THE PINE APPLE. 169 



thing but the perpetual care and attention of the 

 gardener to lessen the tendencies to these extremes 

 could at all preserve the plant from destruction. 



To lessen the attention of the gardener, therefore, 

 to render the plant less dependent on his services, 

 and, above all, to put a plant in a pot as far as pos- 

 sible on a footing with a plant in the unconfined 

 soil, plunging the pot in a mass of earth, sand, 

 dung, tan, or any such material, appears to us a most 

 judicious part of culture, and one that never can be 

 relinquished in fruit-bearing plants with impunity. 

 Even if no heat were to be afforded by the mass in 

 which the pots were plunged, still the preservation 

 of a steady temperature which would always equal 

 the average temperature of the air of the house, 

 and the retention, by the same means, of a steady 

 degree of moisture, would, in our opinion, be a 

 sufficient argument for plunging pots of vigorous 

 growing, many-leaved, or fruit-bearing plants. 



Such are the observations that we think may be 

 made relatively to Mr. Knight's plan, without pre- 

 judice to whatever new lights he may throw out 

 on the subject. Had it been brought forward by 

 a less eminent horticulturist, it would not have 

 claimed so much attention, as the plan of growing 

 Pines without bottom-heat is generally considered 

 to have been tried first by M. Le Cour, and sub- 

 sequently by various others, and abandoned. In 

 Mr. Knight's hands, however, whether it fail or 

 succeed, it is certain of doing good, by the obser. 



