Book I. 



EXOTIC FRUITS. 



747 



4780. Those ivell known, but neglected, as such ; as the orange, pomegranate, olive, 

 Indian fig, torch-thistle, and strawberry-pear. 



4781. ThosQ liule knoum, some of which seem to merit cultivation ; as the akee-tree, 

 alligator-pear, anchovy-pear, durion, guava, granadilla, jamrosade, malay apple, lee- 

 chee, loquat, mango, mangosteen, pishamin, and various others. 



4782. The varieties of some of these species, as the vine, fig, and melon are very great ; 

 in making a selection we would recommended the plan submitted as to the selection of 

 hardy fruits. (4367.) 



Sect. 1. Exotic Fruits in general Cultivation. 



4783. The exotic fruits in general ciiltivation include the three first fruits in the world; 

 the pine pre-eminent for its flavor ; the vine, for its generous and enlivening juice ; and 

 the melon, approaching in flavor to the pine. All circumstances considered, it is doubt- 

 ful if the durion, mangosteen, said other Indian fruits, equal these ; certainly no fruit 

 hitherto discovered in any region surpasses the pine-apple. 



SuBSECT. 1. Pine-apple. — Bromelia Ananas, L. [Bot. Mag. 1554.) Hexan. Monog. L. 

 and BromelicB, J. Ananas, Fr., Ger., and Ital. 



4784. The pine-apj)le is described in Miller's Dictionary (art. Bromelia), as herba- 

 ceous ; but it is by others considered as a shrub. Its common name of pine-apple is sup- 

 posed to be derived from the resemblance of the fruit in shape to the cone of some spe- 

 cies of pine-tree. In richness of flavor tliis fruit stands unrivalled ; and, as Neill ob- 

 serves, " it is one of the greatest triumphs of the gardener's art, to be able to boast that 

 it can be produced in Britain in as high perfection as in a tropical climate." The leaves 

 of the pine-plant are long, naiTow, channelled, and in general furnished with spines or 

 prickles on the edges. The flowers are in a loose spike, on a scape, which is leafy at 

 top ; " as the spike ripens, it takes tlie form of a fleshy scaly strobile, vulgarly called 

 the fruit, and composed of many coadunate berries, which have scarcely any cells or 

 seeds.'' Professor Martyn doubts whether there may not be some of the fruits with 

 male flowers only, and others v> ith hermaphrodite flowers ; " because those fruits which 

 have seeds are remarkably different from the others when cut through the cells, in which 

 the seeds are lodged ; for in these they lie near to the centre of the fruit, whereas in 

 those which have abortive cells, they are chiefly close to the rind." South America is 

 generally considered the native place of the pine, though it is indigenous in uncultivated 

 places in Africa, in great abundance. Linnaeus ascribes it to New Spain and Surinam ; 

 and Acosta says, that it was first sent from the province of Santa Croce, in Brasil, inro 

 the West, and afterwards into the East Indies. Professor Martyn thinks it may be com- 

 mon to the tropical parts of the three continents. The pine-plant has been long culti- 

 vated in Jamaica and other West India islands with great success, and was introduced 

 to the gardens of Europe by Le Cour, of Leyden, about the middle of tlie seventeenth 

 century. This gentleman. Miller informs us, receii'ed his first plants from America, 

 and " after a great many trials with little or no success, did at length hit upon a proper 

 degree of heat and management, so as to produce fruit equally good (though not so large; 

 as that which is produced in the West Indies." From Le Cour " our gardens in Eng- 

 land were first supplied with this king of fruits ;" and it is " commonly said that Sir 

 Matthew Decker, of Richmond, was its earliest cultivator ;" but, as a botanical plant, 

 it was introduced so far back as 1690, by Bentick. (Hort. Xeio.) Miller informs us, 

 that at first the plants were kept in dry stoves, during winter, placed on scaflfblds, ai'ter 

 the manner in which orange-trees are placed in a green-house ; and that in summer, they 

 were removed to hot-beds of tanners' l)ark, under frames. They soon, however, began 

 to erect " low stoves," called succession-houses, and bark-pits under deep frames, for the 

 suckers and crowns. Bradley informs us, that by the year 1730, pine-stoves of the dif- 

 ferent kinds were established in all the principal English gardens ; and Justice, in his 

 British Gardener s Directory, published in 1744, states, that pine-apple stoves had also 

 been erected in Scotland, and he gives the plan of one erected by him in his own garden 

 at Crichton, near Edinburgh, in the year 1732, in which the pine was fruited for the first 

 time in Scotland. He recommends such as intend cultivating this fruit, to get their 

 plants and furnaces (the latter cast in one piece) of Scott, of Turnham Green, London, 

 and their thermometers from Coles, in Fleet-street. 



4785. Use. It is the first of dessert-fruits ; and is also preserved in sugar, and made 

 into marmalades and other confectionaries. In preparing to eat this fruit, first twist out 

 the crown and then cut the fruit into horizontal slices : these being served, the rind and 

 scales of the pips are pared off by the guest with a knife and fork. (^Speedily.) 



4786. Varieties There are many varieties of this fruit, independently of some dis- 

 tinct species, as the B. Penguiii and B. Karatas ; the fruit of these species being some- 

 times eaten in the West Indies. If the seeds of the ananas were sown frequently in 

 their native country, Professor Martyn considers that varieties might be rendered as nu- 



