364 Account of Mr. Jenkins's Mode of Cultivating Pines. 



the usual manner, as regards the glazing, and proportion and 

 size of the pit ; there are flues in it, but these have never been 

 used under the present management, and, in the construction 

 of a new house for a similar purpose, would, of course, be 

 wholly omitted. The heat imparted to the plants is produced 

 solely by dung deposited in a chamber which occupies the 

 space shewn in the accompanying Section. The top of the 

 chamber is covered with tiles one foot square, supported 

 by iron rafters, as represented in the plate ; the joints being 

 so closely cemented as to prevent the passage of the steam 

 into the house. By this method the unsightly litter is kept 

 from view, and the dung is removed and renewed, as occa- 

 sion requires, through a door placed in the back wall of the 

 house, which, except when any change is made in the dung, 

 is kept constantly closed, so that the whole of the steam 

 produced by the fermentation of the dung is confined within 

 the chamber, and imparts its heat to the house through 

 the medium of the covering of tiles. The plants, which are 

 in pots of the usual size, are placed on the tiles which cover 

 the chamber, and stand in four rows, in the order in which 

 Pines are usually arranged in a tan pit, but are neither bedded 

 in tan nor in mould. 



The plants treated in the way above described are sixty 

 in number, all bearing fruit, now nearly ripe; and, with the 

 exception of a single plant of the Providence, also in fruit, 

 are all of the variety well known under the name of the 

 Queen Pine. They are remarkably clean, strong, and heal- 

 thy ; their leaves large, rigid, and well coloured, and in only 

 one or two instances betraying the slightest marks of injury 



