PLANTS IN VASES AND TUBS IN THE OPEN AIR. 133 



have no gardens, and secondly, those who have and who may desire 

 to put half-hardy bushes in the open air, for example, Myrtle or 

 Oleander or Orange, which cannot be grown out of doors through- 

 out the year, and which yet may have fragrance or other charms 

 for us. Many plants can be grown in the open air in summer which 

 will not endure our winters, but which, placed in a cellar, dry 

 room, or cool greenhouse, would be quite safe, and might then be put 

 out of doors in summer. This way is commonly the case abroad 

 with large Datura, Pomegranate, and Myrtles, and a great variety 

 of plants such as we see put out in tubs in certain old palace 

 gardens, like those of Versailles. What was called the orangery, 

 and has almost disappeared from English gardens, was for keeping 

 such plants alive and well through the winter, and in old times, if 

 not now, had a very good reason to be. 



There are many charming plants too tender for the open altogether 

 that are happy in tubs, and may be sheltered in an outhouse or 

 greenhouse through the winter such as the Pomegranate and the 

 Myrtle. The blue African Lily is often happy in tubs, its blue 

 flowers when seen on a terrace walk having a distinct charm, but 

 in England, generally, it must be kept indoors in winter. 



Excellent use may be made of the great handsome oil-jars, which 

 are used to bring olive oil from Italy to London, and the best things 

 to put in them are half-hardy plants, which can be taken intact into 

 the cool greenhouse or conservatory at the approach of frost. Even 

 Seakale pots can be filled with half-hardy plants, like scarlet Pelar- 

 goniums, which have good effect in them. In some rich and moist 

 soils the Pelargonium grows to leaves and does not flower, and in 

 such cases we can humour it into good bloom by growing it in pots 

 or vases in the light soil that suits the plants. 



One of the most curious examples of routine and waste I saw 



in the Tuileries gardens on the last day of September 1896, when 



the Paris people were preparing for the Czar, 



Orange trees in an d among their labours was the refurbishing 



tubs. of the old Orange trees in these gardens. There 



was a regiment of them set all along the gardens 



at regular intervals in immense and costly tubs, involving herculean 



labour to move in and out of the orangery. One might suppose 



this labour to be given for some beautiful end in perfecting the 



flower or fruit of the plant, but nothing of the kind ; the trees 



are trained into mop heads, and when the plants make any 



attempt to take a natural growth they are cut sharply back, and often 



have an uglier shape than any mop. The ground was strewn with 



shoots of the orange trees which had been cut back hard. When 



the tree was in poor health, as it was often, the dark stems were the 



