JVotcs and Gleanings^. 183 



The Waterixg-Cax, with an improved Form of Rose. — If an idea is 

 worth being considered by a home gardener, and its merit tested by a trial, two 

 conditions may very fairly be required, viz., that the advantage should be mani- 

 fest, and the mode of attaining it easy of e.xecution. 



All home florists who have occasion to use the watering-can, find that the 

 ordinary rose discharges a small, destructive water-spout upon their seedlings, 

 which also, besides this, batters the ground in so merciless a way that the hot 

 sun of the following day bakes a complete pie-crust over the inundated region ; 

 the malice of the ordinary watering-can being, that it opens 'fire, if the expression 

 can be used, from so many formidable port-holes, aiming its discharges straight 

 down upon the rank and file of the home gardener's tender nurslings, to their 

 imminent peril, and not uncommon destruction ; whereas, the obvious desideratum 

 is, that the watering-can should be able to imitate the rain, which falls on the 

 just and unjust, not merely in its copiousness, but also in the gentleness of its 

 fall. 



Allow me to suggest to my brother home gardeners the following very simple 

 expedient, which I find to answer so completely that I shall never wish to use 



THE WATERING-CAN'. 



the ordinary form of rose any more. Get any tinman to make a rose of the an- 

 nexed shape, to fit the can or cans that are in use, five inches in diameter, suffi- 

 ciently convex, without being perfectly globular, i. e., somewhat like the crown 

 of the human head, and let the stem be from a foot to eighteen inches long. 

 This crown, or semi-globular disk, is to be perforated with a number of the 

 finest possible holes ; and when the operator holds it in the position shown in the 

 cut, provided the holes are all as they should be, viz., as minute as possible, but 

 perfect, there will rise up, from the pressure of the water held above in the can, 

 a multitude of miniature jets, shooting out all round from the semi-globular disk, 

 which miniature jets afterwards fall on the ground as nearly like a gentle rain as 

 possible, without the least damage to the most tender of seedlings. If the 

 smallest pin that is made will go into the holer, in the disk, the discharge from 

 the can will be almost too rapid, except for a very large can, and for very heavy 

 work. The disk which I am using for a medium-sized can has almost impercep- 

 tible holes, and still the discharge from the can is sufficiently abundant for my 

 purposes. This point, however, can be regulated at pleasure, according to the 

 way in which the disk is perforated. From the exit of the water upwards into 



