Culture of the Pine-apple. 595 



Pure light turf of loam is superior to any compost that I 

 am acquainted with for a young pine plant to root into. One 

 set of suckers, of the common broad-leaved queen, potted in 

 March, another in May, and a third in September, will produce 

 a succession of queen pines, which will ripen all the year round : 

 but, for winter fruit, there is none, that I am acquainted with, 

 equal to the black Jamaica : it is a slow-growing variety, and 

 requires two years or more to bring it to perfection. 



In cultivating the black Jamaica, the following points are to 

 be observed. This sort will not bear to be disrooted like the 

 queen, nor even so much as the Providence : its ball must not 

 be broken a great deal, nor its roots disturbed in shifting; and, 

 above all things, let it not be over-potted. After disturbing the 

 roots in any way, the plants must be shaded from the intense 

 heat of the sun for a week or two, as no variety of the pine, 

 that I am acquainted with, suffers sooner, or more severely, from 

 the powerful rays of the sun, than the Jamaica. It would be akin 

 to madness, in my opinion, to set young pines a-growing in the 

 depth of winter ; for, if they are excited in cloudy cold weather, 

 when the supplies of light and heat, so essential to their vigorous 

 developement, are necessarily limited, they will become yellow 

 in the centre at the base of the leaves, and be drawn up, long and 

 flaccid. But grown plants must be fruited in winter : and here 

 is the difficulty. In the first place, then, it is useless for any one 

 to attempt to grow finely flavoured fruits, in winter, without a 

 command of dry heat ; and, at the same time, I consider it im- 

 possible to swell a pine fruit to its natural size in dry heat ; 

 therefore, both vapour and dry heat, by some means or other, 

 must be under the control of the grower. 



The plants, having been kept shifted, from one sized pot to 

 another, as they required it, at last show fruit at a season when 

 gardeners, a few years ago, considered them as " tantamount 

 to being lost" (Mackintosh's Practical Gardener) \ that is, just 

 peeping from their sockets in October. If, in a dung-lined pit, let 

 a fresh lining be now applied, in order to draw the flower-stems 

 up to a state of vigorous growth (there is no fear of drawing 

 the leaves of the plants any more now). In this pit let the plants 

 remain till they are ready to open their flowers ; then remove 

 them to a dry heat, or apply it to them in this pit without re- 

 moving them ; and pay as much attention to the flowers (that 

 every one may perform its functions, and be symmetrical in all 

 its parts,) as if flowers were all you wanted ; and, as soon as 

 ever the plants are out of flower, let them be taken back again 

 to the dung-lined pit; or have dung vapour supplied to them 

 where they are, till they have swelled to their proper size, and 

 show symptoms of colouring : then discontinue vapour and water- 

 ing at the roots ; and let there be a free current of fresh air, with a 



XX 4 



