POT 



481 



POT 



rated from their roots. This has to be 

 borne in mind in the drying of pot-herbs, ' 

 which, though it is a process very sim- 

 ple and ver^ important for the winter 

 cuisine that it should be conducted cor- 

 rectly, is usually more neglected and 

 more thoughtlessly practised than any 

 other in the varied range of the garden- 

 er's duties. To demonstrate this, v\ill 

 only require to have pointed out how it 

 ought to be managed. The flavour of 

 almost every pot-herb arises from an 

 essential oil which it secretes, and this 

 being in the greatest abundance just 

 previously to the opening of its flow- 

 ers, that is the time which ought to 

 be selected for gathering. Pot-herbs 

 ought to be dried (juickly, because if 

 left exposed to winds, much of the es- 

 sential oil evaporates, and mouldiness 

 occurring and long continuing destroys 

 it altogether; for nearly every plant 

 has its peculiar mucor, (mould,) the 

 food of which is the characteristic oily 

 secretion of the plant on which it vege- 

 tates. A dry brisk heat is therefore 

 desirable ; and as the fruit store-room 

 ought always to have a stove, and is 

 untenanted when herbs rocjuire drying, 



Mr. Errington has in his potting-shed 

 twenty bins containing as follows : — 



1. Strong tenacious loam. 



2. Half-rotten leaf-mould. 



3. Heath soil. 



4. Horse manure. 



5. Cow manure. 



6. Charcoal wood-ashes. 



7. Fine bone manure. 



8. Sharp sand. 



9. Burnt turf of No. 1. 



10. Sphagnum, well scalded. 



11. Heath soil of No. 3, in one inch 



squares. 



12. Loam of No. 1, in one inch 



squares. 



13. One-inch mixed drainage. 



14. Two-inch mixed drainage. 



15. Mixed drainage, small. 



16. One-inch bottom-crocks. 



17. Two-incli bottom-crocks. 

 IS. Three-inch bottom-crocks. 



19. Charcoal, large lumps. 



20. One-inch boiled bone for bottoms. 

 Bin 1. {Strong Tenacious Loam.) — 



This is obtained from very old rest land, 

 on a clayey or marly sub-soil ; the more 

 rushes and old coarse grass it contains, 

 the better it is for the potting-shed ; 



no other place can be more efficiently this is piled up in a sharp ridge out of 

 employed for the purpose. The tem- doors, so as to exclude rain ; it should 



perature should be 90'', for if it exceeds 

 this, the essential oils are apt to burst 

 the integuments of the containing ves- 

 sels and to escape. Forty-eight hours, 

 if the heat is kept up steadily, are sufii- 

 cient to complete the process of drying. 

 The leaves, in which alone the essen- 

 tial oils of pot-herbs reside, should then 

 be carefully clipped with scissors, not 

 crushed, from the stalks, and stored in 



be used for general purposes, when 

 from six to twelve months old ; I house 

 a smaller portion in the compost shed 

 after being dried in the sun; and thif, 

 I use for very particular purposes, such 

 in fact as rc(juire, according to my esti- 

 mation, lumps of turf in its native state, 

 and for these purposes it is chopped into 

 squares for bin 12. This loam is chop- 

 ped down from a perpendicular facing. 



tightly corked wide-mouthed bottles, (like cutting hay,) when wanted for bin 

 Each will thus preserve its peculiar l,and being somewhat mellow, a con- 

 aroma, not only through the winter, siderable portion of the mere soil falls 

 but for years, and be infinitely superior out loose in the act of chopping. This 

 to any specimens producible in the 

 forcing department, for these are una- 

 voidably deficient in flavour. — Princ. 

 of Gardening. 



P O T H O S . Thirty-three species. 

 Stove orchids. Division. Peat and 

 loam. 



POT-MARIGOLD. Calendula 

 officinalis. 



POTTING. Pots are the first con- 

 sideration, and these are considered 

 under the title Flower Pot. 



is rejected, and the masses of chopped 

 turf alone fill bin 1. 



Bin. 2. {Half-rotten Leaf-mould.) — 

 This is generally slightly mixed with 

 rotten dung, as it is the worn out pit 

 linings, which have generally a little 

 dung blended with the leaves. By ly- 

 ing in the compost yard for a few 

 months, the outside becomes mellowed 

 down, and af\er shaking some of the 

 finest out through a quarter of an inch 

 riddle, it is passed through a sieve of 



Materials required. — These must not at least one inch in the mesh, and what 

 be sifted, but the pebbles and rough j comes through this is put into bin 2 



vegetable fibres be allowed to remain.: 

 31 



Bin 3. {Heath Soi/.)— Obtained from 



