177 



REVIEWS. 



Art. I. Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London. 

 Second Series. Vol. I, Part I. 4to. London, Hatchard. 



1. A Report upon the Varieties of the Pine- Apple cultivated in the 

 Garden of the Horticultural Society. By Mr. Donald Munro, 

 F.L.S., Gardener to the Society. Read Dec. 7. and 21. 1830, 

 and Jan. 4. 1831. 



In the year 1828, the collection of pines in the Chiswick 

 Garden, procured from home and foreign correspondents, 

 had increased to 450 names ; but so great a number of these 

 were duplicates, that Mr. Munro has reduced them to 52 dis- 

 tinct sorts. In order to facilitate their discrimination, he 

 says : — 



" I have first separated the kinds reputed to be species, which are readily- 

 known by their peculiar habit, and I have then distributed the varieties 

 oiAnanassa sativa, or the true pine- apples, in classes and divisions, charac- 

 terised by such distinctions as have been found, by experience, the most 

 permanent. After much consideration, it has been determined to employ 

 the different degrees of serrature in the leaves, as the primary mode of 

 division, because it is they that cause, in the greatest degree, that natural 

 habit of the varieties, by which a practised eye will recognise them without 

 an inspection of the fruit. The groups, so formed, are the least artificial 

 that could be discovered, for the form of the fruit and colour of the 

 flowers, although excellent marks of distinction, separate varieties which 

 are almost identical in their general habit ; for this reason such characters 

 have been admitted as only of secondary importance. 



" The whole of the means employed in drawing up this paper have 

 been derived from notes made at the garden, during the last five years, 

 upon plants and fruit, in all cases carefully and repeatedly compared in 

 every stage of their growth. 



" To Mr. James Duncan, the present under-gardener in the forcing de- 

 partment, a young man of extensive practical knowledge, I am much 

 indebted for assistance in arranging and drawing up the descriptions." 



Classification. — The species are Anandssa bracteata, the 

 scarlet ; A. debilis, the waved-leaved ; A. lucida, the shining, 

 or king ; and A. sativa, the cultivated, which includes forty- 

 eight varieties ; which, with the four species not cultivated 

 for their fruit, make up the fifty-two distinct sorts before- 

 mentioned. We do not think it worth while to give their 

 names, which, with their characters and synonymes, will be 

 found in the Society's Catalogue, second edition, noticed 

 p. 212. ; but Mr. Munro has very judiciously given at the end 



Vol. VIII. — No. 37. n 



