Transcriber’s Notes
Texts printed in italics in the original book have been transcribed
between underscores, as in _text_. Small capitals have been
transcribed as ALL CAPITALS.
More Transcriber’s Notes may be found at the end of this text.
THE
DIFFERENT MODES
OF
_CULTIVATING_
THE
PINE-APPLE,
FROM
ITS FIRST INTRODUCTION INTO EUROPE
TO THE
LATE IMPROVEMENTS OF T. A. KNIGHT, ESQ.
BY A MEMBER OF THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
WITH
Twenty-four Engravings on Wood,
EXHIBITING THE BEST PLANS OF PINE-STOVES AND PITS.
_LONDON:_
PRINTED FOR
LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN,
PATERNOSTER-ROW.
1822.
LONDON:
Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode,
New-Street-Square.
INTRODUCTION.
A considerable interest has been excited in the Horticultural world by
the experiments of T. A. Knight, Esq. on the culture of the PINE APPLE.
Our _object_ is to add our efforts to those of that eminent
Horticulturist, in promoting the culture of that king of fruits.
The _means_ which we consider as most likely to attain our object, is
the bringing together accounts of all the different modes of treating
that Plant, which have hitherto been adopted in Europe; and the
_sources_ from which we have drawn the means, are the different
_publications_ which have appeared on the Pine Apple, and our own
_observations_ on its management, by those Gardeners who are its most
successful cultivators.
The British publications which treat exclusively, or principally, of the
Pine Apple, are:
1767. _John Giles_, of Lewisham. A Method of raising Pines and Melons,
8vo.
1769. _Adam Taylor_, Gardener at Devizes, in Wiltshire. A Treatise on
the Ananas and on Melons, 8vo.
1779. _William Speechly_, Gardener to the Duke of Portland, at Welbeck,
in Nottinghamshire. A Treatise on the culture of the Pine Apple, and the
management of the Hot-house, &c. 8vo.
1808. _William Griffin_, Gardener to J. C. Girardot, Esq. at Kelham,
near Nottingham. A Treatise on the culture of the Pine Apple, 8vo.
1818. _Thomas Baldwin_, Gardener to the Marquis of Hertford, at Ragley,
in Warwickshire. A Treatise on the culture of the Ananas, &c. 12mo.
The Authors who have treated on the Pine Apple, as a part of their
general subject, include nearly all those who have written on
Horticulture since the commencement of the 18th century; the principal
are, Bradley, Miller, Justice, Abercrombie, M’Phail, and Nicol, in their
respective works; and T. A. Knight, Esq., and Peter Marsland, Esq., in
the Transactions of the London and Caledonian Horticultural Societies.
The Foreign publications on the Pine Apple are few, and of little value;
because the Continental Gardeners have never been very successful in its
culture. Professor Thouin and M. Bosc, are the principal French Authors
who have noticed the subject, and this only in general works, such as
Rosier’s Dictionary, &c. Kirchner is almost the only German writer who
has written on this fruit, in his _Practische Anleitung für
Gartenkunst_, published in 1796, and devoted more particularly to the
culture of the Pine and the Grape. Some other foreign tracts on the
subject in the Banksian Library are merely translations from La Cours
chapter on the subject, and from English authors.
The most eminent cultivators of the Pine Apple in England, at the
present time, are, Mr. Thomas Baldwin, Gardener to the Marquis of
Hertford, at Ragley, in Warwickshire; Mr. William Griffin, Gardener to
Samuel Smith, Esq., at Woodhall Park, Hertfordshire; William Townsend
Aiton, Esq. Gardener to the King, at Kensington; Mr. James Andrews,
Commercial Gardener, Lambeth; and Mr. Isaac Oldacre, Gardener to Lady
Banks, at Springrove, Middlesex.
A number of other gardeners might be mentioned, as excelling in the
culture of this fruit; but the above have been first-rate cultivators
for several years.
On the Continent the Pine Apple is cultivated most extensively in
Russia; it occurs but seldom in France or Germany; and only in a few
gardens in Italy. It has happened to us to have visited the principal
Continental Gardens, as well as the English ones alluded to above, and
various others; and we mention this to justify the extension of our
remarks, not only to domestic, but foreign practices; and to account for
our not confining ourselves merely to what is contained in books, but
discussing also the modes of culture actually practised in different
gardens. We shall first notice the introduction of the Pine Apple into
Europe, and next the different varieties in cultivation; we shall then
glance at the Continental practices, and finally detail those of our own
country.
_This Day is published_,
By Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown, London,
An ENCYCLOPÆDIA of GARDENING;
Comprising the Theory and Practice of Horticulture, Floriculture,
Arboriculture, and Landscape Gardening; including all the latest
Improvements, a general History of Gardening in all Countries; and a
Statistical View of its present State, with Suggestions for its
future Progress, in the British Isles.
By J. C. LOUDON, F.L.S. H.S. &c.,
Author of “A Treatise on forming and improving Country Residences.”
Complete, in One large Volume, 8vo. of 1500 Pages, closely printed,
with Six Hundred Engravings on Wood, Price £2. 10s.
This Work claims the Attention of the Public:
1. By the comprehensiveness of its plan, by which, for the first
time, every part of the subject of Gardening is brought together,
and presented in one systematic whole.
2. By its being the only work which contains all the modern
improvements in Gardening, foreign as well as domestic.
3. By the addition of a _Kalendarial Index_, by which the practical
part of the work may be consulted monthly, as the operations are to
be performed; and a copious _General Index_, by which the whole may
be consulted alphabetically. Thus the work will serve as a
_Gardener’s Kalendar_, and _Gardener’s Dictionary_: both, it is
confidently hoped, far more complete than any hitherto presented to
the public.
By means of a copious page, by condensed descriptive tables of
fruits, culinary vegetables, and flowers, and by the local
introduction of such illustrative engravings as greatly shorten the
necessity of verbal description, this immense body of matter has
been comprised in one thick volume.
CONTENTS.
CHAP. I. _Page_
Of the Pine Apple; its Culture in the West Indies.--
Introduction to Holland.--And to England 1
CHAP. II.
Of the varieties of the Pine Apple 6
CHAP. III.
Foreign modes of cultivating the Pine Apple 11
SECT. I. Culture of the Pine Apple in Holland 12
II. in Germany 20
III. in Russia 22
IV. in France 24
V. in Italy 26
VI. in other parts of Europe 29
CHAP. IV.
Of the different modes of cultivating the Pine Apple,
which have been, or are practised in Britain by
practical Gardeners 30
SECT. I. Mode of cultivating the Pine Apple, by
Telende, in 1719 31
II. by Miller 34
III. by Justice 40
IV. by Giles 43
V. by Taylor 45
VI. by Speechly 49
VII. by M’Phail 67
VIII. by Nicol 88
IX. by Griffin 104
X. by Baldwin 110
XI. by Abercrombie 120
XII. by Andrews 125
XIII. by Gunter 129
XIV. by Oldacre 133
XV. by Aiton 138
CHAP. V.
Improvements recently attempted in the culture of
the Pine Apple 146
SECT. I. Of the Improvements proposed by Mr. Knight 148
II. Of other Improvements proposed 170
ON THE
CULTIVATION
OF THE
PINE APPLE.
CHAP. I.
OF THE PINE APPLE.
_Its Culture in the West and East Indies.--Introduction to
Holland.--To England._
The Pine Apple is the Bromelia Ananas of Linneus; of the artificial
class and order Hexandria Monogynia; and of the natural order of
Jussieu, Bromeleæ. The generic name was originally Ananas, from Nana,
its common name in the Brazils; and the Queen Pine is named the Ananas
Ovata, in the earlier editions of Miller’s Dictionary; but Linneus
changed it to Bromelia, in memory of Olaus Bromel, a Swedish naturalist,
and included under it the Karatas, or Wild Pine, till then considered a
distinct genus. The English name of Pine Apple appears to have taken
its rise from the resemblance of the fruit to the cone of some species
of the Pine tree.
There are twelve species of Bromelia, described by Persoon; the fruit of
all which may be considered edible, and is occasionally made use of by
the natives. Six of these species are naturalized in the West Indies;
and the rest are found wild in Chili, Peru, and other parts of South
America.
The Bromelia Ananas is the only species in general cultivation; it is
cultivated abundantly in both the Indies, and in China. It is said to
grow wild in Africa; but Linneus ascribes it to New Spain and Surinam;
and Acosta (_Histoire Naturelle des Indes_,) says, it was first sent
from the province of Santa Croce, in Brazil, into the West, and
afterwards into the East Indies and China. Persoon considers it as a
native of South America; and Baron Humboldt and the Prince Maximilian
found it in the Caraccas, in the Brazils.
Whichever way it was introduced from South America to the West Indies,
its culture in these islands, and particularly in Jamaica, has been
carried on for an unknown length of time. It is vulgarly supposed in
this country, that it grows wild there; but, from the best information
which we have been able to collect, the true Ananas is only cultivated
in gardens, or grounds under spade culture; and there much in the same
way as cabbages are in this country, and produces its fruit in from
fifteen to eighteen months after planting the crown. The common weight
of the fruit is from half a pound to three pounds; and it abounds
chiefly in the dry season. In the rainy season, which includes nearly
half the year, ripe Pine Apples are more scarce in the gardens of
Jamaica than in the hot-houses of England.
In the neighbourhood of Calcutta it is cultivated in the same manner as
in Jamaica, and, when liberally supplied with water, by a system of
surface-irrigation, the first is said to attain a large size, and to be
in season most months of the year.
The first attempts to cultivate the Pine Apple in Europe seem to have
been made about the end of the seventeenth century, by M. Le Cour (or
_La Court_, as written by Collinson), a wealthy Flemish merchant, who
had a fine garden at Drieoeck, near Leyden. Of this garden he published
an account in 1732, and died in 1737.
It was visited by Miller and Justice, who speak of its proprietor as one
of the greatest encouragers of gardening in his time; of having curious
walls and hot-houses; and as being the first person who succeeded in
cultivating the Pine Apple. It was from him, Miller observes,
(_Dictionary_, Art. _Bromelia_,) that our gardens were first supplied,
through Sir Matthew Decker, of Richmond, in the year 1719; though, as a
botanic plant, it had been introduced so far back as 1690, by Mr.
Bentick, afterwards Earl of Portsmouth.
“When I say,” observes Mr. Cowel of Hoxton, in his Curious and
Profitable Gardener, Lon. 1730, p. 27. “that the first Pine Apples that
were cultivated in England, were in Sir Matthew Decker’s gardens at
Richmond, I mean the first that were cultivated with success, were in
those gardens; for long before we had plants of them brought to us, but
had not before that time conveniences for bringing them to fruit, or
even of keeping the plants alive.”
“The Pine Apple,” he adds, in the same page, “is now (1730) found in
almost every curious garden.”
The fruit of the Ananas was sent to Europe, and especially to Holland,
as a preserve, for many years before the Ananas plant was introduced.
That it found its way even to England in this state, so early as the
sixteenth century, is evident from what Lord Bacon says of it in his
Essay on Colonies; and also from a picture in the possession of the Earl
of Waldegrave, representing Charles II. in a garden, and Rose, the royal
gardener, presenting his Majesty with a Pine Apple. This picture, Lord
Walpole informs us, was bequeathed by Mr. London, who was Rose’s
apprentice, to the Rev. Mr. Pennicott, of Thames Ditton, by whom it was
presented to himself. It does not appear, however, that the Pine was
cultivated either by Rose or London, otherwise it would certainly have
been noticed in the publications, which, if not written by, at least
passed under the name, and received the sanction of London and Wise;
and also of Evelyn, Ray, Rea, and other gardening writers of these
times. In short, it is evident from Ray’s letters, that the idea of
heating green-houses by fire was quite new in 1684, and first adopted by
Mr. Watts, gardener, to the apothecaries at Chelsea in that year; and
Miller states, (_Dict._ Art. _Tan_,) that there were very few tan-beds
used in England before the year 1719. The Pine Apple, therefore, could
not be cultivated in the seventeenth century in England.
Of late years the Pine Apple has been sent to England in abundance,
attached to the entire plant, and a cargo has arrived from Providence
Island, in the Bermudas, in six weeks. This facility of cultivation, and
their more general culture, has greatly lessened their price, and
rendered them common. They are sold in fruit-stands in the London
streets, in one or two places, during the summer months; and
moderate-sized fruit may be had from half-a-crown to a crown each; or at
two shillings a pound.
CHAP. II.
OF THE VARIETIES OF THE PINE APPLE.
Of the Pine Apple, as of most other fruits that have been long in
cultivation, there are many varieties. The principal part of those
cultivated in this country have been obtained from the West India
islands; but some also have been raised in this country from seed.
Speechly states, that, in the year 1768, he raised seventy plants from
seeds that were sent to the Duke of Portland from the West Indies, most
of which varied distinctly either in the leaves or fruit, but the
quality of the latter was very inferior.
* * * * *
The most esteemed varieties in present cultivation are:
1. _The Old Queen._ Fruit oval-shaped, and of a gold colour. Esteemed
the hardiest kind, and fruited in fifteen or eighteen months. The fruit
grows to a large size, often weighing from three to four pounds. It is
much more certain of shewing fruit at a proper age and season than most
of the other sorts, and has a just preference in most hot-houses.
2. _Ripley’s New Queen._ A sub-variety of the _Old Queen_, with a large
elegant fruit; fruited also in an equally short period.
3. _Welbeck Seedling_; fruit small, generally broader at the head than
at the base; of a pale yellow, or sulphur colour, with very flat pips;
flesh white and tender, rich in flavour, with less acidity than is found
in most other pines. _Hort. Trans._ iv. 213.
4. _Pyramidal_, or _Brown Sugar-loaf_. Cone-shaped, and dark coloured
till it ripens; the leaves brownish, the flesh yellow.
5. _Prickly Striped Sugar-loaf._ Cone-shaped, the fruit of a golden
colour, the leaves striped with black or purple lines.
6. _Smooth Striped Sugar-loaf_; similar to the above, but the leaves not
prickly.
7. _Havannah._ Tankard-shaped; dark coloured till it ripens.
8. _Montserrat._ The leaves of a dark brown, inclining to purple in the
inside; fruit middle-sized and tun-shaped, and the pips or protuberances
of the fruit larger and flatter than in the other kinds.
9. _King Pine_, or _Shining Green_. The leaves of a grass-green, with
few prickles, the pulp hard and rather stringy, but of good flavor when
ripe.
10. _Green_, or _St. Vincent’s Pine_. A rare variety; when ripe the
fruit is of an olive hue, middle-sized, and pyramidical.
11. _Black Antigua._ The fruit is shaped like the frustum of a pyramid:
leaves of a brownish tinge, and drooping at the extremities, with strong
prickles, thinly scattered. The pips of the fruit are large, often an
inch over; and it attains a large size, weighing from three to four
pounds. It is of a dark colour till it ripens; very juicy, and high
flavoured.
12. _Black Jamaica._ The fruit is large, and the plant similar in
character and habits to the above.
13. _Providence Pine._ There are two varieties, the white and green; the
fruit is larger than that of any of the kinds cultivated in this
country; the form inclining to pyramidical; the colour, at first,
brownish grey, but, when mature, of a pale yellow. The flesh yellow and
melting, abounding with quick lively juice. Speechly produced in the
gardens at Welbeck, in 1794, a fruit that weighed five pounds and a
quarter, or eighty-four ounces, and from a plant that was not a large
one. Griffin had, in 1803, two plants placed under his care, which
fruited in July 1804; the fruit of one plant weighing _seven pounds two
ounces_, and the other _nine pounds three ounces_, avoirdupois. This
sort, and the two preceding, require generally three years, and
sometimes four or five, to produce their fruit.
14. _Blood-red_; fruit equal in bulk at both ends. Pips of moderate
size; colour brick-red; flesh white and opaque; leaves of a changeable
hue; the flavor of the fruit being inferior to that of most others; this
is to be considered merely as a curious variety. _Hort. Trans._ iv. 214.
15. _Silver-striped Queen._ Leaves beautifully striped with white,
yellow, and red; but the plant, though elegant, is a reluctant fruiter.
16. _Variegated-leaved Pines._ Besides the _Striped-leaved Queen_, there
are several sorts with beautifully varied leaves and fruits; but in
general they are tardy in fruiting, and more to be considered as
ornamental than as useful varieties.
* * * * *
To these may be added, as sorts not generally known, or of inferior
value:
The _Smooth Pine_. Miller.
The _Smooth Long Narrow-leaved Pine_. Ibid.
The _Grunda Pine_. Ibid.
The _Bogwarp Pine_. Ibid.
The _Surinam Pine_. Ibid.
The _Antigua Queen_. Speechly.
The _Green Providence_, or _Old Providence_, from one of the Bermuda
islands of that name.
_New Sorts._ Pine plants are frequently imported from the West India
islands, and in this case generally bear their names. In general,
however, these plants are far inferior, both as to kinds and condition,
to those grown, and to be procured from nurserymen in this country. They
are generally infested with the bug, and very uncertain in their time
of fruiting, as well as to its flavor. If these were to be enumerated,
the list of pines known in this country would amount to upwards of forty
sorts. Specimens of above thirty sorts are grown in the gardens of Mr.
Gunter, at Earl’scourt.
The Pine Apple, as every gardener knows, is propagated in the same
manner by all those who grow it; that is, by that singular production in
which the fruit terminates, called a crown, and by suckers; these are
planted in small pots, or in beds of rotten tan, earth, or dung, at
first, and shifted in regular gradation into pots of different sizes, at
the discretion of the cultivator.
CHAP. III.
FOREIGN MODES OF CULTIVATING THE PINE APPLE.
_Culture of the Pine Apple in Holland,--France,--Germany,--Italy, &c._
The horticulture of the continent is, in general, copied from that of
Holland, as was our culture, and that of every other country two
centuries ago. Excepting in Holland, therefore, the English gardener
will find very little to learn in other countries; but it is worth while
to know how little is to be known in one quarter, that we may be the
more assiduous in our attention to such quarters as are likely to
furnish us with information.
For this purpose, we shall take a short view of the culture of the Pine
Apple in the principal parts of the Continent.
Whether Le Cour was the first who imported Pine plants from the West
Indies, is less certain than that he was the first to attempt their
culture with success. Professor Bradley, in his General Treatise of
Husbandry and Gardening for July 1724, p. 206. gives a description of
the Pine Apple, and the introduction of it into Holland by Mr. Le Cour.
He says, that there were in the Amsterdam gardens about two hundred
plants, chiefly from Surinam and Curaçao, but some from the Dutch
factories in the East Indies, which were in good health; but the art of
bringing them to fruit was not known till Mr. Le Cour took them in hand.
Miller says, that after a great many trials, with little or no success,
Mr. Le Cour did at length hit upon a proper degree of heat and
management, so as to produce fruit equally good (though not so large),
as that which is produced in the West Indies. About the year 1737, the
year before his death, Mr. Le Cour published a quarto volume in Dutch,
containing the result of his observations on gardens, trees, and
flowers; with explanatory descriptions of his stoves.
From this work, and from the statements of Professor Bradley, (_Treatise
on Husbandry and Gardening, for June 1724_, p. 161.) we learn that Le
Cour’s mode of treating the Pine plant was very similar to that adopted
at Sir Matthew Decker’s garden at Richmond, to be afterwards described;
but we shall give this gentleman’s practice, as related by himself.
SECT. I.
_Culture of the Pine Apple by Mr. Le Cour in the beginning of the
18th century, at Drieoeck, near Leyden._
I distinguish, he says, three different species of Pine Apple; the first
and best has green leaves, garnished with fine prickles, fruit of which
I have had seven inches high, and thirteen inches in circumference; this
sort, if it is kept cool before it shows fruit, and then advances slowly
by somewhat more heat, grows larger and more pointed than that which has
been kept warmer and in a growing state during winter. The leaves of the
second sort are larger and broader, of a darker green mixed with red; it
does not produce fruit of so large a size, but its knobs are broader and
larger, yet flatter; the unripe fruit being of a reddish brown, and when
ripe of a deep yellow, with brownish yellow spots on the knobs; this
sort has not so pleasant a taste as the first, which, when unripe, is of
a darker green, and when ripe, with lighter yellow knobs, on which
account I cultivate chiefly the following sort.
This is called the Smooth Ananas, on account of its being without
prickles, but the ends of the leaves grow longer, narrower, and more
upright: the fruit is smaller. The Ananas cannot bear the cold of our
winter, and must have in summer a more permanent warmth and less change
in the winter than we commonly have in our climate; and must therefore
not only be put during the winter into stoves, but even during the
summer under glass frames, and the pots placed in a hot-bed of tan.
However, it is with these plants, as it is with all others from a warmer
climate; when they by degrees have been accustomed to our colder
climate, they become more hardy, and can bear more cold and change of
weather, and therefore produce better fruit than those which are sent to
us from abroad and have been reared in a warmer country more congenial
to their nature. It is therefore necessary that we should try to get
plants that have already been accustomed to our country, by propagation
from suckers for a number of years, for in that case they may be reared
with very little trouble.
The most convenient time to take away the suckers is from the middle of
June to the end of the month. Both suckers and crowns must be put in
sandy earth in little pots, as in this manner they strike their roots
best; but when the plants have grown larger, they must be transplanted
in the following year in richer and less sandy earth, and in larger
pots, care being taken that the earth is not loosened from the roots in
shifting them. The most convenient time for transplanting them is in
March, when the plants must be taken from the hot-house and put in a bed
of earth under a frame. Care must be taken in shifting them into other
pots, to make the earth adhere well to the roots, and to water them well
afterwards, and not to use too large pots, as they take up more room,
are not so easily handled, and are less proper for growing large fruit
than those of a moderate size; the most convenient pots for
transplanting are ten inches in diameter within the rim, seven inches at
bottom, and ten and a half inches deep.
The plants, when growing, commonly require a great deal of water, and
more when they set their fruit. They should then be watered frequently
all over their leaves. Afterwards they must be treated with more
caution, and be less watered; for too much water would be injurious
about the time of the ripening of the fruit, which would get watery, and
of a transparent greenish yellow, and be of inferior taste and smell.
Too little water dries them up, and makes the _marrow_ perish in the
leaves, the first signs of which are, when you hold the green leaves
towards the light, you will perceive them speckled with yellowish spots.
To produce proper fruit, the plant of a sucker or crown must have grown
well and bulky, at least for three years; the first sign of setting
fruit is, that its leaves spread a little, and the plant opens a little
in the heart where the fruit soon shews itself like the head of a large
nail. As the fruit and stalk grow higher, the fruit grows rounder, with
pointed little leaves like thistles, on some reddish, and on others
whitish spreading leaves. After the fruit has grown about a month, and
is of the size of a walnut, there appears out of each knob a
three-leaved pointed little flower, which, in the Common Ananas, is of a
pale blue colour; on the Red Ananas, deep blue; and on the third sort,
the Smooth Ananas, almost violet. This flower does not fall off with the
increase of the fruit, but shrivels up, and leaves some visible remains
behind when the fruit has attained its full maturity.
The time, from the beginning of the fruit to its perfect maturity,
cannot be limited to a certain number of days and weeks, since it
depends very much on the weather of two summers following. During the
spring, when the plants are in the hot-house, a very natural growth may
be obtained by heating the stove, and by the sun shining at right angles
on the glass, which growth may be continued during the summer. In autumn
this cannot be the case, because the sun has less power, and the rains
common to that season diminish it still more; therefore, from December
at latest, more and more artificial heat must be given to the plants,
until they begin in the middle of February, or at farthest in the
beginning of March, to show their fruit, which then, with good summer
weather and proper treatment, will attain to maturity in the beginning
of July, and thus are five months ripening; the fruit, which shows
itself in the beginning of March, wants at least a fortnight more to
ripen; that which appears in the middle of March wants a month more, and
consequently is six months coming to maturity; that which shows itself
in April wants still more, and seldom becomes so ripe as to obtain its
proper taste and smell. The agreeable smell which the ripe Ananas emits
on lifting up the sashes, is the surest proof of maturity: it is then of
a deep yellow, and the knobs have brownish yellow spots.
The time for removing the plants from the bark bed into the flued pit,
and hence again into the bark bed, cannot be fixed, as this depends on
the weather, and on the length of summer or winter. In some years I
have been obliged to put them in a hot-house in September, and keep them
there until April; but in common years they are moved into the hot-house
on the 10th or 12th of October, and from thence again into the hot-bed
of tan in the middle of March. The flues must be dried by heating them
before the plants are brought into the hot-house, not only to remove the
damp which, on the first heating, is powerful and injurious, but also to
discover whether there are any openings by which the smoke may escape
into the hot-house, for they must be carefully stopped up. This pit or
wintering house may be of any convenient length or breadth; supposing
two joined together, then the fire flues (fig. 1. a. a.) may be formed
at the extreme ends; the smoke may first enter and fill a vault of the
whole width and length of the pit (b.); it may afterwards enter a flue
(c. c.) and pass round the pit, and then out by a chimney in the back
wall.
[Illustration: 1]
The sashes of the pits at Drieoeck are six feet wide, and three and
a-half feet broad, and each has a cover of boards which are raised up
and let down by means of cords and pullies, the better to retain the
heat in the winter months (fig. 2.) Their slope forms an angle, with the
horizon of about twenty degrees.
[Illustration: 2]
In these pits a boarded stage is formed, on which the plants are set, so
as to be almost touching the glass during winter; during summer a bed of
tan is substituted for the boarded stage, and no fire-heat is applied,
but the plants plunged in the tan.
The following is the general course of temperature aimed at:--
Temperature during the first fourteen days in October, when the plants
are removed from the hot-beds of bark to the stages in the flued pits,
87° Fah.
Temperature from this time till the 20th of the January following, from
55° to 64°.
Temperature from January to March not under 55°. Lowest degree
admissible during winter 42°. Highest summer heat 105°.
Temperature of the bark hot-beds, in which the plants are placed to
fruit when air is given, 103°.
Ordinary summer heat for the fruiting plants 96°.
* * * * *
In Holland and Flanders, at the present day, the Pine Apple is never
grown in any other manner than in pits and hot-beds. The crowns and
suckers are struck and forwarded, from three to six, or nine months, in
hot-beds, and afterwards removed to pits. These pits differ from ours in
being rather steeper in the roof, and generally the fruiting pits have a
passage at the back, with a flue against the back wall, and an entrance
door to the passage at one end. In some the passage and flue are in
front, and in others a passage and flue are conducted round the house,
leaving the pit in the middle; but this is rather an uncommon form, and
chiefly to be met with in pits or stoves for ornamental plants. The fuel
in general use is peat, and the glass is well covered with boards and
matting or canvas or thatch every night after sun-set, excepting in the
warmest part of the season.
The soil used by the Dutch is good garden earth, mixed with a third part
of well-rotten hot-bed dung, or cow dung, and a sufficient quantity of
sand to render it free and pervious to moisture. The gardeners there
are by no means so particular in the article of soil, as many are in
this country; their object seems to be to make it rich and free; without
being very anxious as to employing virgin soil only, or any particular
kind of dung. They generally, however, keep the mixture some time in
heaps, and turn it over once or twice before using it. At the same time
we have seen them shifting Pines, and using a black rich earth newly dug
out of an adjoining plot of turnips; only mixing it with a little rotten
dung and white sand.
They shift their plants in spring, and refresh the surfaces of the pots
in autumn, and they seem on the whole to fruit them in larger pots than
we do; but they leave off shifting them nine or ten months before the
fruit is expected to appear, wishing to have the pots filled with roots
at this crisis. They seldom fruit a crown plant under two years, and
more generally three, from the time it is taken from the fruit; large
suckers they fruit earlier, according to their size when taken off the
mother plant; some which come out from near the bottom of the stem they
earth up, and do not take off at all. These come early into fruit, but
it is not large.
SECT. II.
_Culture of the Pine Apple in Germany._
The Germans took their horticulture from the Dutch, as they did their
landscape gardening from the French. They seem to have tried the
culture of the Pine Apple almost immediately after its introduction to
Holland; for, according to Beckmann, it was ripened by Dr. Kaltschmidt
at Breslaw in 1702, who sent some fruit to the Imperial Court; but he
states also that its culture was first attempted by Baron Munchausen, a
great encourager of gardening, and a botanist who had a fine demesne and
garden at Schwobber, near Hamelin, in Westphalia. From the account of
these gardens in the _Neuremberg Hesperides_, they appear to have been
grown both in pits, and on stages in larger houses.
The king of Prussia grew the Pine Apple extensively at Potsdam; he
followed the Dutch manner in every thing, and had a gardener from that
country who attended exclusively to the forcing department at Sans
Souci. The quantity of glass there was greater than any where else in
Germany: the whole was kept in high order and good culture for many
years; but after the king’s death, in 1786, it soon fell into neglect;
the glass of most of the peach-houses and vineries was removed or
destroyed; the Pine plants were neglected and diminished in numbers,
from time to time. In 1813 the royal gardens at Sans Souci contained
only about two dozen of Pine plants, which were kept in a lofty opaque
roofed conservatory, and these, as may be easily imagined, were by no
means in a thriving condition.
Before the French Revolution, the Pine Apple was cultivated at most of
the court gardens in Germany; but in the year 1814, there were very few
in the empire.
SECT. III.
_Culture of the Pine Apple in Russia._
The Pine Apple is extensively cultivated in the imperial gardens in the
neighbourhood of Petersburg and Moscow, and also in those of a few of
the greatest nobility and mercantile men adjoining those cities. Nothing
can be more wonderful than to contemplate the resources by which this
plant, requiring not less than from 50 to 70 degrees of heat at all
times of the year, is preserved in existence through a winter of seven
months, during the whole of which the ground is covered with snow, and
Fahrenheit’s thermometer, often for weeks together, at 20° below Zero.
The head gardeners of the emperor, and the great nobles of Russia, are,
for the greater part, Britons; and the sort of houses they erect, and
the mode of culture they follow, is as nearly as circumstances will
admit, those of Speechly or Nicol.
The culture of the grape is, to a certain extent, combined with that of
the Pine Apple; the former is trained on the rafters, and the latter
grown in a pit, surrounded by flues and a path. In addition to the
flues, many of the fruiting-houses have stoves built in them, on the
German construction, which are used in the most severe weather.
Sometimes there is a double roof of glass; but more generally the roof,
ends, and fronts, are covered with boards; which not only prevents the
weight of sudden falls of snow from breaking the glass, but by admitting
of a coating of snow over them, prevents, in a considerable degree, the
internal heat from escaping. This covering, or a covering of mats or
canvass, as practised near Moscow, and from which the snow is raked off
as fast as it falls, is sometimes kept on night and day for three months
together. The plants being all the while in a dormant state, it is
remarkable how little they suffer.
The best ranges of hot-houses in the neighbourhood of Petersburg, have
been imported there from Leith, or London. At Moscow, where the same
facility of importation is not afforded, they are constructed on the
spot, in a very rude manner; in the best of them, the interstices
between the sashes and rafters are so large, that they have to be
stuffed with moss. Still it is astonishing how well the Pine Apple is
preserved in them through a long winter, and what excellent peaches and
grapes they produce during summer. The cause seems to be owing to the
great care and skill of the gardeners, in keeping the plants in a
dormant state, when there is but little light; and in applying
powerfully all the agents of growth and culture, during the short, but
warm Russian summer.
There are some German gardeners in Russia, who cultivate the Pine Apple
in pits as in Holland; and crowns and suckers are forwarded in this way
by them, and also by the British gardeners settled in that country.
SECT. IV.
_Culture of the Pine Apple in France._
The culture of the Pine Apple does not appear to have been commenced in
France till after the middle of the eighteenth century, and then only in
the royal gardens at Versailles, in those of the Duke of Orleans at
Mousseaux, and one or two others. It has never been cultivated by above
a dozen persons in that country; nor is it grown by so great a number at
the present time. The best are in the garden of M. Boursault, within the
boundary of Paris; and the next those of the king at Trianon and
Versailles, and of the banker Lafitte, at his country-seat, a few
leagues from the capital.
M. Boursault grows them in low houses, which may be termed pits, being
without glass in the front or ends; the plants are plunged in tan, and
kept as near the glass as possible; and the soil used is good garden
earth, or free soil (_terre-franche_), with about half its bulk of
_poudrette_, or desiccated nightsoil. M. Boursault tried them formerly
in the _poudrette_ alone, but found they did not succeed so well as when
a smaller quantity was used. He produces fruit from half a pound to two
pounds in weight, and it is said of a good flavour.
Rosier states, that M. Mallet, a curious horticulturist, grew ananas in
a peculiarly constructed frame of his own invention (fig. 3.); but we
could see none of these frames in use in any way, and were informed by
different persons, that they were too expensive in their first cost to
succeed.
[Illustration: 3]
The Pine plants in the royal gardens, did not appear to us so well
cultivated as those of M. Boursault; they were very much drawn, and
seemed too sparingly watered. All the Pine plants which we have seen in
France, and also in Italy, had this yellow sickly appearance; and the
fruit produced was universally of small size; one of three pips is
thought worth presenting to table. It is certainly a very singular fact,
and not hitherto explained, that the Pine plant in a climate where it
gets more light than in Germany, Britain, or Russia, should yet be less
green than in those countries. Had the reverse been the case, the
circumstance would not have been surprising; but that more green should
be produced in the northern hemisphere, and under the torrid zone, than
under what might be considered as a happy medium between two extremes,
is astonishing, and leads to a suspicion of deficiency of management.
The cause seems referable to deficiency of water, and too great heat
during night; for during day they have the precaution to shade them from
the sun’s direct influence.
SECT. V.
_Culture of the Pine Apple in Italy._
The Pine Apple was grown in Italy before the revolution, by the Pope, at
Naples, and by the king of Sardinia, at Turin. The late king of Sardinia
sent his gardener to England, to study the culture of this fruit; and he
returned and published in 1777, a pamphlet on the subject. He recommends
it to be grown in pits, much the same as those of the Dutch, but without
flues, which is still the general practice in Italy. After the
possession of Piedmont by the French, the royal palaces and gardens were
neglected, and in 1819, when we saw them, they were not restored.
At the royal gardens, and those of Prince Leopold, at Portici, near
Naples, a few Pines are grown in pits, by two German gardeners, that of
Prince Leopold, an intelligent man and a good botanist; but the plants,
notwithstanding the fine climate, are etiolated, slender, and pale, with
very small fruit. The pits were entirely sunk in the ground, narrow, and
without flues, and they were shaded in the day-time with a net. It
appeared to us, that they were much too tenderly treated; if uncovered
in the night-time, or planted in the open garden, and left exposed all
the summer, and covered with double glass frames during winter, without
any fire heat; but, if occasion required, surrounded by linings of dung,
we have no doubt they would succeed much better.
At Caserta, a royal palace about eighteen miles from Naples, the Pine
Apple is grown in a style much superior. The gardens and grounds there,
were laid out by M. Græffer, a German gardener, who was formerly a
partner in the firm of Gordon, Thomson, & Co. London nurserymen. The
hot-houses are built exactly in the English style; the Pines raised and
forwarded in pits, and fruited in broad low houses, with vines trained
under the rafters, in Speechly’s manner. M. Græffer died in 1816, and
his son has still the care of the royal gardens, and in 1819 had the
Pines, in what would be considered in this country, middling good order.
They were certainly of a much less vivid green than those of England or
Holland, and the fruit was smaller; M. Græffer, jun. never having been
out of Italy, was not aware of the difference; but on enquiring into his
mode of treatment, we were led to suspect a deficiency of water and of
moisture, by watering the flues and paths of the house, and too great a
heat kept up during the night. The air of Italy is, at most periods of
the year, much drier than that of the north of Europe; that of France
and Germany is also drier than the air of Holland, Britain, and Russia;
and perhaps this difference in atmospheric moisture, and the
overheating at night, may, in some measure, account for the difference
in the colour of the foliage of the Pine and other plants kept under
glass in France and Italy.
There are some Pines grown at Rome, Florence, and Genoa; but they are
not much better than those of Portici. The greatest number, and the
finest plants and fruit which we saw in Italy, was in the Vice-regal
gardens at Monza, near Milan, under the management of a most intelligent
Italian gardener, a pupil of Professor Thouin of Paris, Signior Luigi
Vilaresi. The treatment is in all respects that of the Dutch; the plants
are forwarded in frames, and sometimes in the open air for a month or
two during summer; they are fruited in large pits, with a walk behind,
and when more plants come into fruit than are wanted, they are retarded,
or preserved, by being placed in a division of the pit without bark, and
where they receive abundance of air in the day-time, but no water. The
plants here were large and long-leaved, but still not so green and
stocky as those of England, and the fruit did not appear to be above one
and a half, or two pounds in weight. On enquiry, we found no air was
ever left to the pits in the night-time.
SECT. VI.
_Culture of the Pine Apple in other parts of Europe._
The Pine Apple has been fruited at Stockholm, and in one or two places
besides in Sweden; and also in the Court gardens at Copenhagen, and by
De Conninck, and some of the rich merchants of Denmark; but we could
hear of none being grown in either of these countries, when we visited
them in 1813 and 1814.
It is said to be cultivated in Spain, near the sea coast; and also at
Lisbon. We know it was grown by the late M. De Vismes, near the latter
city; and we believe it is now grown by some English merchants at
Seville; but this is all we know. It does not appear to be grown in
European Turkey.
CHAP. IV.
OF THE DIFFERENT MODES OF CULTIVATING THE PINE APPLE WHICH HAVE BEEN,
AND ARE PRACTISED IN BRITAIN BY PRACTICAL GARDENERS.
The Pine Apple plant, as already observed, seems to have been first
introduced by Mr. Bentick, afterwards re-introduced from Holland in
1719, and then first cultivated for its fruit in Sir Matthew Decker’s
garden at Richmond. Here, according to Professor Bradley, the gardener,
“Mr. Henry Telende, imitated so successfully M. Le Cour’s newly
discovered method of cultivating this delicious fruit, that he is likely
to ripen forty of them in the present (1724) autumn.” (_Husb. and Gard.
for June 1724_, p. 161.) He elsewhere tells us that “the late instance
of bringing the Ananas or Pine Apple to perfection in England, by the
ingenuity of Mr. Telende at Sir Matthew Decker’s, has so far gained upon
the curious, that already many of our nobility have undertaken the same
improvement; and ’tis not to be doubted but a year or two more will make
this undertaking much more general.” He mentions “their being brought to
extraordinary perfection at the garden of the right honourable Spencer
Compton, Speaker of the House of Commons, at Chiswick; and at that
curious gentleman’s, Mr. John Warner, Rotherhithe.” He informs us that
an excellent stove on a new plan, with a bark pit, was built by William
Parker, Esq. near Croydon, in Surry, to make “experiments in ripening
fruits that has not been tried;” and that Mr. Fairchild, in 1722, built
one at Hoxton for Pine Apples and other tender plants, in which the fire
flues were raised above the surface of the floor, by which means all
danger from damps was avoided. Mr. Cowel, as before observed, (p. 4.)
states that in 1730 Pine Apple stoves were to be found in almost every
curious garden. Mr. Telende’s mode of cultivating the Pine Apple is
detailed by Professor Bradley in 1724, and the most generally approved
mode of culture from that time to the middle of the eighteenth century
may be considered as given by Miller in his Dictionary. The improvements
which have since been made by practical gardeners, may be ranged under
the heads of Justice, Speechly, Abercrombie, M’Phail, Nicol, Griffin,
Baldwin, Andrews, Oldacre, Gunter, Grange, and Aiton. To each of these
names we shall devote a section; and under each, consider in succession,
the form of house, soil, general treatment, insects, and fruit produced.
SECT. I.
_Mode of cultivating the Pine Apple practised by Mr. Henry Telende,
in the Garden of Sir M. Decker, at Richmond, 1719, to 1730, or
later._
_Form of House._ For the education and ripening of this fruit, Mr.
Telende employed a frame made of deal, closely jointed: the length
eleven feet, divided equally into four lights; the width seven feet and
a half; three feet high at the back, and about ten inches in front. The
pit was somewhat more than five feet deep in the ground; the sides were
lined with brick, and the bottom covered with pebbles.
The stove or fruiting-house used was that with iron plates over the
flues; which, for greater warmth, was covered thick with thatch, and the
glasses were well guarded with shutters; and that the fire might be
constant, he burnt only such turf as is commonly used in Holland,
agreeable to M. Le Cour’s method.
_General Management._ About the middle of February, he “puts in as much
hot dung or horse-litter as will raise the bed about a foot high, and
then lays on the tanner’s bark as equally as possible, till the case of
brick-work is filled, beating down the tan gently with a prong, or
pressing it down easily with a board. A bed of this kind will take up
three hundred bushels of tan, and if it be well made, will heat in about
fifteen days, provided the frame and glasses are set over it. When the
bed breathes a right heat, which we are to judge of by a thermometer,
the plants are brought from the stove to it, either to have their pots
quite plunged into the bark; or, if upon opening the holes for them, the
bark be found too hot, then to be set in only half way, laying a few
pebbles under the bottom of each pot, that the water may pass freely
through them. Care must be taken not to remove the pots in frost or
snow; and to examine the bed from time to time, whether the bark grows
mouldy, musty, or dry, which it will often do in the summer: in such
case, it must be watered to recover its heat. A bed thus prepared and
managed will maintain a constant degree of heat, sufficient to give
these plants the utmost vigour they require, from the end of February to
the end of October; and then the plants must be again removed into the
stove or conservatory. In excessive heats the glasses are tilted up at
the back of the frame; and when the evenings are cool, the bed must be
carefully covered with substantial mattresses of straw. A bed of this
kind sinks about a foot, which is convenient; for otherwise the plants
would be too tall for the frame, before the time of housing them.
“The thermometer used by Mr. Telende had a tube twenty-four inches long,
and one-eighth of an inch in diameter. When the spirit rose only to
fifteen inches, he accounted the air cold for his plants; at sixteen and
a half temperate; at eighteen warm, which was his standard for Pine
Apple heat; at twenty inches, hot air; and at twenty-one inches,
sultry.”
_Insects._ Nothing is said on this subject.
_Fruit produced._ Mr. Cowel says (_Curious and Profitable Gardener_, p.
27.) that all gentlemen who had eaten Pines abroad allowed those raised
by Mr. Telende to be as good and as large as they found in the West
Indies. Bradley says, forty Pines were likely to ripen in the autumn of
1724.