[1] The poor man had probably overheated himself, and comparing by his feelings the temperature of the Pinery with his own, found the latter much in its usual state; not knowing “a letter or a figure,” of course, he could not take a hint from the thermometer. The house was again stocked with plants, which Mr. Knight, in a paper read to the Horticultural Society, in November last (1821), stated to be in a most thriving condition; and a friend of ours who had made an extensive gardening tour in the North and West of England, and who saw the Pine plants at Downton Castle, also in November, declares they appeared the most magnificent he had seen on his journey; “the plants,” he says, “were stocky, and the leaves long, broad, and green; the largest were in pots fourteen inches in diameter, and their leaves reached to the glass.” In the paper alluded to, Mr. Knight goes on to say, “I possess more than sufficient evidence to enable me to assert with confidence, that, in the culture of the Pine Apple, the bark bed, or other hot-bed, if the plants be plunged into it, is worse than useless, after the scions, or crowns, have emitted roots; and that the Pine Apple, when treated in the manner I have recommended, is a fruit of most extremely easy culture. “It is contended, in favour of the bark-bed, that the soil in inter-tropical climates is warm, and that the bark-bed does no more than nature does in the native climate of the Pine Apple. And if the bark-bed could be made to give a steady temperature of about ten degrees below that of the day temperature of the air in the stove, I readily admit that Pine plants would thrive better in a compost of that temperature, than in a colder. But the temperature of the bark-bed is constantly subject to excess, and defect, and I contend, and can prove, that the above-mentioned temperature is very nearly given in my stove. For the temperature of the day being about 90° or 95°, and that of the night 70°, the mould in the pots will necessarily acquire nearly the intermediate temperature of 80°. It is true, that two disturbing causes are in action; the evaporation from the mould, and porous surface of the pots, and the radiant heat of the sun. But these causes operate in opposition to each other, and probably nearly negative the operation of each other, as far as respects the temperature of the mould in the pots.