650 Mr. bastard on the 
bark-bed in the common way ; that is, I put the pot of 
earth, with the pine-plant in it, in the pan full of water, 
and as the water decreafes I conftantly fill up the pan. I 
place either plants in fruit, or young plants as foon as 
they are well rooted, in thefe pans of water, and find they 
thrive equally well : the fruit l'eared this way is always 
much larger, as well as better flavoured, than when ripened 
in the bark-bed. I have more than once put only the 
plants themfelves without any earth, I mean after they 
had roots, into thefe pans of water, with only water fuf- 
ficient to keep the roots always covered, and found 
them flourifh beyond expectation. In my houfe, the 
fhelf I mention is fupported by irons from the top, 
and there is an intervening fpace of about ten inches 
between the back wall and the fhelf. A neighbour of 
mine has placed a leaden ciftern upon the top of the back 
flue (in which, as it is in contaCf with the flue, the water is 
always warm when there is fire in the houfe) and finds 
his fruit excellent and large. My fhelf does not touch 
The back flue, but is about a foot above it; and confe- 
quently the water is only warmed by the air in the 
houfe. Both thefe methods do well. The way I account 
for this fuccefs is, that the warm air always afcending to 
the part where this fhelf is placed, as being the higheft 
5 part 
