164 IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CULTURE OF 



the front and back wall, (a and b, fig. 20.) which 

 can be efficiently closed at any time. It is, conse- 

 quently, an instrument of very great power, and 

 requiring, of course, much attention to ventilation : 

 of which I had rather a lamentable proof in the last 

 spring, when my plants were all burned, and spoil- 

 ed in a few hours ; the person who had the care of 

 them having left them in a bright day closely shut 

 up. The fault was not, however, in any degree in 

 the house, for the plants were, previously, much the 

 strongest, and the best I ever saw ; and I believe, 

 they would have afforded most beautiful fruit. I 

 furnished the house again with plants as expedi- 

 tiously as I could, chiefly in July ; and I have since 

 kept the temperature of it nearly between 70 and 

 95, with a wish to make the plants show fruit and 

 blossom in the present month (October.) In this, 

 I have in part succeeded, though many of my 

 plants have flowered a fortnight or three weeks 

 sooner than I wished. The fruit is swelling well, 

 and, I believe, will receive sufficient light through 

 the winter to enable it to ripen in much per- 

 fection. The excellence of a few Pine Apples, 

 which ripened in this house in the last winter, 

 leads me almost to doubt, whether the fruit 

 in it will not ripen better, early in the spring, 

 than in the middle of the summer, for I have 

 observed that this species of plant, though ex- 

 tremely patient of high temperature, is not, by any 

 means, so patient of the action of very continued 

 bright light, as many other plants : and much less 



