PINE-APPLE. 299 



expect a regular supply of pine-apples, not only from the 

 Bermudas, but also from the West India islands. We 

 observed, that those pines which were packed with the 

 roots, arrived in a better state than others that were cut 

 off in the usual manner. 



Monsieur Berard, of Montpelier, in a paper of the 

 French journals, Annales de Chimie for 1821, says, " that 

 most fruits, and especially those that, do not require to 

 remain on the tree, may be preserved for some time, and 

 the pleasure they afford us thus prolonged. The most 

 simple process consists in placing at the bottom of a 

 bottle, a paste formed of lime, sulphate of iron, and 

 water ; and afterwards to introduce the fruit, it having 

 been pulled a few days before it would have been ripe. 

 The fruit is to be kept from the bottom of the bottle, 

 and as much as possible from each other, and the bottle 

 to be closed by a cork and cement. The fruit is thus 

 placed in an atmosphere free from oxygen, and maybe 

 preserved for a longer or a shorter time according to their 

 nature : peaches, plums, and apricots from twenty days 

 to a month ; pears and apples for three months. If they 

 are withdrawn after this time, and exposed to the air, 

 they ripen extremely well ; but if the times mentioned are 

 much exceeded, they undergo a particular alteration, and 

 will not ripen at all. 



Ripe fruit exposed to the air rots and decays. In this 

 case it first changes the oxygen of the surrounding air 

 into carbonic acid, and then liberates from itself a large 

 quantity of the same acid gas. It appears that the pre- 

 sence of oxygen gas is necessary to rotting or decay of 

 fruits ; when it is absent, a different change takes place. 



