7 



In 1767, John Giles, at one time gardener to Lady 

 Boyd, at Lewisham, in Kent, and afterwards foreman 

 to Messrs Russell, nurserymen in that village, pub- 

 lished "Ananas, or a Treatise on the Pine Apple." It 

 is the first really practical work, giving full details of 

 the culture of the plant, that issued from the press. 

 For, as he observes in his preface, the directions given 

 by" Miller, Hill, Meader, and others, were too short 

 and imperfect to enable the novice to attain success. 

 He gives the plan of a pinery to be heated by the 

 combined influence of tan and flues. 



Only two years after Mr. Giles' work, in 1769, ap- 

 peared another on the same subject, entitled "A 

 treatise on the Ananas or Pine Apple." The author of 

 this was Mr. Adam Taylor, gardener to J. Sutton, 

 Esq. of New York, near Devizes. He claims for him- 

 self the merit of being the first who brought the fruit 

 to an improved size and excellence without the aid of 

 fire heat. A coloured engraving of the pine apple is 

 prefixed to the volume, and, if this be the improved 

 size then attained, its predecessors must have been 

 small indeed, for it is only six pips high. That this 

 was so, we may conclude from the drawing of a pine 

 apple published in 1 733, by a gardener, at Kensing- 

 ton, named Furber, and this is only four pips in height. 

 Taylor's pit is glazed throughout, except at the back, 

 and is heated entirely by tanner's bark placed beneath 

 the soil. 



