Orange trees in tubs, Tuileries. 



THE SUMMER GARDEN BEAUTIFUL. 



CHAPTER XV. 



PLANTS IN VASES AND TUBS IN THE OPEN AIR. 



IN old days and for ages it was not easy nor 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 

 to pass 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. 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. 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, 

 as when hardy evergreen trees are grown in tubs ; in front of the 

 Royal Exchange in London there are hardy Poplars in tubs ! Some 

 may pursue this sort of gardening with advantage first, those who 



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