74 BRITISH MODES OF CULTIVATING 



" Crowns and suckers taken from the parent plants 

 later than October, should not be planted before 

 the month of February or March ; for in the 

 winter time, probably, they would not strike root, 

 but rot : they may be hung or laid in a dry part of 

 the hot-house. By some writers on the culture of 

 the Pine it has been observed, < that any off-sets 

 from the Pine will succeed as well when planted 

 in the hour they are taken off, as if laid by to dry 

 till the wound be healed, provided the parent stock 

 received no water for the ten days preceding.' If 

 off-sets or suckers be grown to such a size, so that 

 they be easily separated from the parent plant, they 

 may be planted immediately ; for, in that case, it 

 may be seen that they had begun to push forth 

 roots, and required to be taken off and planted ; but 

 withholding water from the mother plant ten, or 

 even twenty days, will not bring its offspring to a 

 state of maturity fit for planting the day when taken 

 off. So that it is best to let unrnatured young 

 suckers and crowns lie unplanted, till their natural 

 juices be so exhausted that there maybe no danger 

 of their rotting after being planted. 



" The brick beds of my in venting, in which I struck 

 and reared Pine Apple plants many years, were close 

 and warm, the crannies between the lappings of the 

 glass being filled up with putty ; consequently, in 

 these close frames, especially in the short days and 

 long nights in winter, when the sun has little in- 

 fluence, the moisture arising out of the tan lodges 

 on the glass, and drops from it, upon the plants ; 



