HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 299 



argument, believing that if decency and cleanliness are strictly kept in 

 practice, as they ought to be, there is nothing in the ordinary use of pots 

 which can be absorbed so as to contaminate the soil which might afterwards 

 be placed within them, to the injury of even the most delicate-rooted plants. 



As regards the objection to placing the roots of various plants, originally 

 inhabitants of earth, air, and water, all promiscuously in contact with burnt 

 clay, very little of reflection will be sufficient to convince any one that the 

 same remarks would apply equally to any other kind of pots, whether glazed 

 or otherwise. 



The use to which glazed pots seem most applicable, by the nature of their 

 composition, is that of the cultivation of aquatics, and bog or marsh plants ; 

 the effectual prevention of evaporation through their sides and bottom, 

 would, in all probability, render them well adapted for these kinds of plants, 

 and, in this respect, the use of crockage as drainage might also, in all pro- 

 bability, be readily dispensed with. 



One objection to glazed pots, in the culture of many kinds of plants, 

 even if there were no other with which to oppose them, is the smoothness 

 of their inner surface ; any one who has paid attention to the rooting of 

 plants in pots, must be aware that many kinds delight to root amongst the 

 broken crockage, and about any irregularity of surface in the pot : this 

 would appear to have some assimilation with the fissures of rocks, in which 

 it is known that some kinds delight to root ; and, if this be the case, the 

 smooth glazed pots, and the absence of all crockage, as recommended, 

 might render them still less valuable. 



The great objection, however, to glazed pots, is the simple fact that they 

 are not porous, and this brings me to notice briefly, the advantage of those 

 in common use over the those recommended by "Londinensis." The air 

 is composed of certain gases, which are taken up by and are the food 

 of plants; these gases are absorbed in various forms, both by the roots and 

 leaves of plants . and therefore it is that, in a certain degree, atmospheric 

 air is as necessary to the spongioles as it is to the foliage of the vegetable 

 race ; hence the deep burying of the roots of trees, which is found to be 

 injurious, and is accordingly deprecated ; and hence it is, also, that in the 

 culture of those trees in which horticultural science is more immediately 

 concerned, we find shallow borders now recommended, and the roots to be 

 disposed in such a position as to be near the surface of the soil ; the reason 

 of this is, that the air may penetrate the soil sufficiently to reach the 

 spongioles, so as to be taken up by them as food. In the culture of plants 

 in pots, the porosity of the sides of the latter will permit the atmospheric 



