SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. ClIAP. 



in this division of horticulture, cultivation in pots and 

 also in glasses. Potting is a very nice operation; it 

 should always be done (as it very frequently is not) in 

 the most careful manner possible. In the first place, the 

 pots that you are about to use should be thoroughly 

 clean, both inside and outside ; for, nothing looks worse 

 than a set of dirty flower-pots, and nothing can thrive in 

 a mass of crusted earth which is often found filling flower 

 pots to a third part of their height, having probably been 

 left in them ever since they were last used. Having a 

 clean pot, put in a handful of broken pot-sherds, put 

 upon this, earth enough to fill the pot a little less than 

 half full, take the plant you are going to put into it, in 

 your left hand, and with as good a ball of earth about its 

 roots as circumstances will admit ; hold it in the pot to 

 see if there be enough, or too much earth in. The earth 

 should rise up about the stem of the plant to where it 

 did before you took it up, and neither higher nor lower : 

 nature shows the exact line at which the root ends and 

 the stem begins; and you must follow this. Place the 

 plant on the earth ; hold it steady, while, with your 

 right hand, yeu put in fine earth round the roots so as to 

 touch them in all parts ; that done, take hold of the 

 edges of the pot with your two hands, and rap it gently 

 down on the ground two or three times ; put on a little 

 more earth, and finish by giving a little water, which will 

 cause the earth to settle immediately about the roots. 

 If your pots be to remain out of doors, place them on 

 a flat surface that has been previously strewed over with 

 coal ashes, and this will prevent worms getting to them. 

 Always observe to keep pots upright, so that the water 

 which you give them may run out, which, unless this be 





