DRAINING. 243 



mit of the quick escape of water. This drainage, so 

 called, is not alone of use as a means for the rapid es- 

 cape of water, but also for the admission of air to the 

 roots, which brings in another important matter in con- 

 nection with the drainage in pots, the necessity of stand- 

 ing the pots on some rough material, (when solid benches 

 are used in the green-house, or when placed in the open 

 air in beds,) such as gravel or cinders ; for if placed on 

 sand, soil, or anything that will close up the orifice in the 

 bottom of the pot, all the drainage placed in it will avail 

 nothing. It is far better to use no drainage at all, and 

 stand the pots on a rough surface, than to use the drain- 

 age and place the plants on some material that will close 

 the outlet. If, however, the bench is formed of slate, or 

 boards that have been cemented over, so as to form a 

 smooth surface, there is no necessity for placing any 

 gravel or other rough material under the pots, as such 

 a surface will allow the water to pass from the pots more 

 freely than if anything, such as gravel, were placed 

 under them. For very large pots slatted benches are 

 best. 



Many years ago, in some of my first writings on the 

 subject of drainage in pots, I admit to having taken 

 rather too radical ground against the practice, because, 

 in those days, everybody almost used to "crock " or drain 

 the very smallest pots. The absurdity of this soon 

 became apparent to me, as I found that, with hardly an 

 exception, for plants in pots up to the size of four inches, 

 it was worse than useless to drain; and as all my practice, 

 up to that time, had been with pots but little larger than 

 four inches, I rather rashly jumped to the conclusion 

 that, in our warm, dry atmosphere, the European practice 

 of crocking all sizes of flower pots might be wholly dis- 

 pensed with here ; but added experience showed that, 



