642 



FRUIT GARDEN. 



year 1712;" for it is scarcely probable that such 

 a fruit could have been known in England, and 

 unknown to that extraordinary woman. This 

 opinion is somewhat strengthened by the asser- 

 tions of those who say that the pine was intro- 

 duced to the United Provinces by their East 

 India ships direct from China. 



Lord Bacon does not allude to its being 

 cultivated in his time, although he particularly 

 mentions it in his " Essay on Plantations and 

 Colonies." The first account of their appear- 

 ance in England, without reference to their hav- 

 ing been there grown, is of a present of pines 

 received by the Protector Cromwell about 1651, 

 but these were probably from the West Indies 

 or from Holland. And Evelyn, in his Diary, 

 9th August 1661, says, "I first saw the famous 

 Queen pine, brought from Barbadoes, and pre- 

 sented to his majesty (Charles II.); but the first 

 that were seen in England were those sent to 

 Cromwell four years since." In the same Diary, 

 July 19, 1668, he says : " I was at a banquet 

 which the king gave to the French ambassador. 

 Standing by his majesty at dinner in the pre- 

 sence, there was of that rare fruit called the King 

 pine, growing in Barbadoes, in the West Indies. 

 The fruit of them I had never seen. His ma- 

 jesty, cutting it up, was pleased to give me a 

 piece from his own plate to taste of; but in my 

 opinion it falls far short of those ravishing 

 varieties of deliciousness described in Capt. 

 Ligon's history, and others; but possibly it 

 might, or certainly was, much impaired in com- 

 ing so far." Evidently a fruit not produced in 

 this country. There appears to be some mis- 

 take in describing this as the King pine, as that 

 variety was raised from seed in this country, 

 from a seed taken from a rotten fruit which 

 came from the West Indies to Henry Heathcote, 

 Esq. The foliage would have determined the 

 question, as the King pine is smooth, without 

 prickles. Philips, in his " History of Fruits," 

 thinks it probable that it was from the crowns 

 of these pines that Mr Rose, the royal gardener, 

 is said to have raised the first plants that fruited 

 in England. We have met with no account to 

 lead us to believe that Rose fruited the pine 

 prior to Sir Matthew Decker; on the contrary, 

 there is pretty good evidence that Decker's plants 

 had been received from Holland. Gouge, the 

 historian, distinctly says, " Sir M. Decker first 

 introduced the culture of the Ananas;" and a work 

 was published in 1726, entitled " An Account 

 of the Ananas, or West Indian Pine- Apple, as it 

 now flourishes in Sir M. Decker's garden at 

 Richmond, under the care of Henry Telende." 

 To those who have not an opportunity of refer- 

 ring to the above pamphlet, published in 1726, 

 we can refer them to a well-known work, " A 

 General Treatise on Agriculture, Husbandry, 

 and Gardening," by Professor Bradley, 1757, 

 page 433, where a full account of Telende's 

 practice will be found. Abercrombie, who 

 wrote so soon afterwards, distinctly says, " Hol- 

 land was the first European country where the 

 culture of the pine was attempted, from, which 

 country we in England were supplied with the. 

 first plants." The only proof which at all iden- 

 tifies Rose with the early production of the 



pine rests on two paintings, both of which we 

 have seen, one the original, it is supposed, in 

 the collection in Kensington Palace, and the 

 other sold at the dispersion of the valuable col- 

 lection of articles of taste and vertu which long 

 constituted the Waldegrove collection at Straw- 

 berry Hill, representing Rose on his knees, pre- 

 senting a pine-apple to King Charles II. We 

 have, however, no positive proof that this fruit 

 was produced in the Royal Gardens. The 

 Sloanean MSS., in the British Museum, inform 

 us that the pine was not introduced until the 

 year 1690, when the Earl of Portland procured 

 plants from Holland. In the Fitzwilliam Mu- 

 seum at Cambridge there is a painting by Net- 

 scher, a landscape, in which is introduced a pine- 

 apple, stated to have been first fruited in Bri- 

 tain in the garden of Sir M. Decker. The paint- 

 ings to which we have referred of Rose aud his 

 royal master have, we think, after the above 

 evidence, no reference whatever to his being 

 the first cultivator, as the pine he is represented 

 to be in the act of presenting in all probability 

 came from Holland. In the " Hortus Kewensis" 

 the pine is recorded to have been introduced to 

 that establishment in 1690 by Mr Bentick, but it 

 can only be considered in this case as a botanical 

 plant. Professor Bradley informs us that in 

 1730 pine-stoves were to be met with in the 

 principal gardens in England. The Chelsea Bo- 

 tanic Garden; W. Parker, Esq., near Croydon, 

 Surrey ; John Blackburn, Esq., Lancashire ; Mr 

 Fairchild, at Hoxton, &c, are especially noticed 

 as cultivators. In 1744, James Justice of Crich- 

 ton informs us that pine-stoves had been then 

 erected in Scotland ; and in his " British Gar- 

 deners' Directory," published in 1744, he gives 

 plans of his own pine-stoves at Crichton, near 

 Dalkeith, in which he fruited the pine for the 

 first time in North Britain. 



Propagation. — The pine is occasionally, but 

 rarely, propagated by seed ; indeed, were it not 

 with a view of obtaining new or improved sorts, 

 this means would never be resorted to, at least 

 in Britain. Those fruits which ripen during 

 August and September in this country produce 

 more seed than such as ripen either at an earlier 

 or later period, no doubt on account of their 

 flowers being more perfectly formed, and the 

 process of impregnation taking place under the 

 favourable circumstances of extra vigour in the 

 plant, and the abundance of light which they 

 enjoy at the season of flowering, compared with 

 those which bloom during winter or later in the 

 year — which latter have also the disadvantage 

 of swelling during the dark months of winter, 

 Speechley raised more pines from seed than 

 perhaps any other cultivator in Britain, few of 

 which had much merit, and not one of them is, 

 if we except the Welbeck seedling (a coarse ill- 

 flavoured sort), to be met with in cultivation at 

 this time. Seed of the pine-apple is usually 

 brought from the West Indies, but even there 

 the seed is not abundant. When raised, they 

 should be kept (if they arrive in autumn or 

 winter) in a. warm room, enclosed in paper bags 

 till March, when they should be sown in rich 

 soil, in small pots plunged in a warm hotbed. 

 The seed should be sown 1 or 2 inches apart, or 



