% Thomas Andrew Kktght, Esq. 547 



the roots as entire as possible, I have propagated with much 

 advantage, and have obtained plants which shewed fruit 

 strongly at seven months, dating from the period at which the 

 sucker appeared, like a strong head of Asparagus, at the 

 surface of the soil. 



The success of my experiments, in the first house which I 

 erected, (and to which the foregoing account exclusively 

 refers) led me to erect another house in the summer of 1820. 

 In this I attempted to obtain the greatest possible influence 

 of light, and command of solar heat ; inferring, from having 

 observed Pine Apples to ripen tolerably well with very little 

 light, that I should be able to ripen them in perfection late 

 in the autumn, and early in the spring, particularly at the 

 latter period, in which, alone, I set a very high value upon 

 the species of fruit. The height of the back wall of this house 

 is eight feet six inches, and that of the front wall is one foot 

 six inches, and its breadth ten feet, inside measure, with an 

 iron curviliar roof, of the kind of bar invented by Mr. 

 Loudon, of Bayswater. This house is fifty feet long, and 

 capable of containing two hundred fruiting Pine plants. 

 The curvature of the roof rises just one foot in twelve. The 

 glass is laid in a composition of two parts white lead, with 

 oil, and three of flint sand, and the overlaps of the glass are 

 closely filled with the same material.* It is, consequently, 

 very nearly air-tight ; and no means are given for the air to 



* This material appears admirably calculated to fill the overlaps in all cases, but 

 its excessive hardness, and firm adhesion, must preclude the use of it, except to fill 

 the overlaps, when the bars are made of wood. 



