214 THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



pact, nor in such vigorous health as the latter. Plants of most of the 

 leading varieties are there side by side, in clay and wire pots, and the 

 comparison must, in every case, insure a preference for the latter. Neither 

 need it surprise us when we consider the habits of the ericas. Our own 

 native species thrive best on banks of gritty peat, and they locate them- 

 selves, for the most part, on the slopes where the water from the upper 

 levels flows over their roots, but not a drop lodges about them. If we 

 examine the earth at the base of a tuft of, say, Erica tetralix, we may easily 

 discover the white points of the rootlets peeping out to the daylight from 

 between the pebbles, and on making a similar examination of the soil be- 

 tween the wires in these new pots, the points of the roots may be seen in 

 like manner, for they are in a condition which very nearly imitates that 

 which they select for themselves when growing wild — where they can 

 breathe air almost as freely as the leaves do, and absorb atmospheric mois- 

 ture without the possibility of getting water- logged. "Why ericas, and 

 many other plants that have hair-like roots, should so delight in a soil 

 containing a large proportion of silicious grit, is, doubtless, because the 

 atmosphere can filtrate through it to the roots without exhausting those 

 roots of their due share of moisture. In the crinoline pots, the roots have 

 the benefit of every syringing, and much more water may be safely given 

 to insure luxuriant growth, without the possibility of danger 



Another advantage is in the ornamental effect to which these pots are 

 adapted. In the fern-house, at Forest Hill, most of the wire pots con- 

 taining specimen plants are clothed all over between the wires with sela- 

 ginellas, and never Have we seen the pretty caesium and the laevigata to 

 better advantage than as they here dangle in miniature festoons, and 

 gather in broad patches of exquisitely-coloured foliage on the vertical sur- 

 face of the soil in the pots. Thus, the sides of the pots are so much gain 

 of space for plant culture, and the novelty of the scene presented by a 

 house filled with such specimens is not less attractive than its real and 

 bona fide elegance. Nothing can surpass the beauty of the large suspended 

 baskets, made of the same wire- work, and filled with ferns not only above 

 but round the sides and to the lower point underneath. Amongst the 

 plants so used to clothe the soil in the pots and baskets are all the pro- 

 cumbent selaginellas, with Adiantum set.ulosum, which extends itself 

 rapidly, and hangs out most charming tufts on all sides — Asplenium fla- 

 bellifolium, Camptosorus rhizophyllus, Aspidium tenuis, Adiantum cauda- 

 tum, Asplenium brachypteron, nitidum, Davallia dissecta, pentaphylla, 

 Fadyenia prolifera, Goniophlebiuin piloselloides, I\othoela?na tenera, Ni- 

 phobolus pertusus, and rupestris, and others of scandent and creeping 

 habits. These wire-pots will certainly answer for all peat-loving plants, 

 and so far are an advance in the way of both science and adornment. Who 

 will manufacture them, and place them within the reach of the general 

 public ? 



In constructing Tiffany -houses, it will be well to refer to page 79 of this 

 year's volume for Mr. Standish's plan of ventilating by means of flaps; 

 or the upper half of the side of the house may be on rollers, the lower 

 half to the ground, tacked down in the usual way. In hot weather, this 

 upper half may be rolled up to the plate to allow a thorough draught 

 through the house. A few printer's lines will make this plain. This 



