THE PINE-APPLE. 



643 



one in each 60-sized pot, and covered about a 

 quarter of an inch. After germination has taken 

 place they ought to be fully exposed to the light, 

 and their small tender grass blade -like leaves 

 protected from wood-lice, which, if not pre- 

 vented, would soon eat them up. By the end 

 of August the plants will have attained a, fit 

 state for transplanting, after which they should 

 be treated like other young pine plants. In the 

 third year they may be expected to produce 

 fruit. 



The other modes of propagation are by gills 

 (small secondary suckers produced at the base 

 of the fruit), crowns which surmount every per- 

 fect fruit, suckers which arise from towards the 

 middle of the stem of the plant. Latent buds 

 are often found to exist on the stem, and these, 

 as will be noticed below, are excited into growth 

 after the plant has completed all its other func- 

 tions. Gills are rarely cared for, unless it be in 

 cases of new or rare sorts which it may be desir- 

 able to increase ; they are long in coming to a 

 state of fruitfulness. When used they are 

 treated exactly as common suckers. 



Crowns were formerly in more repute than 

 they are at present, and unless of large size, or 

 in the case of new or rare sorts, we rarely plant 

 them, believing that large suckers produce fmit 

 sooner. Their culture, however, is in all re- 

 spects the same as that of suckers. 



Suckers are produced from the stem of the 

 plant, having their origin in buds thickly set in 

 some sorts, as the Muscow queen, more sparingly 

 in others, like the Providence, Cayenne, &c. 

 Daring the growth of the plant all superfluous 

 suckers should be destroyed upon their first ap- 

 pearance, which can readily be done by thrust- 

 ing a small gouge-like instrument, set in a long 

 handle, into their centres, and by giving the 

 hand a slight twist the centre or heart of the 

 young sucker will be destroyed. From one to 

 two suckers is quite enough to be left on any 

 single plant, unless an increase of stock is more 

 an object than the fruit itself. Allowing more 

 to remain reduces their individual strength, as 

 well as draws considerable nourishment from 

 the fruit, to develop which in perfection requii'es 

 all the strength of the plant. When the fruit 

 is cut, the suckers are usually separated from 

 the parent plant, and as practised by some, laid 

 in any out-of-the-way place for a week or more 

 to dry, as they please to term it, and afterwards 

 potted, although often planted in the tan or 

 leaf bed in which they strike root. Both these 

 modes are contrary to the laws of good culture. 

 Suckers grow amazingly fast while kept on the 

 old plants, and when they can be allowed to 

 remain so for a few weeks, their size and strength 

 is improved. This is, however, not always con- 

 venient, as the old plants have often to be re- 

 moved to give place to others ; and with some 

 the suckers are taken off even before the fruit 

 has attained nearly its full size, with a view 

 to throw all the strength of the plant into it. 

 This is attended with danger both to the sucker 

 and swelling fruit: the former is apt to be broken 

 during the operation, as they do not separate 

 freely from the old plant until they become 

 hard, and of a chesnut-brown colour at their 



base, at which time they may be removed easily 

 and without danger. Their removal under any 

 circumstance before the fruit is cut, requires 

 great care to prevent any undue shaking or 

 twisting of the fruit-stalk; for if this takes place, 

 the growth of the fruit is greatly impeded, the 

 fruit- stalk often withering up, and a premature 

 ripening is the consequence. Indeed, to avoid 

 this, if it can be avoided, no plant should be dis- 

 turbed from the period of the embryo fruit 

 showing until it is fully matured. This is one 

 great advantage attending the planting-out sys- 

 tem. 



Allowing suckers to remain unpotted a day 

 after they are removed from the plant, tends 

 only to weaken them, as they part with their 

 sap rapidly, and this the more so if placed in a 

 dry situation ; indeed, it may be safely inferred 

 that every day they are exposed to this evapo- 

 rating treatment is tantamount to a loss of three 

 or four in their growth. They should be potted 

 as soon as they are removed from the parent 

 plant, setting one sucker in a pot of about 6 

 inches in diameter, less or more, according to 

 their strength, and Immediately placing them 

 in a mild bottom-heat, with little ventilation 

 and partial shade, giving no water at the roots, 

 and only a little by syringing overhead every 

 other day, continuing the same until they are 

 fairly rooted, when more air and water, and less 

 shade, should be afforded them. The strongest 

 and best-formed suckers should be retained, and 

 all root ones discarded; indeed, these last should 

 be destroyed as soon as they appear, as they 

 seldom produce good plants, and, if left on, only 

 rob the fruit and proper suckers of their due 

 share of nourishment. In removing suckers 

 from the parent plant, great caution is required, 

 that they be not twisted or broken during the 

 operation. The stem of the old plant should be 

 held firmly by one person, while another is 

 separating the sucker from it ; and this separa- 

 tion should not be persevered in until the 

 sucker is a foot at least in height, and fully 

 ripened at the base, and can be removed easily, 

 and without injury either to itself or the old 

 plant. There is no advantage gained by remov- 

 ing the suckers too soon, for they make much 

 greater progress in growth while attached to 

 the plant than if they were taken off prema- 

 turely, and ever so well attended to. Some 

 retain one or two suckers on the plant after the 

 fruit is cut, and allow them to produce fruit, 

 which they do within a short space of time; but 

 such fruit is seldom of a large size, nor does a 

 house or pit of pines ever look so well as when 

 each plant is on its own bottom. Speechley, in 

 1796, practised this ; and Knight, many years 

 afterwards, followed so far out this system, and 

 planted the old root with the sucker attached 

 to it, shaking off all the soil from the roots, and 

 replanting them in fresh compost. An almost 

 similar practice was followed by Mr Dale and 

 others. Mr Hamilton of Thornfield has more 

 recently revived this method, and detailed his 

 practice in his " Treatise on the Culture of the 

 Pine-Apple." 



The following is our mode of treating the pine 

 in its first stages of growth : Having a larger 



