THE PINE- APPLE. 341 



tribe made it a rule to keep his trees rather cool, and with 

 plenty of air in mild weather, till the fruit was fairly set ; 

 after which he found that he could apply more heat with- 

 out the risk of the fruit failing. 



The orange-tree prospers in a rich, fresh, and rather 

 strong soil ; and, in this country, it is the practice to mix 

 with it a considerable portion of well-rotted manure. When 

 grown in pots or boxes, the plant should be shifted, and 

 the earth partly renewed, every spring. In summer, co- 

 pious waterings are given, and the leaves are syringed once 

 or twice a week. The heads are kept thin, and any branches 

 which inconveniently cross each other are removed. When 

 planted against trellises, they are trained in the fan form ; 

 and in laying in the shoots, allowance is to be made for the 

 size of the leaves in the different species. 



THE PINE- APPLE (Bromelia Ananas L. or Ananassa 

 sativa) is comparatively of recent introduction into Bri- 

 tain. It was nearly unknown to English horticulturists in 

 the beginning of the eighteenth century ; for Thoresby, the 

 Leeds antiquary, kept a leaf of the pine-apple in his mu- 

 seum as a curiosity. It is now largely and successfully 

 cultivated in all the principal gardens in Britain. Its cul- 

 ture requires all the ingenuity, judgment, and watchfulness 

 of the skillful and diligent horticulturist; and we shall, 

 therefore, treat of it at considerable length. It derives its 

 name from the general resemblance of its fruit to a large cone 

 of a pine-tree. The fruit is a kind of pulpy strobilus, 

 formed of coadunate berries, and crowned at top with a tuft 

 of small pointed leaves. The flavor of the pulp is of the 

 most exquisite kind. The plant is herbaceous, and the fruit- 

 stem, which generally appears in the second or third year, 

 is surrounded with long serrated leaves, resembling those 



