FRUIT. 187 



generally adopted, and the cost of production reduced thei-eby 

 to the same amount, or less, than that of other hothovise forced 

 fruits, it will again become popular, and appear in every 

 private garden with any pretension to ef&ciency and com- 

 pleteness. 



The Pine- Apple is stated to be a native of the tropical parts 

 of South America, but it has been so long introduced to the 

 East and West Indies that it may be considered quite natura- 

 lised in them, and thrives in both with great luxuriance and 

 fertility. In fact, it has now come to be looked upon as one 

 of the staple fruit products of the West Indies, and, along 

 with the Banana, forms the principal item in their rapidly 

 increasing fruit export trade, from which much prosperity is 

 anticipated in the future of those fertile islands. It was first 

 introduced to Britain about 1690, but it was not till the year 

 1712 that we hear of it being grown for its fruit, about which 

 time it was successfully fruited by Henry Telende, gardener 

 to Sir Matthew Decker, at Richmond, Surrey. About twenty 

 years earlier, Mi\ Rose, the royal gardener, is represented in 

 a well-known picture in the act of presenting a Pine-Apple 

 to Charles II. as the first grown in England ; but no other 

 record has been found as to how, when, or where it was pro- 

 duced. In the 'British Gardener's Dictionary,'' 1714, it is 

 stated by James Justice that he erected in 1732 a pine-stove 

 at Crichton, near Dalkeith, Midlothian, in which the Pine- 

 Apple was fruited for the first time in Scotland. From that 

 period to the present time it has been cultivated with the 

 greatest skill and assiduity, and, with the help of improved 

 appliances, it has been brought to such a high state of per- 

 fection as to rival the very finest j^roduce of tropical countries, 

 and to excel it in the important points of size and flavour in 

 the finest .specimens and best kinds. 



Most kinds of Pine- Apples are, when well grown, suitable 

 for exhibition, but at the present time exhibitors confine their 

 selection to a few popular varieties. Among these, the Smooth 

 Cayenne holds the leading place as an exhibition fruit, chiefly 

 because of the ease and certainty with which it can be pro- 

 duced at all seasons of the year, and that, added to its fine 



