27 



and to the natives as " Mhlofunga." Some part of it, probably 

 the bark, is used by the natives medicinally in fevers. It was 

 described to me as a thorny tree with light coloured bark and 

 horizontally spreading branches. Commander Elliott, of 

 H.M.S. Beagle, very kindly brought a small plant of it for us, 

 and it is now growing in the Garden. It appears to be an 

 Acacia with remarkably horizontally spreading branches, and 

 bearing long white thorns, but it will be some years before it 

 can be identified from our tree. Dried flowering specimens 

 with legumes would be very acceptable for the purpose of 

 identification. 



In the Agricultural Bulletin of the Straits and Federated 

 Malay States for January and February of the present year I 

 find an article on Pine Apples, and as much interest seems 

 now to be taken in the cultivation of ihis fruit, I venture to 

 copy the article almost entire; it is by Mr. H. N. Ridley, M.A., 

 F.L.S., the Director of the Botanic Gardens : — 



"The Pine apple (Ananassa sativa) of the order Bromeliaceae 

 is a native of South America, probably Southern Mexico, and 

 was introduced very early into the East Indies by the Portu- 

 guese, shortly after the discovery of America, as, according to 

 Linschoten, it was abundant in India in 1583, and in 1593 sold 

 for as little as 2 reals a piece (Acosta Hist. Arom. 295). It 

 seems, indeed, to have spread over the world more rapidly than 

 any other cultivated plant, and probably arrived in Malacca 

 about the same time as it did in India. The name Nanas, or 

 Ananas, by which it is known in almost all languages, is of 

 South American origin. The Spaniards called it Pinas, from 

 its resemblance to pine cone, and similarly we get the English 

 name. 



Varieties op Pine-apples. 



" The number of named varieties of pines is very large, each 

 country giving special names to its varieties. Unfortunately 

 most of these varieties have hardly been adequately described, 

 still less figured or classified. Mr. I). Munro, in the Trans- 

 actions of the Horticultural Society of London, 1835, gives a 

 list of fifty-two kinds, which could probably be largely supple- 

 mented now. The plant varies in the colouring and presence 

 or absence of spines on the leaves, the colour of the outside of 

 the fruit and the flesh, and in size. The earliest cultivated 

 appear to have been very small, about the size of an orange, 

 and seem to correspond to what is now known as the Mauritius 

 pine. 



