PINE-APPLE — FRUITIN-0-HOUSE. 375 



though it is not the common practice, we should prefer 

 winter pits, having at least the command of fire-heat. 



This mode of driving^ as it has been significantly 

 called, is applicable chiefly to tlie varieties called the 

 Queen and Ripley's New Queen ; most of the large 

 growing sorts requiring a longer period. It is desirable, 

 therefore, that both courses of culture should be carried 

 on at the same time; so that the larger varieties may 

 be consigned to the triennial course, while the vacan- 

 cies in either may be made up from the other. That 

 this is practicable, at least in gardens where there are 

 two fruiting-houses, may be seen from the tabular com- 

 pendium of culture given at p. 379. 



Fruiting -House. — About the beginning of August, 

 the plants, now two years old, are shifted for the last 

 time. The pots are from twelve to fourteen inches in 

 diameter, and the balls are preserved entire. About 

 eight or ten days previously, the bark-pit of the fruit- 

 ing-house should be cleared out, the old tan screened, 

 if necessary, and fresh material supplied. The pots 

 are then plunged into the bark as deeply as xjan be 

 done with safety, and 'the plants are so treated as to 

 keep them in a growing state during the whole of au- 

 tumn. In winter, the nocturnal temperature is kept at 

 G0° ; but towards the end of January it is gradually 

 raised to 70°. This rise, however, should follow, and 

 not precede or be a cause of the vernal growth of the 

 plants. About the middle of February, the second 

 fruiting-house may be prepared for the rccejition of the 

 plants in the biennial suecession-pit. These are exist- 

 ing in a mild temperature, and start during the general 

 progress of the season. 



That period at which pine-apple plants first show 



