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Pine-Apple

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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The pine-apple so called consists in reality of the inflorescence of the plant, the originally separate flowers of which, together with the bracts supporting them, become fleshy and consolidated into one mass. The swelling and fusion of the tissues take place after the process of fertilization, and it may be that the richly perfumed succulent mass is an aid in the distribution of seed by affording food to certain animals. In the highly developed cultivated pines, however, it frequently happens that the seeds do not ripen properly. The pine, Ananas sativus, is a member of the natural order Bromeliaceae, of tropical American origin, where it is widely spread; and it is now naturalized in the tropical regions of the Old World.

Evelyn in his Diary mentions tasting a pine-apple from Barbados at the table of Charles II., and this is we believe the first mention of the fruit in English literature. A picture, of which a copy may be seen at the rooms of the Royal Horticultural Society of London, represents the royal gardener, Mr Rose, presenting on bended knee the first pine-apple grown in Britain, and it is surmised that this may have been grown from the "suckers" of the fruit above alluded to by Evelyn, though it is generally considered that the pine was not cultivated in England till 1712. For many years pine-apples were cultivated in large private gardens, but owing to the great developments in culture in the West Indies, the Azores, Canary Islands, &c., they are no longer cultivated in Britain or Europe.