OF THE PINE APPLE. 5 



name, and received the sanction of London and 

 Wise ; and also of Evelyn, Ray, Rea, and other 

 gardening writers of these times. In short, it is 

 evident from Ray's letters, that the idea of heating 

 green-houses by fire was quite new in 1684, and 

 first adopted by Mr. Watts, gardener, to the 

 apothecaries at Chelsea in that year ; and Miller 

 states, (Diet. Art. Tan,) that there were very few 

 tan-beds used in England before the yeajr 1719- 

 The Pine Apple, therefore, could not be cultivated 

 in the seventeenth century in England. 



Of late years the Pine Apple has been sent to 

 England in abundance, attached to the entire plant, 

 and a cargo has arrived from Providence Island, in 

 the Bermudas, in six weeks. This facility of cul- 

 tivation, and their more general culture, has greatly 

 lessened their price, and rendered them common. 

 They are sold in fruit-stands in the London streets, 

 in one or two places, during the summer months ; 

 and moderate-sized fruit may be had from half-a- 

 ero wn to a crown each j or at two shillings a 

 pound. 



