Application of Heat to Fruit Borders, 4'C- -53 



produced that can be depended upon with certainty, as well as 

 of the most simple and easy regulation. The pine plants 

 fruited this season, in this house, were started some time 

 previous to its being ready ; they were chiefly Queens, and 

 were, of necessity, started at only two years of age ; which 

 plants, notwithstanding their youth, have afforded a supply of 

 fair-sized fruit for that vai^ety, and, as has been admitted by all 

 who have tasted it, of very superior flavour. I am convinced 

 that, for this cloudy weeping country, the curvilinear metal roof 

 is essentially important towards the proper maturation and 

 flavouring of the pine-apple. With the view of getting into a 

 stock of the larger sorts,^ and those best adapted for winter use, 

 it is intended to introduce, chiefly, the Black Jamaica pine. 



V. The Cucumber or Melon. Provision is made for the culture 

 of these plants in boxes, as shown in the section, over the hot- 

 water pipes, behind the pit. They are supported by metal 

 brackets, and are placed at intervals, level with the back 

 kerb, opposite each of the metal rods that strengthen the roof 

 of the house ; which rods are adapted for the training of the 

 plants, and so form along this part of the house, opposite the 

 bananas, columns covered with foliage and fruit of the most 

 luxuriant description. In this way only the otherwise useless 

 surface over the pipes is occupied. In the course of six weeks 

 after sowing the seeds, cucumbers were cut, cultivated in this 

 way, from 1 8 in. to 2 ft. in length ; and a constant supply has 

 ever since been kept up in succession to the present time, with 

 a fair prospect of cucumbers throughout the winter. A summer 

 crop of melons may also be obtained with equal ease in the same 

 way, only observing that they and the cucumbei's should never 

 be grown in the same house at the same time. 



VI. The Vine. Being thoroughly satisfied, as already hinted, 

 of the comparative uselessness of front or upright sashes in the 

 construction of the curvilinear roofs of fruit-houses ; and taking 

 into consideration, not only their inutility, but also the expense 

 unnecessarily added thereby to such erections, apart altogether 

 from the questionable nature of their effect as compared with 

 the more substantial and neatly finished exterior of a well-pro- 

 portioned parapet; I am induced for such purposes to adopt 

 the latter, but more especially with the view of affording certain 

 facilities, in connexion with the ventilators, towards the con- 

 venient introduction of the stems of the vines into, or out of, the 

 house. At each side of each ventilator, it will be observed that 

 there is an opening for the reception of each vine ; which vine 

 is planted, not close to the front parapet as usual, but 4 ft. 

 or so from the house, and then taken on to it under a front 

 pathway, in narrow boxes which are made with lids and open 

 at the ends, and through the opening under the ventilator, to 



