tanner's bark. Sir M. Decker 

 also adopted pits ; and soon after (1730), pine stoves or larger and more commodious 

 pits were found in most of the chief English gardens, and some also in Scotland, where 

 the pine apple was first fruited by Mr. Justice at Crichton, near Edinburgh, in 1732. By 

 1718 Mr. H. Telende, Sir M. Decker's gardener, had forty fruiting plants, of which the 

 smallest fruit was 4 inches, and the largest 7 inches in length. According to Bradley, 



