448 



THE PINE-APPLE. 



orange crop in the Balearic islands is beginning to show some signs 

 of improvement, and it is hoped by the growers that the worst of the 

 fatal disease which destroyed the trees is over, but it must be some 

 years before the exports in this fruit return to their former figures. 



Citrons are exported from Malaga in their green state, in cases 

 weighing 80 kilogrammes, half cases, and quarter cases, each fruit 

 being carefully wrapped in paper. The shipments were in 1 871 

 39,027 cases. They are chiefly shipped to the United States. The 

 localities of production are Pizarra, Alora, and Coin, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Malaga. 7,876 cases of oranges were shipped from 

 Malaga in 1871, and 267,628 kilos, of orange-peel, which is largely 

 consumed in Holland, France, and Germany, chiefly for making 

 liqueurs and syrups. 



The export of oranges from Spain is shown in the following return 

 in thousands of oranges : 



1863 ,. , 



,, 156,722 



1870 , , 



.. 228,640 



1864 .. . 



101,397 



1871 



.. 445,220 



1865 , , 



133,897 



1872 



,. 581,610 



1866 ,. . 



, 189,333 



1873 ,. . 



.. 699,956 



1867 ,. . 



298,431 



1874 .. 





1868 ,. . 



, 188,512 



1875 



.. 574,000 



1869 .. . 



,, 272,052 





At Antwerp, in 1874, 39,639 boxes of oranges were received, and 

 4058 boxes of citrons, chiefly from Valencia, Seville, and Palermo. 



Greece. — The Isle of Naxos, in Greece, ships to England more than 

 half a million citrons annually, but could easily export several millions. 

 They are collected and shipped as they ripen, the want of labour alone 

 prevents their being preserved on the spot. The culture of citrons has 

 been abandoned for cedrats. The gross exjDort of oranges and lemons 

 from Greece has rather fallen off of late years. In 1870, 47,111,000 

 were shipped, and, in the next three years, an average of 36,600,000 ; 

 but in 1874 a little over 16,000,000 were shipped. 



THE PINE-APPLE. 



The Pine-apple [Ananassa sativa, Lindley) is one of the most 

 esteemed of tropical fruits. Formerly great attention was given to 

 forcing this fruit in England ; but the large importations now made 

 at certain seasons of the year have increased the foreign supplies, 

 and somewhat reduced the price of home-grown fruit, still it is 

 brought to great perfection by our gardeners. 



The pine-apple is indigenous to South America and some of the 

 West India islands, but has become so perfectly naturalized in many 

 parts of the hot regions of Africa and Asia, that it has been thought 

 to be likewise a native of those countries. It is now found in an 

 almost wild state in most parts of India and Ceylon, and is abundant 

 also in the Malay Peninsula, the Straits Settlements, China, and the 

 islands of the Eastern Archipelago. 



The varieties cultivated are very numerous. In the Transactions 

 of the Horticultural Society of London, for 1835, Mr. D. Munro 



