THE PINE APPLE. ^7 



uncovered in the night-time, or planted in the 

 open garden, and left exposed all the summer, 

 and covered with double glass frames during win- 

 ter, without any fire heat ; but, if occasion requir- 

 ed, surrounded by linings of dung, we have no 

 doubt they would succeed much better. 



At Caserta, a royal palace about eighteen 

 miles from Naples, the Pine Apple is grown in a 

 style much superior. The gardens and grounds 

 there, were laid out by M. Graeffer, a German 

 gardener, who was formerly a partner in the firm 

 of Gordon, Thomson, & Co. London nurserymen. 

 The hot-houses are built exactly in the English 

 style ; the Pines raised and forwarded in pits, and 

 fruited in broad low houses, with vines trained 

 under the rafters, in Speechly's manner. M. 

 Grseffer died in 1816, and his son has still the care 

 of the royal gardens, and in 1819 had the Pines, in 

 what would be considered in this country, middling 

 good order. They were certainly of a much less 

 vivid green than those of England or Holland, and 

 the fruit was smaller ; M. Grgeffer, jun. never having 

 been out of Italy, was not aware of the difference ; 

 but on enquiring into his mode of treatment, we were 

 led to suspect a deficiency of water and of mois- 

 ture, by watering the flues and paths of the house, 

 and too great a heat kept up during the night. The 

 air of Italy is, at most periods of the year, much 

 drier than that of the north of Europe ; that of 

 France and Germany is also drier than the air of 

 Holland, Britain, and Russia; and perhaps this 



