244 ON THE CULTURE OP THE PINE-APPLE. 



As the length of the days diminished, and the plants received less 

 light, their ability to digest food diminished. Less food was in conse- 

 quence dissolved in the water, which was also given with a more sparing 

 hand ; and as winter approached, water only was given, and in small 

 quantities. 



During the months of November and December, the temperature of 

 the house was generally little above 50, and sometimes as low as 48 *. 

 Most gardeners would, I believe, have been alarmed for the safety of their 

 plants at this temperature ; but the pine is a much hardier plant than it 

 is usually supposed to be ; and I exposed one young plant in December 

 to a temperature of 32, by which it did not appear to sustain any injury. 

 I have also been subsequently informed by one of my friends, Sir Harford 

 Jones, who has had most ample opportunities of observing, that he has 

 frequently seen, in the East, the pine-apple growing in the open air, where 

 the surface of the ground, early in the mornings, showed unequivocal 

 marks of a slight degree of frost. 



My plants remained nearly torpid, and without growth, during the 

 latter part of November, and in the whole of December ; but they began 

 to grow early in January, although the temperature of the house rarely 

 reached 60 ; and about the 20th of that month, the blossom, or rather 

 the future fruit, of the earliest plant became visible ; and subsequently 

 to that period their growth has appeared very extraordinary to gardeners 

 who had never seen pine-plants growing, except in a bark-bed or other 

 hotbed. I believe this rapidity of growth, in rather low temperature, 

 may be traced to the more excitable state of their roots, owing to their 

 having passed the winter in a very low temperature comparatively with 

 that of a bark-bed. The plants are now supplied with water in moderate 

 quantities, and holding in solution a less quantity of food than was given 

 them in summer. 



In planting suckers, I have, in several instances, left the stems and 

 roots of the old plant remaining attached to them ; and these have made 

 a much more rapid progress than others. One strong sucker was thus 

 planted in a large pot upon the 20th of July ; and that is beginning to 

 show fruit. Its stem is thick enough to produce a very large fruit ; but 

 its leaves are short, though broad and numerous ; and the gardeners, 

 who have seen it, all appear wholly at a loss to conjecture what will be the 

 value of its produce. In other cases, in which I retained the old stems 

 and roots, I selected small and late suckers, and these have afforded me 

 the most perfect plants I have ever seen ; and they do not exhibit any 



* Subsequently to the time this paper was sent to the Society, I have been informed, that 

 the thermometer was once, in the last winter, so low as 40 degrees. 



