104 



UTENSILS USED IN HORTICULTURE. 



summers of France and Italy, it is found much better to grow plants 

 in wooden boxes or tubs, than in any description of earthenware 

 vessel. Eound tubs, however, are neither so convenient nor so orna- 

 mental as the square plant-box. 



Watering-pots are made of tinned iron, zinc, and sometimes of 

 copper. There are a variety of sizes and shapes in use in British 

 gardens : for plants under glass, which are placed at a distance from 

 the operator, pots with long spouts are required ; and for pots on 

 shelves over the head of the operator and close under the glass, flat 

 pots with spouts proceeding from the bottom, and in the same plane 

 with it, are found necessary. Watering-pots have been contrived Math 

 close covers, containing valves to regulate the escape of the water 

 through the spout, by the admission or exclusion of the atmosphere 

 at pleasure ; but these are only required for particular situations and 

 circumstances, and are seldom or never used. The watering-pot very 

 generally fails at the point where the spout joins the body of the pot, 

 and the two parts ought therefore to be firmly attached together, either 

 by separate tie-pieces, or by one continuous body, which may be so 

 contrived as to hold the roses of the pot when not in use, as exempli- 

 fied in Money's pot. The rose is generally moveable ; but as, after 

 much use, it becomes leaky, it is better, in many cases, to have it 

 fixed, with a pierced grating in the inside of the pot over the orifice of 

 the spout, as in metal tea-pots. This grating, Mr. Beaton suggested, 



should be moveable, 

 by being made to slide 

 into a groove like a 

 sluice, in order that it 

 may be taken out and 

 cleaned occasionally. 

 Fig. 70, rt, represents 

 a watering-pot with a 

 kneed-spout, for water- 

 ing plants, without 

 spilling any water be- 

 tween pot and pot ; 

 because, by means of 

 the knee or right angle 

 made at the extremity 



of the spout, the run- 

 SwXcr, kneed-spouted, and overhead watering-pots. ^ Q{ ^ water . g 



instantly stopped by quickly elevating it, which is by no means the 

 case when the spout is straight throughout its whole length : b 

 shows the face, and c the edge of a very fine rose of copper for 

 screwing on the end of the kneed-spout, for watering seedlings. 

 Fig. 70, d, shows a sucker watering-pot, by which the objects 

 effected by the kneed-pot are attained more completely. There 

 is a sucker or valve in the lid, by which the air is perfectly excluded ; 

 and when this valve is shut, not a particle of water can escape ; but 

 when it is slightly raised by the pressure qf the thumb of the hand 



