4*3 B R O M E L I A. 
tan to give a freft* heat to the bed, the pots fhould be warm, to raife the glafles of the hot-bed, in order to let 
tduntred again, (tblerving to water them ill over the leaves out the (team of the bed, and to admit frefh air: for one 
(as was before directed), and this fhould be repeated once 
a-week during the fummer feafon ; for thefe infedts al¬ 
ways multiply much falter where the plants are kept dry, 
than iri fuch places where the plants are fometimes fprin- 
kled over with water, and kept in a growung (fate. And 
the fame is alfo obferved in America, for it is in long 
droughts that the infedts make fuch definition in the 
fugar-canes. And in thofe illands where they have had 
leveral very dry feafons, they have increafed to fuch a 
degree, as to defiroy the greatefi part of the canes in the 
illands, rendering them not only unfit for fugar, but poi- 
ion the juice of the plant, fo as to difqualify it for mak¬ 
ing rum, w hereby many planters have been ruined. As 
thefe irifedts are frequently brought over from America on 
the ananas plants, thole perfons who procure their plants 
from thence fhould look carefully over them when they 
receive them, to lee they have none of thefe infects on 
them; for,if they have,they will foon be propagated over 
all the plants in the ftove where thefe are placed : there¬ 
fore, w henever they are obferved, the plants fhould be 
foaked (as was before directed) before they are planted 
into pots. 
It was formerly the practice to build dry fioves, in which 
the plants were kept in winter, placed on fcaffold-, after 
the manner in which orapge-trees are placed in a green- 
houfe; and, in the fummer, in hot-beds of tanners’bark 
under frames. But it isTiow the practice of thofe who 
are defirous to propagate the fruit, to eredt low fioves, cal¬ 
led the fuccelfion-houfe, with pits therein for the hot-bed; 
it will be alfo neceljitry to have a bark-pit under a deep 
frame, in which you fhould plunge the fuckers and crowns; 
io that this frame will be a nurfery to raife the young plants 
to fupply the fuccefiion-houfe. But thefe plants fhould 
not remain in thefe frames longer than till the beginning 
of November, unlefs the frame is built with brick-work 
with Hues in it. Such are very ufeful, to keep the young 
plants till they are of a proper lize to produce fruit ; lo 
that the fiove may be every autumn filled only with bear¬ 
ing plants, whereby'a much greater quantity of fruit may 
be annually produced, than can be \\ here young and old 
plants mult be crowded into the fame fiove.- But, where 
there are no conveniences of this kind, the young plants, 
about the middle'of latter end of October, nuifi be remo¬ 
ved into the ftove, and, being final], may be crowded in 
among the larger plants ; for, as they will not grow much 
during the winter feafon, they may be placed very clofe 
together. The beginning of March, where there is no 
nurferv for the young plants, they mult be removed out 
into-the hot-bed again, which fhould be prepared a fort¬ 
night before, that the tan may be of a proper heat: but 
you fhould be careful that the tan be not too hot, for that, 
might fcald the fibres of the plants. In this cafe you 
fhould not plunge the pots above two or three inches into 
the tan, letting them remain fo until the heat of the tan 
is a little abated, w hen you Ihould plunge the pots down 
to their rims in the bed. If the nights ftmuldcontinue cold 
after thefe plants are removed into the bed, you mull care¬ 
fully cover the glades with mats; otherwife, by coming 
out of a w'arm fiove, they may receive a Hidden check, 
which will greatly retard their growth ; and the fooner 
the plants are let growing in the fpring, the more time 
they will have to gain ftrength, in order to produce large 
fruit the following fealon. You fhould not plunge the 
pots too clofe together in this frame, but allow them a 
proper diffance, that the lower part of the plants may in- 
creafe in bulk, lor it is on this that the magnitude ot the 
fruit depends ;. becaufe, when the plants are placed too 
clofe, they draw up very tall, but do not obtain ftrength; 
fothat, when they are taken out of the bed, the leaves are 
not able to fupport themfelves, but all the outward long 
leaves will fall down, leaving the fmaller middle leaves 
naked ; and this fometimes will cattle them to rot in the 
centre., You mult alio obferve, when the fun is very 
3 
negledt of this kind, in a very hot day, may defiroy all 
the plants, or at lead: fo fcald them, that they will not 
get over it in feveral months. It will be alfo very pro¬ 
per, in extreme hot weather, to diade the glades in the 
middle of the day with mats; for the glades, lying fo near 
to the leaves of the plants, will occalion a prodigious heat 
at fuch times. During the fummer feafon thefe plants 
mud be frequently watered, giving them but little each 
time; and in hot weather they mud have -free air admit¬ 
ted to them every day, from ten o’clock till four; for if 
they are kept too clofe, or have too much wet, they will 
receive a check in their growth, when the infedts will im¬ 
mediately fpread over them ; for there are generally fome 
of thefe infects o/i all thefe plants, which do not much in¬ 
jury to them while in a growing date ; but, whenever they 
are unhealthy, the infects multiply greatly, and contribute 
to their decay. There are fome perlons who regulate the 
heat of their doves by thermometers in fummer; but at 
that feafon this is unnecedary, for the outward air in hot 
weather is frequently greater than the ananas heat ( marked 
on the thermometers, fo that the heat of the doves at that 
feafon will be much greater. The ufe.of the thermome¬ 
ter is only in the winter, during the time the fires are con¬ 
tinued, by which it is eafy to judge when to increafe or 
diminidi the fires ; for at that feafon the doves Ihould not 
be kept to a greater warmth than five orlixdivilions above 
ananas, norfuffered to be more than ’as many divifions be¬ 
low it. In winter alfo the plants mufthave lefs water, but 
they will require to have it repeated once a-week, giving 
them but little each time. When the plants are placed in 
the tan for the winter-feafon, (which fhould be done a- 
bout the beginning- of October,) the tan-bed fhould be 
renewed, adding two-thirds of new tan to one-third of the 
old : if this be well mixed, and the new tan is good, the 
bed will maintaina proper degree of warmth till Februa¬ 
ry, at which time it will be proper to dir up theTed, and 
add a load or two of new tan," fo as to ^aife the bed as 
much as it funk fince the autumn ; this will give a frefh 
heat to the bed, and keep the plants growing ; and, as 
the fruit will now begin to appear, it will be abfolutelv 
necedary to keep the plants in a growing date, otherwife 
the fruit will not be large. In April it will be proper to 
ftir up the tan again ; and, if the bed has funk lince the • 
luft ftirring, it will be proper to add fome frelh tan : this 
will renew the warmth of the bed, and forward the fruit. 
At this time alfo it will be proper to Ihift the young plants 
which are defigned to produce fruit the following year : 
the tan-bed into which thefe are plunged mil ft be renew¬ 
ed, in order to forward their growth, that they may have 
ftrength enough in autumn to produce good fruit; for in 
this is the principal care requited. Thofe plants, which 
fiiew their fruit early in February, will ripen about June. 
Some forts are at leaft a month or five weeks longer in 
ripening their fruit than others, from the time of the ap¬ 
pearance of the fruit ; but the feafon in which the fruit is 
in greatefi perfection, is from the beginning of July to the 
end of September; though in March, April, and Octo¬ 
ber, the fruit has been eaten in pretty good perfedbion ; 
but then the plants have been in perfedt health, otherwife 
they feldom are well-flavoured. The method of judging 
when the fruit is ripe, is by'the fmell and from obferva- 
tion ; for, as the feveral forts differ from each other in 
the colour of their fruit, that will not be any direction 
when to cut them ; nor Ihould they remain fo long as to 
become foft to the touch before they are cut, for then 
they become flat and dead, as they do alfo when they are 
cut long before they are eaten ; therefore the fureft way 
to have this fruit in perfedtion is to cut it the fame day it 
is eaten ; but it muft be cut early in the morning, before 
the fun has heated the fruit, obferving to cut the [talk as 
long to the fruit as poffible, and lay it in a cool but dry 
place, preferving the ftalkand crown to it till-it is eaten. 
The penguin and karatas are propagated by feeds; for, 
though- 
