362 



JOUBNAL OF HOKTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEK. 



( May 14, 1868. 



the shape. (See f'H- 1.) You will perceive there is great 

 strength where it is most wanted, and that the pots will fit 

 into each other without sticking fast. Indeed, with a stake 



Fig. 3. Fig. 2. 



mn through the holes they would form very strong and neat 

 pillars in the garden when not otherwise in use, and be out of 

 the way, instead of being an eyesore. Fig. 2 is a represen- 

 tation of a pillar formed in this way. 



It appears to me, however, that by having a portion of this 

 thickness at the shoulder taken off on the inside you will im- 

 prove the form materially, as is represented in fig. 3. 



In this form you have a chamber for the drainage, a wide 

 bed for the roots, promoting surface-rooting, space for mulch- 

 ing and watering, and a form which easily admits of the plants 

 ieing turned out, and the external form and strength are 

 retained. 



I find it very convenient to use an apparatus like a crinoline, 

 which is easily made by a piece of muslin thrown over a frame, 

 for fumigating individual plants when I do not want to close 

 the whole house. I put it over the pot so as not to touch the 

 plant, and place a pan of lighted tobacco-paper under it. I 

 also use if for standard Koses.— D. S. 



[This communication will afford to "An Amateur," 

 " Myra," and other correspondents information on which to 

 form their own judgments in answer to their variously expressed 

 query, " Which is the best form of flower-garden pot ?" 



The inventions to satisfy various requirements in such pots 

 have been numerous, but we do not know whether they can 

 BOW be purchased, for with rare exceptions they have that 

 fatal characteristic — dearness. The following are some of them, 

 pubUshed in one of the earliest of our volumes : — 



To facilitate draining, and yet to retain the tidiness secured 

 fcy the saucer, Mr. Hunt has had flower pots made (fg. 4), with 

 elevations, on which the pots are placed. But this is not the 

 only advantage derivable from them. They prevent the entry 

 of worms, may be employed with common stands, allow a 

 current of air to pass beneath them, and their form is elegant. 



Mr. Brown has proposed a pot {jig. 5), with hollow sides, the 



Fig 4. 



Fig. 6. 



vacuity to be filled with water through a hole in the rim, or 

 left empty, as occasion requires. The water, he considers, will 

 prevent the plants suffering from want of moisture ; and when 

 empty, the roots will be preserved from being killed by evapo- 

 ration. But surely applying the water to the sides will be an 

 extra inducement for the roots to gather there, an effect most 

 desirable to avoid, and wetting the outsides of the pot is a very 

 doubtful mode of preventing the reduction of temperature. 



Saul's fountain flower pot {fig. G), seems open to the same 

 objections, with the additional disadvantages of not being easily 

 drained, and being more expensive and cumbersome. The 

 water is also forced in at the bottom of the pot, contrary to the 

 course of nature in applying moisture to plants. " An outer 

 basin is made on the bottom of the pot, to which the water 

 enters at u, and is carried round the pot in the basin, there 

 being two or three holes through the pot's bottom, h, h. By 

 these means the water is drawn up from the basin by the roots 

 of the plants, or, if it should be desirable to prevent it from 

 being drawn up, the exterior orifices of the holes, which open 

 into the basin or saucer, may be closed. The fountain is sup- 

 plied with water by taking out the stopper at c the entrance 

 into the basin at a being at that moment closed ; and as soon 

 as the water runs over at c. the cork or stopper is put in, and 

 the stopper at a removed." 



Mr. Stephens's flower pot (fig. 7), is intended to supply 

 water to the plant where it is most wanted, and to protect it 



FiR. 7. Fig. 8. Fig. 9. 



at the same time from slugs and creeping insects, which will 

 not pass over the water between the two rims. 



Mr. Kendle, of Plymouth, proposed to improve the drainage 

 of pots by elevating and piercing their bottoms. This, and 

 Mr. Brown's, suggested to us that of which fig. 8 ia a section. 

 It is merely two pots, one fitting within another, having the 

 bottom indented and pierced as proposed by Mr. Eendle, but 

 not touching the outer pot by half an inch all round. This is a 

 most effectual form to secure drainage, and to prevent the 

 evaporation from the sides of the inner pot, the intervening 

 stratum of confined air being a bad conductor of heat. It has 

 the merit, too, of cheapness. 



Another pot (j'lg. 9), adopted by T. C. Palmer, Esq., of 

 Bromley, Kent, has been found by him to have the advantages 

 that it induced worms to pass out, yet prevented their return ; 

 was very effectual to keep out ants, slugs, &c., as it stood in a 

 saucer of water without any excess of moisture reaching the 

 soil ; and from this quality might be particularly suitable for 

 Heaths. 



One of the inconveniences attendant upon pot-culture is the 

 hardening of the surface soil by watering. 'This may be ob- 

 viated by baring the rim of the pot (jig. 10), encompassed by 



Fig. 10. 



a gutter, a, a, communicating to the earth within the pot by 

 numerous perforations, i>. Water poured into the gutter would 

 thus gently percolate away into the earth. 



Fig. 11, is a form that is useful for facilitating the shifting 

 of specimens in large pots. It was patented, we believe, by 

 Mr. G. Fry, formerly gardener at Lee Park, and named by him 

 the " West Kent Garden Pot." The drawiKg represents a 

 section of it. The pot is without a bottom, the orifice h extend- 

 ing across its entire diameter, except a narrow ledge all round, 

 on which rests the false bottom, r, perforated as usual with 

 the drainage hole, d. The principal advantage of this form is 

 that at shifting time, a block of wood of the size of the orifice 

 h, being pressed up, it moves the ball of earth bodily, thus dis- 

 turbing the roots as little as possible.] 



WORK FOR THE WEEK. 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



Every showery day should now be taken advantage of to 

 plant out young crops, to thin and prick out others,' and to look 



