55G 



THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



[Jan, 



attacked by insects, in all stages of their growth ; the most 

 annoying of which are the white turtle insect, (Coccus Hes- 

 peridifm, Linn.) the white scaly insect, and the white mealy 

 crimson-tinged insect, the last of which is the worst, as it 

 attacks the plant from the top of the crown to the remotest 

 parts of the root. Although difficult to clear of such enemies, 

 still they will bear them, without sustaining much injury, longer 

 than almost any culinary vegetable will withstand the attacks 

 of the insects natural to them. Of natural diseases this plant 

 has few, and we find it producing its fruit under a greater va- 

 riety of bad culture, than almost any other cultivated fruit. 



A variety of opinions have of late been entertained, whether 

 this plant should be cultivated in a bottom heat, that is, whether 

 the pots in which the plants are planted should be plunged into 

 substances, either in a state of fermentation, or rendered more 

 or less warm by means of fire-heat, steam, hot water, &c., or 

 whether it should not be cultivated without such bottom heat, 

 or at least only to a temperature approaching to that of the 

 natural warmth of the soil, in which it grows in its native 

 country. When first introduced into Europe, it was cultivated, 

 as we might naturally suppose, without any such bottom heat ; 

 and the Dutch gardeners, who first attempted its cultivation, 

 placed it upon stages with their other succulent exotics. In- 

 genuity, however, soon suggested, and experience approved, 

 the advantage of plunging the pots in which the plants are 

 planted in a mild bottom heat. Pines, however, do not re- 

 quire so strong a heat at their roots, as many keep them in, 

 yet there is something so congenial to their natures, in being 

 plunged in a moist mild temperature, that those, who have 

 attempted their cultivation to any extent without it, have gene- 

 rally failed not only of producing fruit of any size or quality, 

 but are unable to keep the plants in a healthy growing state. 

 It is true that no plant is found in a state of nature growing 

 in a soil warmer than that of the superincumbent atmosphere ; 

 but in cultivating many of our fruits and vegetables, we are 

 not to imitate nature as the best mode of culture. If such 

 were the practice, what would or.r asparagus, cabbage, and 

 many other of our mor.t valuable vegetables be? and il we 

 were to grow our celery in ditches, should we be rewarded 



