184 THE GARDENER. [April 



It will be less trouble too ; for in the time you will dig trenches, 

 manure, plant, and water them, you will surely pot and water an equal 

 number of plants. It will be more profitable, for you can grow them in pots 

 where nothing else will, or you can lift them from one place to another, 

 so enabling you to crop the place which otherwise would have been 

 devoted to Celery (a great point in limited places) ; and more, you will 

 be able to keep frost, damp, slugs, and a host of other things away from 

 your plants, and so be able to secure all your crop of Celery, instead 

 of perhaps only a sixth — and that, too, in finer condition, and to a later 

 period, than in the ordinary way. I do not say abolish your beds and 

 trenches. I would still follow the most profitable old way of raising 

 early crops ; but for crops to keep up a proper supp]y from Christmas 

 and after, I am convinced that by a method similar to that I have 

 ventured to suggest, it can be done with far less trouble and with far 

 better results. Will any one try, and at the end of the year state 

 whether one score of plants grown and blanched as I have suggested 

 does not prove equal to at least sixty in the open trenches 1 and surely 

 twenty in pots will take less trouble to bring to perfection than sixty 

 outside. Twenty in pots will be equal to sixty in the trenches, because 

 you cannot count on more than one sound one in three by this time, 

 after such an unpropitious winter. I have scarcely ventured to lay 

 down a rule, having no doubt that any one will be able to suit himself 

 best according to circumstances. 



Should any amateur, however, be anxious to adopt the method (and 

 it is chiefly for such that I recommend it, for many amateurs have 

 little spare ground to risk, and may still be desirous of having Celery 

 all winter through), and be desirous of knowing how I would proceed, I 

 will be most willing to lay down a rule whereby any one who follows 

 it, may assure himself of success. Under-Gardener. 



THE USE OE, ABUSE OF TUBS AND BOXES FOE, TREES. 



The art of c^ardening is so often called in to make objects not only look their 

 best, but often also to make them look what they are not, that it becomes a 

 question how far such a course may be safely followed. By clear combina- 

 tions, effects are often produced which at first sight would aj^pear incredible : 

 even apparent!}' small matters often give great results. 



I have been led into this train ef thought by musing on the effect produced 

 on terraces, on broad walks, and on the more severe and formal class of flower- 

 gardens, by the liberal introduction of Orange-trees, trained Portugal Laurels, 

 Bays, and many others, in tubs or boxes — sometimes the tub or box being the 

 more ornamental part, a fact certainly not creditable to gardening. These 

 scenes are highly artificial ; and the introduction of these prim, formally-trained 

 trees is in perfect keeping with the surroundings. The point I wish to come to 

 is this, Do not the tubs mar the whole effect ? and if so, why retain them as at 



