THE PINE APPLE. 33 



or snow ; and to examine the bed from time to time* 

 whether the bark grows mouldy, musty, or dry, 

 which it will often do in the summer : in such case, 

 it must be watered to recover its heat. A bed thus pre- 

 pared and managed will maintain a constant degree 

 of heat, sufficient to give these plants the utmost 

 vigour they require, from the end of February to the 

 end of October ; and then the plants must be again 

 removed into the stove or conservatory. In exces- 

 sive heats the glasses are tilted up at the back of 

 the frame ; and when the evenings are cool, the 

 bed must be carefully covered with substantial mat- 

 tresses of straw. A bed of this kind sinks about a 

 foot, which is convenient ; for otherwise the plants 

 would be too tall for the frame, before the time of 

 housing them. 



" The thermometer used by Mr. Telende had a 

 tube twenty-four inches long, and one-eighth of an 

 inch in diameter. When the spirit rose only to 

 fifteen inches, he accounted the aircoldforhis plants; 

 at sixteen and a half temperate ; at eighteen warm, 

 which was his standard for Pine Apple heat; at 

 twenty inches, hot air ; and at twenty-one inches, 

 sultry/' 



Insects. Nothing is said on this subject. 



Fruit produced. Mr. Cowel says (Curious and 

 Profitable Gardener, p. 27.) that all gentlemen who 

 had eaten Pines abroad allowed those raised by Mr. 

 Telende to be as good and as large as they found 

 in the West Indies. Bradley says, forty Pines were 

 likely to ripen in the autumn of 1724. 



