18 



growing atmosphere ; and the heat, Ukewise, mode- 

 rated by a plentiful admission of air, will prove in 

 fact the desideratum during the influence of power- ' 

 ful atmospheric heat ; for without some sort of shade, 

 the withering effects of a summer's sun would soon 

 become but too apparent, by deteriorating the colour, i 

 and collapsing the foliage. The young plants must 

 not be matted up as in protection from frost ; the 

 direct rays of the sun should be intercepted ; but only 

 some very thin mats laid lengthways, or otherwise ; 

 some slight bunting, or nets very close in the mesh, 

 would answer the purpose exceedingly well. {Glen- \ 

 dinning on Pine Apple, 42.) 



Every stove should be furnished with outside roller 

 blinds to its roof, and these, if made of wide-meshed 

 canvass, will modify the light when necessary, will 

 check radiation and consequent coohng at night, as 

 well as be an efficient guard to the glass in case of 

 hail storms. 



Moisture in the Air, — A chief atmospheric charac- i, 

 teristic of the tropics, is its extreme moisture. By p 

 day, the air, owing to the intense evaporation, is ^ 

 saturated with watery vapour, and this bathes again j 

 every plant at night, when the air by cooling cannot 

 combine with so much vapour, and this is, conse- g 

 quently, deposited in the form of heavy dews. To 3 

 keep pine apple plants healthy, and, consequently, r 

 free from insects also, this moistness of atmosphere 

 must be secured to them. 



