716 Retrospective Criticism. 



Art. XV. Retrospective Criticism. 



Mb. Knight^ s Pines. — Sir, You call upon nie (p. S67.), and justly, to 

 send you my opinion of T. A. Knight, Esq.'s method of cultivating the pine- 

 apple. There is no gentleman in the kingdom that I respect more than the 

 worthy president of the Horticultural Society ; and I am extremely con- 

 cerned that you should use such severe language in the pages of your Ma- 

 gazine towards one whom we have greater reason to honour and applaud 

 than to censure; and I am well assured that the practical gardener has not 

 a more sincere friend than Mr. Knight. 



With regard to those words used by him when he first publicl}' noticed 

 his method of cultivating the pine-apple, and which have so frequently been 

 brought up in a censurable way by many gardeners, I am convinced that Mr. 

 Knight never meant them as a slight upon practical gardeners ; and that if 

 he had suspected that only a small portion of them, and those of the lowest 

 grade, would have felt themselves hurt at the expression, he would 

 have omitted it. He never meant it in any other light than that of illus- 

 trating the simplicity of his method of culture over the usual way; still 

 intelligence and rigid attention are obviously of the utmost importance. Mr. 

 Knight may be said literally to live in his garden, and therefore he does not 

 require a professed gardener; as he sees and orders every thing himself, and 

 will continue to do so as long as he is able to walk. 



I have had opportunities of seeing Mr. Knight's method of cultivating the 

 pine-apple several times in the year, from the time that he first adopted it 

 to the present time; and, from first to last, the extraordinary luxuriance in 

 the appearance of his pine plants has surpassed any that I have ever seen 

 cultivated in the usual way. The plants have more the sturdy appearance 

 of the American Aloe than that of the Yucca gloriosa ; and not the thin lank 

 look that the pine plant assumes as it is generally cultivated; and I have 

 grown them myself upon a stage, in a common wooden frame, with wooden 

 lights, so as to astonish every gardener who saw them ; and from small 

 suckers, planted at Candlemas, I produced plants by November, superior to 

 those of two years' growth in the usual way of culture. Had I had a house 

 with a curvilinear roof, I should certainly prefer the method for growing 

 my plants, to any other ; but as that is not the case, and as fuel is expensive, 

 and tanners' bark and oak leaves close at hand, as I am at present circum- 

 stanced, the old method is the best. 



Although I grow my plants so very fine, and have seen Mr. Knight's as I 

 have described, yet I have been disappointed on seeing the fruit of such 

 plants. What I have seen of Mr. Knight's this season have been much finer 

 than any previous; and I am confident, that if the plan were more gene- 

 rally adopted by some of those gardeners eminent in their profession, so 

 that they may have a constant judicious management under their eye, pines 

 may be grown with fi'uit equally luxuriant as I have ever seen on any plants. 



Mr. Knight has never, in my hearing, spoken of his method as being su- 

 perior to the old; he has only recommended it where tan and leaves are 

 not conveniently to be had, and where fuel is not a material object ; and 

 that a hot-house, of a given dimension, will contain many more plants than 

 when confined to a pit in the usual method. 



What I here remark is my candid opinion, nor do I dissemble in any one 

 expression with a view of favour, or lest I should hurt his feelings. ' If I 

 did not think that he merited our warmest esteem and applause, I should 

 not give it to him ; and I trust, ere long, to be gratified by reading of him 

 in your pages as he justly merits. 



Mr. Knight's son-in-law, Mr. Stackhouse of Acton Scott, near Church 

 Stratton, Salop, has built a larger curvilinear pine-house than his, and they 

 are under the superintendence of two very steady and persevering young 



