124 THOUGHTS UPON THE CULTURE OF THE PINE-APPLE. 
that scarcely one plant in six will live. The gardener is an able 
grower, but he could not prevent the suddenness of the attack. In 
conversing with him, he gave it as his decided opinion, that a pine- 
plant will bear and survive half a degree of frost, but no more; that 
no injury will be done at thirty-four or thirty-five degrees, as to health; 
but that, to provide for the future welfare of plants, which, after the 
first shift, should grow with the utmost rapidity till they reach their 
fruiting-pots, fifty or fifty-five degrees ought to be supported through¬ 
out the months of November, December, and January of the first 
year. 
2nd. Of the winter temperature for firuiibig-pines I have offered my 
opinion, which, I believe, coincides with that of many skilful culti¬ 
vators, that the pine, after the spring shift, ought to be carried through 
all the future stages of growth with the utmost rapidity, up to the 
time that they are in their fruiting-pots at the end of the second 
October (for I am here speaking of fruiting the plants in eighteen 
months). Then I venture to suggest that, during November and 
December, the temperature of the stove should never, with sun , reach 
higher than fifty degrees: the bed in which the pots are plunged will 
gradually decline, and it need not be renewed till the fruit is ripe. 
The plants will thus become quite dormant, but under a degree of cold 
which will not injure their texture; yet this dormancy will become a 
check fully sufficient, I imagine, to throw the plants into fruit, without 
exposing them to those severe changes of temperature which they are 
too frequently subjected to by those who induce fruit by drying the 
plants off, with a fire-heat of seventy or seventy-five degrees, in the 
very heart of the winter, and then suddenly saturating the soil of every 
pot with water. Surely this is departing widely from the treatment 
which is indicated by our climate, where every thing, indeed, as respects 
the management of plants under glass, is unnatural. If the pine is 
rendered quiescent in the torrid zone by drought, it is under the influ¬ 
ence of a burning sun; but here, at Christmas, all is cold, severely 
frosty, or very wet, with a great want of light. Is it not, then, evident 
that we ought to check by cool treatment, since we cannot have light ? 
and trust to that first effort which, under a gentle and gradual excite¬ 
ment by fire, or the light of the sun in spring, increases; which will cause 
an appearance of renewed growth that will precede the starting of the 
fruit. As the heat is raised, the moisture of the atmosphere of the pit 
should be increased, till at length, when the plants show fruit, (the 
first sign of which is an enlargement of the breadth just at the base of 
the leaves,) the heat and moisture can scarcely be applied in excess; 
the growth of the fruit will then be prodigiously rapid, much more, 
