POTHOS 



A. Lva.ijrcvn, not banihd or mottled. 



celatocaMis, N. E. Brown. Rapid-growing climber, 

 witli stems flat on the under side and lying close to its 

 support: Ivs. distichous and overlapping, broad-elliptic, 

 somewhat oblique, sessile, strongly manj--veined, dark 

 velvety green. Borneo. F.S. 23:2419, 2420. l.H. 30:496. 

 — First described in 1880 in England. A very odd 

 plant. 



nitens. Bull. Lvs. obliquely ovate-acute, cordate at 

 base, shining purplish green. Malaya. 



AA. Lvs. mottled or banded 



avlreus, Linden. Fig. 1936. Strong evergreen climber 

 with cordate-ovate-acute lvs., which aie variouslj 

 blotched and mottled with yellowish white, the body 

 color being bright green. Solomon Isl. IH. 27.^l5l. 

 S.H. 1:334.— The generic position ot this plant-which 

 is one of the commonest one- m miU -is m doubt It 

 probably belongs to RhaphidciplHiT i i ..--ilpix tc. s, nid tji 

 sus. In a dark place the li m i ir. m ii kinj--- t tli 

 leaves tend to disappear Bi ir h s «ill .,'n u iii w iti i 

 for a time. Prop, by cuttings <'i I i\t is 



argfinteus, Bull. Lvs obliquelj in ate acuminate, sil 

 very gray, with a deep green margin and a deep green 

 band along the midrib. Borneo. jj^ U^ B^ 



POTHUAVA. fieeJichmea. 



POT MARIGOLD. See Calendula. 



POTS. Before beginning an historical sketcn of the 

 manufacture of Hower pots in America the writer may 

 perhaps be pardoned for stating that the firm which he 

 represents is one of the thirty-one Arms eligible to the 

 Century (_'lub, which consists of tirms that have had an 

 uninterrupted ancestral record of one hundred years or 



POTS 



1423 



Mitui-y CI 

 Jl. Thor 



n. ly. 



ntb(, 



tor i.iiu- gener 



The first entry in our oldest account bonk reads as 

 follows: Weston, April 19, 1775, Lemuel Jones, to Ware, 

 debtor: 0£ 2s. 8d. Prom 1788 to 1810, a period of 21 

 years, we have a continuous account. The charges dur- 

 ing that entire term cover about as ni:iii\- p;it.'''s as we 

 now often use in a day; and the aniouiii in . I. .liars and 

 cents does not compare with single sal.- ..f tl... v.ar 

 1900. Through all the vi-ars up to 1807 th,- t.rin •ilow.r 

 p.,t-" ,1,,.. n..t ..,M. :i].|..ar. and the writer very iiuu-li 

 r. J ' ' ■' ■ ■' ' "f flower pots and the name 



ot : . " f.)und. 



1;,! !...i.; I ,,; .: i :,[. who can remember the vear 

 181.1 v.;!! 1-. >all Lli, d..t,rr.-..i-Li condition of business a'fter 

 war was actually declared. The menil..is ,,f tlu- II. ws 

 firm felt sure that there would be no dt-nian.i f.ir iI'.w.t 

 pots, they being more of a luxury than a n.-. is-ity. an. I 

 that the factory must close. At that Tim. tli. wriu-r- 

 succeeded in getting permission to inak. Iiis lir-t \ . n- 

 ture as salesman "on the road." Goinir lii-T i.i r, M. 

 Hovey, he secured what was a goo.l ..r.l. r f..r ili..se 

 tiiiL's, s..iiie lO.onO or more pots for the sprini; tia.l.- of 

 Isr.J. X..I ..II, , after that, during the Civil War, was 



tli. ' '■'■ ' i ring the spring and fall rush, to fill all 



tl: I i'.wer pots. It is not that these orders 



«.i. ,11. 1,,,..., large or numerous, but they were be- 

 y..i.,; ih,- .aisu'iiy o£ "the firm. 



Tlie writers own records go back to 1806. At that 

 time prices were a third or a half higher than they are 

 to-day. which is more than the writer would be willing 

 to admit of the relative excellence of the goods. We 

 first got I'alrl, iMi.l. I ,,\;t\- with machinery for making 

 small fl..«.r I II. l-.^'i. The father of the under- 



signed, ahiii ' ,. he a little cautious, thought 



that we sli,, ,, , i^,,,,i^ the country and ruin the 



prices. W., ,ii.l in ihai > .-ar what we thought was a 

 wonderful l.n-in.-s in H..\v.-r pots. We exceeded it by 



Until ab.m't 



potter's wheel. There had been, indeed, many different 

 forms of this wheel, but it had always been propelled by 

 hand or foot power. When, in the early fifties, a wheel 

 was made to be propelled by the foot, with two sizes of 

 pulleys and a balance wheel whereby the speed of the 



1936. Pothos 



the horticulturists t X H) •' 



heel was incre.ised m the proportion of three to one, 

 w IS thought that perfection hid been reached. Much 

 nil thou^li very little mone\ , had been spent previous 

 . till hfti. s m attempts to make a pot machine. It was 

 tt to \\ ilium Linton, of Baltimore, an experienced 



Amerii i « i- I I III iiopi in tins kind of 



machiner\ , as also m iinpro\ed machiner\ in general. 

 It IS probably safe to say that from time immemorial 

 down to about the year 1863, flower pots had always 

 been made m one general waj— by hand, on a potter's 

 wheel. 



The machine made onlv small pots, up to about .'> inches 

 in diameter; and while 'it had previously taken an ex- 

 perienced man to make his thousand .■^-ini-h pots in 10 

 hours, a smart boy without any jirevions experience 

 wliar.vir .-..iild make three thousan.l on tin- inai-hine in 



Winn tli., standard pot was ado|.t. .1, al...nt 1(1 years 

 .'iir... till' hand process was jira.-ti. :ill\ al.an.loiifd in 

 the principal potteries in fav..r ot uhat i- t. .hnically 

 called the jigger. This is a 

 machinery. These disks. . 

 different sizes and fitti.l \ 

 molds are made in very lar 

 pots, and the larger s'tan.l 

 made at the present tini. 

 pots from 12-24 in. in ilia 

 hand on the wheel. 



The making of the pot is 

 to that comes the preparatic 

 years from 1765 to 1865 saw 

 cess of preparing it for use. 

 tank or tub, propelled by ai 

 processes remained as crude 

 the century previous: the drying, firing, and all con- 

 nected with the manufacture. The capacity ot our 

 flower pot drying-rooms of to-day far exceeds the entire 

 product of aiiy one year prior to 1865. At that time the 

 custom of using wood for drying and firing pots still 

 continued. It required three cords of white pine and 

 from thirty to forty hours' labor to thoroughly Bre a 



lot its only cost: previous 

 of the clay. The hundred 

 o improvement in the pro- 

 It was ground in a wooden 

 n ox. The various other 

 1865 as they had been 



