“Tee 
7. = 
« “ 
330 Pine Apple. 
Rum.” If any sceptic should inquire at our office, he may 
procure “Social Bees,” “Lissom Fingers,’ and such like 
“Curiosities of Civilization,’ but as for the other article, 
the only reply will be, “Werry sorry to say, sir, that they 
don’t allow that partickler wanity to be sold in this here 
establishment.” 
That we may begin early in our history of this plant, we 
quote from Father Kircher, as translated in 1669. “ They 
have in China a tree called Kagzn, yielding fruit twice a 
year, which, by inversion, thrusts forth the seeds or kernels, 
the werts, or such excrescences, on the outside of the fruit, 
and is in common to the East and West Indies, who call it 
Ananas;, but the Chinese call it Fan-polo-mie; it groweth 
in the provinces Quantung Kiangsi and Fokien, and is sup- 
posed to have been brought from Peru; the tree on which it 
eroweth is not a shrub, but an herb like unto Carduus ; 
they call it Cartriofol1, on whose leaf a fruit groweth stick- 
ing unto its stalk, of so pleasant and exquisite a taste, that 
it may easily obtain the pre-eminency amongst the most 
noble fruits of India and China; the spermatick faculty is 
innate in all the parts thereof, for not only the seeds shed 
on the ground, but its sprouts and leaves being planted, 
produce the like fruits.” 
Our opinion of pine-apple, whilst derived-only from an 
experience of imported West Indian specimens, was by no 
means so flattering as that of the learned Father. In fact, 
it remains doubtful, though some may regard it as heresy, 
whether, since we have deliberately tasted of fine varieties 
ripened at home by experienced growers, that our opinion 
is much altered for the better and in favour of the pine. 
Our depraved tastes would lead us to pronounce in favour 
of a rich mellow pear, or a dish of strawberrys and cream, 
against a dozen pine-apples. But we are wandering again, 
and who can blame us ?—even editors and authors are but 
“men” at Christmas time, and cannot help thinking about 
the good things which comfort the inner man, and forsak- 
ing the “midnight oil” for—some other “partickler wanity.” 
Before us lies a list of names by which the pine-apple is 
known in about forty languages or dialects, and the root 
of the majority of them is the original Scuth American 
Nanas; from which the Tamul Azasa, and the Arabic 
Anannas, as well as the generic Latin name, by which the 
plant is known to botanists, is derived. There is but little 
doubt that America was the original home of the pine- 
apple, whence it became introduced into eastern and 
