than when we burn Wood or Coal; and where fuch Ovens or Fire-places are large, and cover'd with Iron, we may cover their Pavement or Floors with Sea Sand, four, five or fix Inches thick, to regulate the Heat, and give an agreeable Dew to the Plants, in Imitation of what they would meet with Abroad. I would not have my Readers mistake this Dew, for a Damp which often rises in green Houfes; that Damp proceeds from a moift ftagnating Air. The Dew I fpeak of is a gentle circulative Air, fill'd with vegetative Salts, fuch as nourish Plants; but the Damp destroys them. I have fometimes thought, that if it was poffible to have a Room built adjoining to a Glafshouse, and to have its Windows face the South, that in fuch a Place one might cultivate the most tender Plants without great Expence; for the continu'd Fire in the Glafs-house might be contriv'd to keep the Air in the Room adjoining of a conftant Warmth, equally the fame Day and Night, and might alfo be of excellent Ufe in fome chymical Preparations; for the Glasshouse Fire burns for many Years without Intermiffion. I offer this as a Hint worth improving by the Curious, who can have Opportunities of building a Laboratory or a Confervatory for raifing of Plants, to have a Communication with the Furnace of a Glafs-house. I fuppofe by fuch Means, as well as by the Stoves I have defcrib'd, we might well enough ripen the Ananas, and raise Plants of Cucumbers and Melons at any Time in the Winter; and the Bananas, Guavas, and other Weft-Indian Fruit, as well as the Mango of the Eaft-Indies, would, doubtlefs, grow very well in fuch warm Places. The late late Dutchess of Beaufort, whofe Memory will ever be grateful to the learned Part of the World, had feveral Guavas ripen'd at Badminton, even with lefs Heat than may be produc'd in the Stoves I have mention'd: And I can venture to affirm, it was from her Grace's excellent Judgment and Delight in Botanical Affairs, that we are chiefly oblig'd for the prefent Splendor, Ornament and Richness of our British Gardens; the great Advantages of Health and Peace of Mind which attended this kind of Science, foon made an Impreffion upon the greatest and most learned Men in the Nation. I am told, that foon after her Grace had fet the Example, it became the Study of the learned Lord Capel, Sir William Temple, the late Bishop of London, and Mr. Evelin, whofe Vigilance and Industry in this philofophical Diverfion brought Gardening to fo great a Perfection, that it afterwards became not only a general Entertainment, but a publick Benefit. So much has the Study of this Art encreas'd fince the Revolution, about which time these great Perfonages began it, that, as I am inform'd, there were then only ten thousand Acres of Ground employ'd in Gardens for the Ufe of the London Markets, and now there are computed about one hundred and ten thousand Acres cultivated for the fame Purpose. VOL. II. T CHAP. CHAP. II. An Account of the Ananas, or Weft-Indian Pine-Apple, as it now flourishes in Sir Matthew Decker's Gardens at Richmond in Surrey, under the Care and Management of his ingenious Gardiner Mr. Henry Telende. T HE Plant I am going to treat of is call'd the Pine-Apple, from the Refemblance the Shape of its Fruit bears to the Cones or Apples of the PineTree; but in nothing else but the Shape of the Fruit is the Pine-Tree and the Ananas alike: The Cones or Apples of the Pine-Tree Race, fuch as Firs, Cedars, and even one may mention among them the Cyprefs, appear knotted or knob'd, like the Fruit of the Mulberry, but are much larger, as are the Fruit of the Ananas. The Cones I fpeak of are of a woody Subftance, whether on the Pines, Pineafters, Firs, Cedars, or Cyprefs; but the Fruit of the Ananas is foft, tender and delicate, and excels all the Fruits in the World in Flavour and Richness of Tafte. The Cones of Pines and Firs, we must observe, are of different Shapes; fome painted at the Top of a conick Figure, as the Apples or Cones of the Scots Fir; others of equal Bignefs at Top and Bottom, like the Cones of the Cedar of Libanon; |
