68 OPERATIONS OF GAEDENING. PART. I. 



that compression to which it has been subject, from the daily 

 beating down upon it of water from the watering-pot. 



Sometimes, when water has to be fetched from a distance for 

 watering potted plants, a bhistee is employed to go round with 

 the malee to refill his watering-pot from the mushk, immediately 

 that it becomes empty. This will be found a very bad arrange- 

 ment. The bhistee, to get the work over as soon as possible, 

 when not observed, will water the pots himself from his mushk, 

 and thus, by the violence of the water dashed down upon them, 

 often destroy tender and valuable plants. I have entirely 

 obviated the difficulty by purchasing from the bazar an earthen- 

 ware vessel, the largest that could be procured, capable of 

 holding perhaps four or five mushks full of water. This was 

 sunk to the rim in a spot close to where the potted plants were 

 placed, and the bhistee directed to fill it every afternoon with 

 water. The malee dipped the watering-pot into it when he 

 pleased, and supplied himself without difficulty or delay. The 

 earthenware vessel must have its sides supported by being sunk 

 into the earth, or it would soon break to pieces by the weight of 

 the water within it. 



DRAINAGE OF POTTED PLANTS. 



There is no point the importance of which is so strongly 

 insisted on by all gardeners as the drainage of potted plants. 

 The usual means, however, adopted for the purpose prove in 

 this country often utterly ineffectual ; the materials placed at 

 the bottom of the pot, such as pieces of brick, charcoal, and 

 potsherds, failing to act in the way of drainage altogether. 

 For in the first place, during the Hot season, from the constant 

 daily watering that is indispensable, the upper portion of the 

 soil in the pot becomes so dense and compact, that no water, 

 however liberally supplied, makes its way down to the drainage, 

 or even to the soil for some height above it. A partial remedy 

 for this is to lay flat broken pieces of potsherd, or pebbles, or 

 small clinkers, over the surface of the soil. The water then 

 falls with all its force upon these, and trickles between them 

 into the soil below, without any great tendency to solidify it 

 and render it impervious. And, again, during the Bains, if 

 potted plants be put out, with the bottoms of the pots resting 

 upon the ground, or, indeed, upon any flat surface, no water 



