138 



ON THE TANK SYSTEM OF HEATING 



White Guava, besides being a very handsome shrub ; it fruits 

 freely, and is not liable to the same objection as the P. pyri- 

 ferum. 



The Rose Apple, or fruit of Eugenia Jambos, is allied to the 

 Guavas. The foliage is fine; the flowers white, large, and 

 showy. The fruit is tolerably good, but its greatest recommen- 

 dation is its perfume, which strikingly resembles that of the rose. 

 It is whitish in colour, about the size of an apricot, easily culti- 

 vated, a minimum temperature of 50° or 55° suiting it in the 

 winter, and the common stove temperature in the growing 

 season. 



Blighia sapida fruited here several times, but was given up, 

 being good for nothing as a fruit. The arillus is large, white, 

 and tastes not unlike a chestnut ; it is boiled and eaten as a 

 vegetable. 



In the gardens here are healthy plants of the Cherimoyer, 

 Bread Fruit, Mangosteen, &c. &c. ; they are also in a few other 

 English gardens, where they will be carefully cultivated. It is, 

 therefore, not unreasonable to expect that in due time they may 

 be added to the list of hothouse fruits. 



XX. — Remarks on the Tank System of Heating in the Culture 

 of Pine-Apples. By Mr. Robert Reid, C.M.H.S., Gardener 

 to Mrs. Clark, Noblethorp, Barnsley. 



(Communicated Dec. 10, 184G.) 



" I can at this moment see in my mind's eye long ranges of pines planted 

 out on prepared beds over shallow tanks of water, with here and there an 

 old bark bed, the thermometer placed over the centre of the tanks, and 

 the attendant looking on like an engineer, conscious of his full command 

 over the simple machinery, giving a little more heat here and taking off 

 some there, and regulating the whole with precision. The toils of a long 

 life are nothing to the pleasure of anticipating such a state of things." — 

 1). Beaton, in Gardener's Chronicle, Dec. 2, 1843. 



Such were the prognostications of one of the best gardeners in 

 England only three years ago, at which period we were all com- 

 pletely in the dark respecting the best method of erecting tanks 

 for bottom heat. Now, however, that all difficulties in the 

 matter are overcome, and its great merits fully understood, the 

 time is not far distant when a bark bed or a pine fruited in a 

 pot will be numbered amongst the things that were. Although 

 considerable improvement has taken place within these last ten 

 years in the culture of pines in pots, at the same time it will 

 doubtless be acknowledged by the generality of* pine-growers, 

 that there is yet room for very great improvement, both in the 



