perfect accuracy, so that we are not absolutely certain that the pine-apple may not be a native of some parts of Asia, and even of Africa, as well as of America. That it is a native of the West is certain, however, as all the varieties, except some of the trivial ones arising from cultivation, are found wild on the continent or the islands of that quarter of the world.

of one.

The Bromelias have been variously described ;some having formed them into three or four distinct genera, and others considered them as only species In the Hortus Kewensis, in the formation of which the very best authorities have been consulted, six species are enumerated; and, with the exception of the Bromelia humilis (dwarf), they are all there represented as being natives either of South America or the West Indies. Only one of the species is of any value in cultivation, the others being merely wild plants. The cultivated species is the Ananas; but it may be as well first to mention the others. They are the pinguin, or broad-leaved; the karata, or upright-leaved; the tongue-leaved, the red-breasted, and the dwarf.

In the form and combination of their leaves, all the bromelias have some resemblance to each other, and also to the aloe; but the only species in which the seeds are united into one fleshy and esculent strobile, or pine, is the ananas.

The Pinguin species have the leaves very short and strong about the root, and their edges are armed with strong crooked spines. The fruits are detached; each about the size of a walnut. The pulp is sweet, but it is at the same time so sharp as to be absolutely corrosive. A tuft of leaves growing above the fruit makes the pinguin look something like the pine-apple, when seen at a distance; but the detached fruit soon distinguishes it upon a closer inspection. Though not edible, the pinguin is not without its use, It

grows readily and abundantly in the West Indies, both on the fertile savannahs and the mountains. It is hardy, and is formidable with its spines, and thus it answers well for hedges. The fibres of the leaves, too, are very tough and strong; and, when freed from the pulpy matter, they are made into ropes. A small portion of the juice mixed with water forms a very cooling draught; and some of the varieties, which grow so plentifully about Campeachy that it is hardly possible to move amongst them, have their fruit in clusters, and are not unpalatable.

The Karata grows in woods, under trees, both in the West Indies and on the continent of America. The leaves are six or seven feet long; the fruit of an oval form, and from two to three hundred in number upon a single plant. Before it is ripe the fruit is sour and acrid, but when ripe it is not unpleasant. Until the fruit is ripe it is defended by the spines of the leaves, so as to be quite secure against injury.

The tongue-leaved, the red-branched, and the dwarf, are smaller species. The first and second very much resemble some of the species of aloe in their forms, and are found in most of the West India islands.

The Ananas, or pine-apple, properly so called, is now so generally known in this country, (being cultivated in hot-houses and pits almost from Cornwall to Caithness,) that no minute account of it is necessary. When of a good sort and healthy, it is accounted the best, at least the most luscious, fruit that this country produces; and, with careful cultivation, is equal in quality to that of places where it is a native. It is said even to be superior, because the English gardeners may, by skilful treatment and choice of sorts, more than make up for the want of sun and the deficiency of natural temperature.

It has been said that the pine-apple was brought from Brazil, first to the West Indies, and thence to the East; but the evidence is not complete. It was known in Holland some time before its introduction into this country; and even about its introduction here there are some disputes. The picture of King Charles II., with his gardener presenting him with a pine, said to be the first grown in England, is rejected by the better informed authorities; and the pine, if ever such a fruit was offered to that monarch, is supposed to have been brought from Holland, or the pine to have been presented, and the picture drawn, before his return to this country. Mr. Bentinck, the ancestor of the Duke of Portland, is, according to the best accounts, supposed to have first introduced and cultivated the pine in the year 1690; and this is rendered the more likely, from the fact that he was previously acquainted with the fruit in Holland. And yet the cultivation of the pine had made so little progress in England a quarter of a century later, that Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, on her journey to Constantinople in 1716, remarks the circumstance of pine-apples being served up in the dessert, at the Electoral table at Hanover, as a thing she had never before seen or heard of*.

Pine-apples have been grown in this country of an extraordinary size. One of the New Providence kind, that weighed nine pounds, four ounces, was presented to his Majesty, in June, 1820, by John Edwards, Esq., of Rheola, Glamorganshire, where it was grown. In July, 1821, another Providence pine is mentioned, in the Transactions of the Horticultural Society†, to have weighed ten pounds eight ounces: it was grown by Mr. Buchan, gardener to Lord Cawdor, at Stackpool Court, Pembrokeshire.

*Letters of Lady M. W. Montagu,

† Vol. v. p. 264.

It was ten inches and a half high, exclusive of the crown and stalk, and twenty-two inches in circumference. From the extraordinary size and beauty of the fruit, it was thought proper by the Fellows of the Horticultural Society to present it to his Majesty, which was accordingly done; and it was served up in the dessert at the royal table at the Coronation banquet. Mr. Buchan raised three other pines of extraordinary weight in the same season: one weighed ten pounds, six ounces; another, ten pounds, two ounces; and a third, nine pounds eight ounces; making the total weight of the four, forty pounds eight ounces.

In the Indian Archipelago, and in China, an extra

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ordinary monstrous state of the pine-apple is sometimes seen, called the many-headed pine." It is caused by the plant producing branches bearing fruit at each point where, under common circumstances, it produces single flowers. There are fine specimens preserved in spirits in the Library of the Horticultural Society, and the plant itself is in their garden.

The mammee is a native of the West Indies, where it grows to a large tree, sixty or seventy feet in height. It is a handsome, straight-growing tree, with a spreading head, and the leaves are oblong and obtuse, with very many fine, closely set, parallel veins. The fruit of the mammee is yellow, not unlike one of the largest russet apples, either in shape or in size. The skin, which easily peels off, and the seeds, of which there are two or three in the centre, are resinous, and very bitter; but the pulp under the skin, which, when ripe, is of a deep yellow, resembling that of the finest apricot, and of considerable consistency, is very fragrant, and has a delicious flavour. To people with weak stomachs it is said to be more delicious than healthful; but still it is highly