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LXTI. On the Cultivation of the Pine Apple. In a Letter 

 to the Secretary. By Mr. Alexander Stewart, Gar- 

 dener to Sir Robert Preston, Bart, at Valleyfiehl, near 

 Culross, Perthshire. 



Read December 2d, 1823. 



Sir, 



In the Cultivation of Pine Apples, I have been led to adopt 

 a plan similar to the one recommended* by Thomas Andrew 

 Knight, Esq., the President of your Society, and in hopes 

 that they may assist in establishing his views on the subject, 

 I have ventured to address to you the following particulars. 

 Early in 1820, I felt very desirous to grow Pines without the 

 aid of tan, and, if possible, to give them a greater portion of 

 steam than I had hitherto been able to do : I therefore, with 

 the permission of Sir Robert Preston, fitted up one of the 

 Melon pits upon the same principle as that adopted by Mr. 

 Kent,*!' for his exotics, placing the plants on the sand which 

 covers the bottom of the pit, above the air chamber, the flues 

 running directly below them, so that when moisture is added 

 either to the plants or to the sand, it causes a fine gentle steam 

 to arise through the whole of the pit, which can be regulated 

 at pleasure, by adding more or less fire, as the season or other 

 circumstances may require. The pit was first filled with crowns 

 and suckers taken from the plants early in the autumn, and 



* See Horticultural Transactions, Volume iv. page 72. 

 f Ibid. Volume Hi. page 24. 



vol. v. 3 F 



