Genei^al Notices. 189 



supplied. Practice, however limited, will have presented numerous exam- 

 ples of this, and likewise of plants suffering from an over-abundant supply. 

 It may not, however, be so clearly understood that the plant is suifering 

 from a two-fold cause; viz., the over-supply of moisture retained in the 

 ball from defective draining, as well as defective potting. Thus the water 

 which is prevented from passing off freely, occupies every crevice, to the 

 almost total exclusion of the natural atmosphere, the great and essential 

 aliment of vegetable structure. Plants, therefore, cannot long exist in 

 health, unless these principles are embodied in the practical operation of 

 potting. So necessary and important are they, that the commonest plant 

 under our care is largely influenced by the right application of these simple 

 but all-important considerations, which, when rightly understood and closely 

 adhered to, will do much to regenerate the whole system of plant-growincr. 

 The unnatural position of a plant in a pot, in the first place — and our com- 

 plete ignorance, or disregard of this fact, without corresponding efforts to 

 overcome the difficulties which this position naturally creates — has entailed 

 upon the mere machine in the shape of a gardener all those evils which stare 

 him in the face, day after day, and year after year, to no purpose. Verily, 

 unless it be personal violence, or the loss of his situation, that may rouse 

 his energies, or lift his eyelids, nothing else will. Happily, these strictures 

 cannot be applied to a vast number of my brother gardeners, who are fully 

 alive to the importance of this inquiry, and who tarry not by the way-side, 

 but have trimmed their lamps, and buckled on their armor, determined to go 

 on conquering and to conquer. {Gard. Chronicle, 1845, p. 100.) 



Having pointed out the condition in which too many of the plants designed, 

 alas ! for ornamenting our greenhouses, &c., are found in a vast number of 

 our largest establishments, and having also entered at some length into an 

 explanation of the principles of potting, we shall now approach the subject 

 more closely, and, at the same time, answer the inquiries of numerous cor- 

 respondents, by detailing the actual mode of proceeding, and showing that 

 which should never be omitted in the potting of every plant, provided that 

 plant is meant for any other purpose than merely existing, which, we can- 

 didly confess, would be difficult to determine in numerous cases which daily 

 come under our notice. Is it possible for plants to exhibit their natural 

 character, or develop their beauty, unless c-ultivation forms a cardinal ele- 

 ment in their management 1 We think not. In former times, which may 

 be termed the dark ages of horticulture, a botanic garden was looked upon 

 as a kind of museum of plants ; if plants did but exist, the end was served : 

 times are different now ; they must not only exist, but grow. Look, for 

 example, at the Royal Botanic Garden, at Kew, under the glorious olden 

 days of darkness, and observe it now — a credit to our country. The plants 

 in every department have not only bones, but flesh and clothing upon them ; 

 they scarcely know themselves, or, rather, we scarcely know them. All 

 public establishments, we take it, are meant as examples for our guidance ■ 

 as schools of instruction for gardeners, as well as for the public ; their un- 

 limited resources place them in this position, and, in future, we trust, that 

 they will prove to be such. 



