that the first, and we apprehend the most essential, 

 circumstance, is the growing plants slowly at first, 

 and rapidly afterwards. It is a certain law in veget- 

 able physiology, that plants which grow fast when 

 young never carry good fruit. It is, indeed, impos- 

 sible that they should : for how can we expect vigour 

 in old age from debility in youth ? and rapid growth 

 when young is inevitably attended by debility. Plants 

 grow fast, but acquire no solidity. They are like 

 children who shoot up at once into the stature of 

 manhood, and immediately afterwards perish of con- 

 sumption ; or they may be likened to those fungi 

 which are formed in a day, and rot in an hour. This 

 truth is just as applicable to melons, strawberries, 

 peaches, and vines, as to pine apples. 



If, says Mr. Glendinning, the pine-apple in its 

 younger state is supplied with the same amount of 

 heat and moisture as are required in ripening the 

 fruit, the foliage will become drawn and slender, and 

 the whole plant so constitutionally weak, that nothing 

 but puny fruit could be produced. In fact, this 

 agrees with the natural habit of the pine. For in 

 the tropics it grows in the cool season and fruits in 

 the hot season, and there is scarcely less than 16 deg. 

 of difference between these two periods. For instance, 

 at Nassau, where the Providence pines are found, the 

 difference is from 14 to 15 degs. ; and in some parts 

 of India, it amounts to as much as 30 degs. It is 



