r 



F 



*• 



\ 





I 



179 



han mentions such in the Botanical Gazette for March, 1885, I 

 think. J. M. Pearson' writes, ** I liave seen some of our native 

 kinds without any seeds, of which the fruit was delicious/* 



^ Pineapple. Ananassa sativa. (Bromeliace.-e). 



I 



This is a multiple fruit, only the ovaries or pericarps never or 



seldom ripen any seeds, but all are blended with the floral envel- 



^ opes, the bracts, and the axis of the stem they thickly cover, in- 



'X to one fleshy and juicy mass There are many varieties. In 



1768 Taylor described five sorts; in 1737 Miller described five; 

 in 1769 Speechley spoke of fourteen; in 1822 Miller of ten ; in 

 1 83 I George Lindley of thirty-seven ; in 1834 Rogers of nine ; 

 Mr. Munroe, a more recent writer, of fifty-two^ In the Tran- 

 sactions of the Horticultural Society of London, fifty-two sorts 

 are described. The greater number have been introduced into 

 England from abroad, but several have originated from seed in 



England^ 



This is a typical seedless fruit, none, as Lindley^ says, except 

 the Enville now and then, having seeds, and this variety, though 

 a large one, is of Jittle value for its delicacy. Pineapples are 

 more frequently seedful under the bad cultivation of the Conti- 

 nent than in the highly kept and skillfully managed pineries of 

 England. New varieties are produced from seed, as was the case 

 with the King pine^ which was raised from a seed taken from a 

 West Indian fruit, Schomburgk^ says the wild pineapple in Gui- 

 ana is small, yellow, aromatic, stringy and full of seeds, rather 

 acidulous in taste. Piso^ describes a wild ananas containing 

 seeds. Humboldt^ found pineapples of delicious quality growing 

 wild in the Orinoco, and often the seeds were not abortive. Wild 

 pineapples arc mentioned by many observers, but nothing is said 



^ I lil. Hon. Soc. Trans. 1878, 89. 



2 Mcintosh, Book of the (iarden. 



3 Hort. Trans. 2d ser. 1. p. i. 



4 Theory of Hort., 1859, 170, 171. 



5 MTntosh, Book of the Garden, ii. 642, 



6 Rawleigh's Disc, of Guian, Hakl. Soc. ed. p. 74, note. 



7 IMso, Bras. 165S, p. 196. 



8 De Cand, Geog. hot. p. 926, quoted. 



w- 



