THE PINE APPLE. 151 



(the beginning of October,) any hot-house, I de- 

 ferred obtaining plants till the following spring. 

 My hot-house was not completed till the second 

 week in June (1819,) at which period I began my 

 experiment upon nine plants, which had been but 

 very ill preserved through the preceding winter by 

 the gardener of one of my friends, with very ina- 

 dequate means, and in a very inhospitable climate. 

 These, at this period, were not larger plants than 

 some which I have subsequently raised from small 

 crowns, (three having been afforded by one fruit,) 

 planted in the middle of August, were in the end 

 of December last ; but they are now beginning to 

 blossom, and in the opinion of every gardener who 

 has seen them, promise fruit of great size and per- 

 fection. They are all of the variety known by the 

 name of Ripley's Queen Pine. 



" Upon the introduction of my plants into the 

 hot-house, the mode of management, which it is 

 the object of the present communication to de- 

 scribe, commenced. They were put into pots of 

 somewhat more than a foot in diameter, in a com- 

 post made of thin, green turfj recently taken from 

 a river-side, chopped very small, and pressed close- 

 ly, whilst wet, into the pots ; a circular piece of 

 the same material, of about an inch in thickness, 

 having been inverted, unbroken, to occupy the 

 bottom of each pot. This substance, so applied, 

 I have always found to afford the most efficient 

 means for draining off superfluous water, and sub- 

 sequently of facilitating the removal of a plant 



