ORNAMENTAL POTS 55 



nicest part of all was the return to the nursery, when 

 a tiny, shiny red flower-pot and saucer, with a very 

 prickly baby cactus plant in it, was shown with pride 

 to Nurse. 



It little knew, poor unconscious innocent, as a small, 

 hot, excited hand fingered it, what a precarious existence 

 a nursery life would be. Fortunately, a healthy constitu- 

 tion allowed it to survive many over-waterings and 

 equally trying ordeals of days of forgetfulness and conse- 

 quent drought. 



This love for plants in pots seems alive in all true 

 gardeners. Is it the sense of protection of something 

 small, more helpless than ourselves, that we and children 

 feel in tending them ? Maybe it is transmitted from the 

 earliest centuries. We know that flowers were grown in 

 pots and bowls as long ago as Homer's time, because 

 there are representations of them upon cups that were 

 then used at solemn ceremonies. In very early Egyptian 

 pictures we see flower-pots standing in a garden, much 

 as they are placed in symmetric patterns by Italian 

 gardeners of to-day. 



Unlike the Englishman, who puts all in the frame 

 ground, in long dull rows, the Italians enjoy making a 

 pattern with them. As we look down from a height 

 upon this nursery ground, where roses and lilies in pots 

 are being prepared to decorate the flower-garden proper 

 later on, we see circles and ovals of colour. It seems 

 almost as if they were already planted in a flower-bed, so 

 cleverly are the pots graduated in height. The tallest 

 stand in the centre of a half-circle, whilst little short 

 ones are at the ends. 



Sometimes the frame yard is so arranged that small 

 evergreen trees are planted at regular intervals in the 

 ground. Thus some shelter is obtained from wind or too 

 much sun for the more delicate plants in pots standing upon 



