CHAPTER XLIII. 



THE PINEAPPLE. 



The Pineapple (Ananassa sativa), which Lindley says "is 

 universally acknowledged to be one of the most delicious fruits 

 in existence," was found by the early discoverers growing wild 

 in tropical America, from whence it has spread over all the 

 warmer regions of the globe. As we naturally expect to find 

 fruits upon trees or bushes, it seems an anomaly to see two of 

 the choicest, this and the banana, growing like vegetables, the 

 former on a stalk from one to three feet high, much after the 

 fashion of an humble and unpretending cabbage ; yet these 

 two have risen so greatly in popular estimation as to be re- 

 garded only second in importance to the orange and lemon. 

 Europe draws its chief supply of pineapples from the Azores 

 or Western Islands as the nearest source, and the United 

 States from the Bahamas and Florida, although some come 

 from greater distances. Since the advent of steam-carriage 

 they reach these markets in a more matured and better con- 

 dition than was possible by the sailing-vessels of former 

 days. Then they were considered rarities, and many were 

 grown with much labor and expense in hot-houses, a "branch 

 of horticulture which attained the importance of a science by 

 itself, and no large establishment was considered complete 

 without its pinery. 



Few people in temperate climates have an adequate concep- 

 tion of the surpassing excellence of a pineapple ripened on its 

 stalk and eaten just at the turn, when the deep yellow pulp 

 becomes almost as deliquescent as an orange. A pine is more 

 easily eaten and tastes better when sliced perpendicularly in- 

 stead of transversely, but a perfectly ripe one is almost too 

 mellow for slicing. 



In addition to possessing remarkably nutritive properties, 

 scarcely inferior to those of lean beef, the juice is a wonder- 



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