30 BRITISH MODES OF CULTIVATING 



CHAR IV. 



OF THE DIFFERENT MODES OF CULTIVATING THE PINE 

 APPLE WHICH HAVE BEEN, AND ARE PRACTISED IN 

 BRITAIN BY PRACTICAL GARDENERS. 



1 HE Pine Apple plant, as already observed, 

 seems to have been first introduced by Mr. Ben- 

 tick, afterwards re-introduced from Holland in 

 1719, and then first cultivated for its fruit in Sir 

 Matthew Decker's garden at Richmond. Here, 

 according to Professor Bradley, the gardener, " Mr. 

 Henry Telende, imitated so successfully M. Le 

 Cour's newly discovered method of cultivating this 

 delicious fruit, that he is likely to ripen forty of 

 them in the present (1724) autumn." (Husb. and 

 Gard. for June 1724, p. 161.) He elsewhere tells 

 us that " the late instance of bringing the Ananas 

 or Pine Apple to perfection in England, by the in- 

 genuity of Mr. Telende at Sir Matthew Decker's, 

 has so far gained upon the curious, that already 

 many of our nobility have undertaken the same im- 

 provement ; and 'tis not to be doubted but a year 

 or two more will make this undertaking much more 

 general." He mentions " their being brought to ex- 

 traordinary perfection at the garden of the right 

 honourable Spencer Compton, Speaker of the 

 House of Commons, at Chiswick ; and at that 

 curious gentleman's, Mr. John Warner, Rother- 



