4 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. V, January, 1951 
In the Gardeners Chronicle for January 6, 
1844, we find another reference to Cayenne in 
the section on ''Notices to Correspondents,” 
as follows: "The Cayenne pine is from French 
Guiana; cannot state its price, that is the af- 
fair of the nurseryman. ...” A reader of this 
journal had obviously written to the editor 
inquiring about the place of origin of Cayenne 
and the price of plants, and the editor’s reply 
indicates that it had been imported from 
French Guiana. 
In a description of the Cayenne variety in 
"The Pineapple Manual” (Anonymous, ca. 
1870), we find the statement that "This fine 
variety was imported from Cayenne many 
years ago and is now cultivated in many 
places,” 
These scattered and brief references, to- 
gether with whatever weight may be given 
because of the name it bears, point rather 
■clearly to Cayenne in French Guiana as the 
place from which this variety was introduced 
into France some time before 1840. 
The fact that three French nurserymen in 
1841 had sufficient material to offer Cayenne 
plants in their catalogues indicates its pres- 
ence in France for a number of years previous 
to that date. In the "Pineapple Manual” men- 
tioned above, the statement is made that 
"Cayenne is not very free in producing 
suckers.” At the present time we consider that 
healthy plants will produce an average of 
about four reproductive shoots each in a 2- 
year growth period. The rate of increase from 
a small beginning would be very slow and 
could well require 15 or more years to pro- 
duce enough plants so that three nurserymen 
could ojffer them for sale. Accordingly we may 
assume that a few plants may have reached 
France around 1820 to 1825. 
MIGRATIONS OF THE CAYENNE VARIETY 
With the distribution of plants to nursery- 
men in France, Cayenne soon became a 
favored variety in Europe because of its large, 
well-shaped fruits, good color, and fine flavor, 
although the Queen variety was also widely 
grown and well received. The earlier distribu- 
tion of Cayenne to other countries appears 
to have stemmed from England and not 
directly from France. This early distribution 
from England is also emphasized by its early 
appearance in some of the British colonies, it 
having reached Australia by 1858 and Jamaica 
in 1870, although it came to Jamaica via 
Florida. In Australia its development was 
fairly rapid and from 1890 to 1895 that coun- 
try was able to furnish many slips and suckers 
for expanding the pineapple industry in the 
Hawaiian Islands, although the first Cayennes 
came to Hawaii from Florida in 1885 and 
Jamaica in 1886. 
The decade from 1885 to 1895 was a period 
of accumulation of the Cayenne variety in the 
Hawaiian Islands. Introductions of pineapple 
plants were made from 11 different tropical 
countries (Florida, England, Jamaica, Baha- 
mas, Trinidad, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Aus- 
tralia, Singapore, Samoa, and Algeria) four of 
which were known to have included the 
Cayenne variety. It is possible that it may 
have been included in shipments from other 
countries as well, but the records do not list 
the varieties in some importations (Collins, 
1934: 129). 
Figure 1 shows two major centers of distri- 
bution of the Cayenne variety to other areas. 
England played this role during the last half 
of the nineteenth century, although the first 
European propagation was accomplished in 
France. Hawaii has been a major source of 
distribution during the first half of the twen- 
tieth century. It was doubtless sent to still 
other countries from these three major centers 
of distribution, but at present we do not have 
complete records. For instance, it was im- 
ported from Ceylon into South Africa, but we 
do not know how it reached Ceylon. 
THE ORIGIN OF CAYENNE 
The discussion of the Cayenne variety up 
to this point is based upon documentary evi- 
dence. In trying to trace the origin of the 
Cayenne pineapple beyond the realm of 
