Orange-trees in tubs, Tuileries. 



THE SUMMER GARDEN BEAUTIFUL 



{continued). 

 CHAPTER XVII. 



PLANTS IN VASES AND TUBS IN THE OPEN AIR. 



In old days and for ages it was not easy — not always possible 

 to many — to have a garden in the open air. The need of mutual 

 aid against the enemy threw people into closely-packed cities, and 

 even small towns in what might seem to us now the open country. 

 In our own country, free for many years from external enemies, we 

 have spread our gardens over the land more than others ; but in France 

 farmers still go home to a town at night from the open, and often 

 homeless and barnless plain, where they work. And so it came 

 that the land of Europe was strewn with towns and cities, often 

 fortified, and many of those most able to enjoy gardens had to do- 

 the best they could with little terraces, walls, tubs by the door, and 

 even windows. And often in Italy and other countries of the south 

 of Europe and north Africa we see beautiful plants in tubs, on 

 balconies, on flat roofs, and every imaginable spot where plants can 

 be grown in a house in a street. Happily, in our country, there 

 is less need nowadays for the garden in tubs ; but the custom is 

 bound up with ways of growing plants which are still essential 

 to us in some cases. 



In many gardens plants in tubs are often used without good reason,, 

 for example, when hardy evergreen trees are grown in tubs, and in 

 front of the Royal Exchange in London there are hardy Poplars 

 in tubs ! But some may pursue this sort of gardening with advantage 



