OF THE PINE-APPLE. 



285 



comes dry, it will be hard and cloddy, and 

 therefore not so well adapted to encourage 

 the progress of the roots of the plant : besides, 

 the glutting a plant with water will rob it of 

 its vigour, and, if practised long, will reduce it 

 to a weak state. 



The Pine-apple plant is of a succulent nature \ 

 and although it will dispense with a pretty moderate 

 quantity of water in the summer, when large and 

 vigorous, yet it does not suffer, like most other 

 plants, by being kept too dry. Young plants, es- 

 pecially in the hot part of summer, if kept in a 

 dry state, will not appear to make any progress ; 

 yet, if there is a bottom-heat, their roots make 

 great advances, and the plants always grow very 

 fast after being in such a state, whenever water 

 is given them; therefore, though the keeping 

 plants too dry is certainly an error, it is not at- 

 tended with the same fatal consequences as the 

 contrary practice. It is my wish, however, to 

 give such directions as may enable a person to 

 avoid either extreme. 



We are informed, that in some of * the West 

 India islands, where the Pine-apple plant grows 

 in great perfection, no rain falls in the summer 

 for many months together ; therefore this plant 

 is supplied with moisture from the dews only, 

 which we are told fall copiously. The method I 

 have recommended of watering the walks and 

 flues, &c. of the hot-house in an evening, in order 



