THE PINE APPLE. 21 



the French. They seem to have tried the culture 

 of the Pine Apple almost immediately after its in- 

 troduction to Holland; for, according to Beckmann, 

 it was ripened by Dr. Kaltschmidt at Breslaw in 

 1702, who sent some fruit to the Imperial Court; 

 but he states also that its culture was first attempt- 

 ed by Baron Munchausen, a great encourager of 

 gardening, and a botanist who had a fine demesne 

 and garden at Schwobber, near Hamelin, in West- 

 phalia. From the account of these gardens in the 

 Neuremberg Hesperides, they appear to have been 

 grown both in pits, and on stages in larger houses. 



The king of Prussia grew the Pine Apple exten- 

 sively at Potsdam; he followed the Dutch man- 

 ner in every thing, and had a gardener from that 

 country who attended exclusively to the forcing 

 department at Sans Souci. The quantity of glass 

 there was greater than any where else in Germany : 

 the whole was kept in high order and good culture 

 for many years ; but after the king's death, in 1786, 

 it soon fell into neglect ; the glass of most of the 

 peach-houses and vineries was removed or destroy- 

 ed ; the Pine plants were neglected and diminished 

 in numbers, from time to time. In 1813 the royal 

 gardens at Sans Souci contained only about two 

 dozen of Pine plants, which were kept in a lofty 

 opaque roofed conservatory, and these, as may be 

 easily imagined, were by no means in a thriving 

 condition. 



Before the French Revolution, the Pine Apple 

 was cultivated at most of the court gardens in Ger- 



c 3 



