278 Catalogue of Works on Gardening, fyc. 



pensable degree of humidity and heat, and prevent that fluctuation in either, 

 of which an atmosphere ,so charged would be extremely susceptible." " The 

 safest and best plan to adopt, is that, which combines a bottom heat with 

 an otherwise excited atmosphere." This chapter is illustrated by a section 

 of a pit to be heated with linings of dung ; and by a section of a stove with 

 a bark-pit, the atmosphere of which is to be heated by hot water. On 

 the drawing of these sections we will make a remark for Mr. Glendinning's 

 benefit as a garden architect, which is, that, in the flooring of his bark-pits 

 and pits for dung linings, the bricks are shown bevelled oft' in a manner that 

 would never do in practice. This mode of representing the bricks is probably 

 a mere mistake of the draughtsman ; but, as these sections, in point of general 

 form and arrangement, well deserve to be taken as models, nothing ought to 

 have been introduced into them but what is plain and practicable. 



Chap. in. treats of the different sorts of pine-apples, proper soil, &c. 

 Mr. Glendinning prefers turfy loam from a clayey soil, mixed with deer or 

 sheep dung, at the rate of 3 to 6, with 1 part of leaf or vegetable mould. 

 When these have been mixed, and lain together three or four months, tUtey are 

 fit to be chopped up for use. They form a rough cloddy mixture ; but in 

 such a soil, the roots grow with much greater vigour than in one of finely 

 sifted mould. Mr. Glendinning had two specimens of soil sent him from the 

 Bahamas, in which the pine luxuriates in that country : they are of a stiff 

 light brown loam, and that which is marked the best approaches to a perfect 

 clay. 



Chap. iv. treats of potting and plunging, &c ; Chap. v. of the manage- 

 ment of the bark-bed, watering, liquid manure, &c. ; Chap. vi. treats of the 

 atmosphere, shading, &c; and Chap.vn. of insects, concluding with a monthly 

 table of temperature, and the following passage : — 



After giving an account of a gentleman who had discovered a mode of 

 growing pine-apples of enormous size at the expense of one penny each, he 

 adds : " After some years of absolute failure, the same gentleman applied to 

 me for some advice on the subject. Another gentleman, who had been pretty 

 fortunate in this department of forcing, had seen some plants growing very 

 well on what is termed Mr. Knight's system, and immediately set about filling 

 up his pits, and placing his pots of pine plants, like so many geraniums, on 

 a stage, without apparently being aware of the necessity of a different treat- 

 ment being necessary from their first insertion as crowns and suckers, and 

 alike ignorant of maintaining a very different circumambient atmosphere. The 

 result, as might have been expected, was utter failure, and recourse was had 

 to his former mode of culture. Indeed, I could adduce many such examples 

 of the infatuation in lovers of wonderful inventions and marvellous discoveries." 



On the whole, this little tract is highly creditable to Mr. Glendinning, and 

 will be found a valuable assistant to the young pine-grower. When it comes 

 to a second edition, which we hope it will soon do, we would recommend 

 Mr. Glendinning to shorten some of the sentences, so as to render them 

 more easily understood by the ordinary reader, as well as to omit or change 

 some terms, such as adlucing process, desiccated atmosphere, &c. ; for his 

 style is rather ambitious, a common fault in young authors. 



The pine-apple, being a monocotyledonous plant, is, as such, subject 

 to certain laws ; as a native of a tropical climate, it is subject to 

 laws of another kind ; ami its artificial culture must rest on these two 

 sets of laws as a foundation. In common with all monocotyledonous plants, 

 the pine-apple suffers much by a check in its growth ; for monocotyledonous 

 plants which are natives of hot climates either grow all the year, as the 

 pine-apple, which is a native of moist shady woods; or they grow rapidly at 

 a particular season (the rainy season), and then become dormant for the rest 

 of the year. Even the monocotyledonous plants of temperate regions, such 

 as our bulbs, grow rapidly in the spring, and, after flowering, die clown to the 

 ground, and are in a dormant state three fourths of the year. The perennial 

 grasses of temperate regions are in a state of continual growth. Again, the 



