ANAN 



Ef)£ Crca£urj? of aSataug. 



60 



bears in its form to the cone of some spe- 

 cies of the pine or fir tribe. It is universally 

 acknowledged to be one of the most deli- 

 cious fruits in existence. Three hundred 

 years ago it was described by Jean de Lery, 

 a Huguenot priest, as being of such excel- 

 lence that the gods might luxuriate upon 

 it, and that it should only be gathered by 

 the hand of a Venus. It is stated to be a 

 native of Brazil, and having been carried 

 from thence to the West, and afterwards 

 to the 'East Indies, cannot be regarded 

 as indigenous to the tropical parts of Asia, 

 Africa, and South America. It first became 

 known to Europeans in Peru, where it is 

 called Nanus, and under this name it was 

 described in 1555 by Andre Thevet, a monk, 

 who says it was often preserved in sugar. 

 The plant is biennial, not unlike an Aloe, 

 but the leaves are much thinner, and of a 

 hard fibrous texture, with numerous short 

 sharp spines on the edges. The fruit is 

 produced on a short stem which rises from 

 the centre of the plant, and bears a scaly 

 conical spike, surmounted by a number of 

 small spiny leaves called the crown. This 

 conical body, after flowering, gradually 

 enlarges and eventually becomes the rich 

 and succulent Pine Apple we so highly 

 prize. Besides being the first of dessert 

 fruits, it is made into marmalades and va- 

 rious confectioneries, and is used to flavour 

 rum. The earliest account of Pine Apples 

 bein.ff seen in England, is that of a present 

 of some having been received by the 

 Protector Cromwell. We next find them 

 noticed by the celebrated Evelyn, from 

 whose Diary we subjoin the following 

 extract :— ' August 9, 1661. I first saw the 

 famous Queen Pine brought from Barba- 

 dos and presented to His Majesty' (Charles 

 II.) ; again under date of July 19, 1688, 

 he observes, ' I was at a banquet which the 

 King gave to the French Ambassador. 

 Standing by His Majesty at dinner in the 

 presence, there was of that rare fruit 

 called the King Pine, growing in Barba- 

 dos, in the West Indies. The fruit of 

 them I had never seen. His Majesty 

 cutting it up was pleased to give me a 

 piece from his own plate to taste of ; but 

 in my opinion it falls far short of those ra- 

 vishing varieties of deliciousness ascribed 

 to it.' It has been conjectured that from 

 the crowns of these Pines, Mr. Rose, the 

 royal gardener, succeeded in raising plants, 

 and that one of the latter might have pro- 

 duced the fruit he is represented, in a well- 

 known picture, as presenting on his knee 

 to King Charles II. as the first Pine Apple 

 grown in England. It is just possible that 

 such might have been the case, but, unless 

 in the picture above alluded to (of which 

 a copy is in the possession of the Horticul- 

 tural Society), we have no evidence to show 

 that the Pine Apple was then cultivated in 

 the royal gardens, or at any other place in 

 this country, until many years afterwards. 

 For its introduction into Europe we are 

 indebted to M. Le Cour, a Dutch merchant, 

 who about the middle of the seventeenth 

 century made an attempt to cultivate it in 

 his ga'rden at Driehock, near Leyden. 



After a great many trials he at last hit 

 upon a plan by which he obtained a suffi- 

 cient degree of heat to produce fruit 

 equally good, though not so large, as that 

 produced in the West Indies. According 

 to the best authorities, the first plants 

 introduced into England were brought 

 from Holland by the Earl of Portland in 

 1690. Twenty years afterwards we find 

 Pines successfully cultivated by Sir Ma- 

 thew Decker, in his garden at Richmond ; 

 and to this gentleman the honour has 

 usually been ascribed of having first 

 fruited the Pine Apple in Britain, about 

 the year 1712. From that time to the 

 present every possible means that art and 

 ingenuity could devise for the culture of 

 this fine fruit have been adopted, and in 

 no other instance, perhaps, has the care 

 and skill of the gardener been attended 

 with more signal success, Pine Apples 

 having been produced in this country far 

 surpassing in size and flavour the very 

 best of those matured in a tropical climate. 

 The difficulties which formerly attended 

 the cultivation of the Pine Apple have dis- 

 appeared since the mode of heating hot- 

 houses with hot water was introduced, and 

 handsome fruit weighing from six to twelve 

 pounds, are by no means uncommon ; but 

 the heaviest on record, we believe, was 

 grown in 1826 by Dixon, gardener to John 

 Edwards, Esq., Rheola, Neath, Glamor- 

 ganshire, and weighed fourteen pounds 

 twelve ounces! The most remarkable 

 experiment, however, that has been made 

 in pine growing was one by Barnes, 

 gardener to Lady Rolle, at Bicton, in 

 Devonshire, who, in September 1845, cut 

 some excellent fruit of four and five pounds 

 weight from plants that had been exposed 

 in the open air during the whole of the sum- 

 mer. Pine Apples are no longer a novelty, 

 large quantities being annually imported 

 and sold at a cheap rate in the principal 

 towns throughout the kingdom. Like 

 most of our cultivated fruits, they vary in 

 quality and appearance ; no less than fifty- 

 two sorts being described in the Trans- 

 actions of the Horticultural Society (2 ser. 

 i. 1). The greater number have been intro- 

 duced from abroad ; but several have ori- 

 ginated from seed in England. That which 

 is now so commonly imported from the 

 Bahamas is a sort called the Providence, 

 one of the least valuable of the race. 



[W.B.B.] 



ANANDR^E. A name sometimes given 

 to Cryptogams on the supposition that 

 thev have no male organs. See Asexual 

 Plants. [M. J. B.] 



ANANDRIA. A genus of the composite 

 family, and of the tribe Mutisiacece, in 

 which the florets are two-lipped. A. Belli- 

 diastrum is a stemless herb of Siberia and 

 Japan, having rosettes of stalked lyrate 

 toothed leaves, covered with white down 

 underneath, and arising from their midst a 

 flower scape bearing a single head about 

 half an inch across, containing numerous 

 white or purple florets. When the plant is 

 in flower the leaves are seldom more than 



