28 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
crowns should be returned, after weeks, or months perhaps, you get crown or 
crowns back, bruised and seared ; but this is not the worst, for I have seen 
them returned full of disease and vermin, which may have been gained from 
contact with fruit sent from some other establishment, and the crowns collected 
and returned together. I here mention these little matters because I have 
seen, more than once, this deplorable and lasting pest introduced by only one 
crown amongst a clean healthy stock, which is most aggravating indeed to 
those fond of seeing clean healthy plants. The very idea of being told that 
your stock of Pines is foul is quite enough to ruffle one’s temper, without having 
to go through the discomfort of having them always before one’s eyes. The 
trouble that many undergo in preserving their stock, by means of various 
filthy, strong-smelling applications, recommended as remedies for extirpating 
these obnoxious pests, and after all their perseverance with generally so little 
success, is enough to make one careful how and from whom they accept the 
crowns of Pine Apples, and to care but little about planting crowns if good 
suckers enough can be obtained. I intend to treat on suckers in my next 
paper, and in some future one a simple method of cleaning or eradicating 
Pines from vermin, maintaining them clean and healthy. 
Bicton. (To be continued.) James Barnes. 
CULTURE OF MUSA CAVENDISHIL 
In our last we noticed the production of an immense bunch of the fruit of 
Musa Cavendisliii which was being exhibited in the conservatory of the Royal 
Horticultural Society at South Kensington, and we have now the pleasure of 
laying before our readers the method of culture that was adopted to produce such 
a result, communicated by Mr. Carr. 
Some small offsets of Musa Cavendishii were received here by my employer, 
P. L. Hinds, Esq., from his estates in the West Indies, in September, 1862. 
These were at once potted into eight-inch pots and plunged into bottom heat in a 
Cucumber-house. Four of them very soon showed signs of growth, and the others 
decayed. For the surviving plants four tubs were prepared, each 2 feet 6 inches 
square, and perforated at the bottom. These were placed along the centre of a 
pit 16 feet by 9 on slabs of slate also perforated, under which were hot-water 
pipes for bottom heat. I then had the tubs well drained and filled with soil, 
consisting of loam, leaf mould, peat, and very rotten dung in equal parts well 
mixed together. As soon as the soil became warm the plants were taken out of 
the pots and placed in the tubs, and received a gentle watering with tepid water. 
From this time till February, 1863, the temperature of the house was kept from 
55° to 60° by night and 65° by day, with an allowance of 5 y for sun heat. The 
plants received a gentle syringing overhead every fine day, and the house was 
filled with steam morning and evening, water being given to the roots in large 
quantities, and guano water twice a-week at the rate of one tablespoonful to three 
gallons of soft water. 
At this time in February the plants had made great progress in growth, some 
of the leaves measuring 5 feet 6 inches in length and 2 feet in width ; and they 
had already produced suckers, four of which were taken off and put into tubs 
18 inches by 15, and plunged into the tan by the side of the others. From this 
time the temperature of the house was gradually increased week by week till it 
reached 70° by night and 80° by day, with the allowance of 5° for sun heat, top 
air being only given to keep the temperature as near this point as possible ; but 
under no circumstances was side air ever given. An abundance of moisture was 
kept in the house, and a larger quantity of water supplied to the roots. 
Under this treatment two of the plants showed fruit in April, after which 
time they were encouraged in every possible way. Clear liquid manure water 
in a tepid state was supplied almost daily to the roots till the fruit had swelled to 
