94 THE BOOK OF GARDEN FURNITURE 



warm quarters, and though they have not the ornamental 

 appearance of tazzas and vases, several neat, and not 

 inartistic, forms are to be obtained. In southern Europe, 

 the flat housetops and balconies are rendered gay and 

 interesting by the practice of growing beautiful flowering 

 plants in wooden receptacles ; indeed, to many who have 

 no gardens, this is the only means of growing flowers 

 which can be adopted. The orangeries, which are still to 

 be found in some of our large gardens, were built to 

 accommodate half-hardy plants in tubs and boxes during 

 the winter months. A few years ago, gardeners used to 

 think highly of the decorative value of orange trees grown 

 in tubs, and the expense of keeping perhaps a hundred or 

 so of these alive was very considerable. The gardens of 

 the Tuilleries used to be dotted with these trees grown in 

 cumbersome boxes, and though many of the specimens 

 were of about as much beauty as mops, the enormous 

 labour of moving them from place to place was thought 

 to be amply justified. 



Though many of the Continental gardeners fail to 

 achieve happy results in their manner of growing plants 

 in tubs and boxes, some at least thoroughly understand 

 how to make the practice a success, and in Italy especially 

 we often see styles which are worthy of close imitation. 

 The fault of English amateurs is that they persist in 

 using ugly little wooden buckets, painted a vivid green, 

 often elevating these on tripods of rustic work. Tubs, 

 unlike vases, should always be stood on the ground, and 

 providing that they are well made of some durable wood, 

 they do not require to be ornamented in any way. A 

 sovereign is not too much to pay for one made in well- 

 seasoned oak or teak, the diameter of the top being about 

 sixteen or seventeen inches. They can be stained either 

 a light or a dark shade, and the iron hoops with which 

 they are securely bound may be either painted or gal- 

 vanised. There are a variety of shapes, round, elliptical, 



