144 



UTENSILS USED IN HORTICULTURE. 



having a moveable top, which can be taken off at pleasure, to admit light or 

 to gather the produce. Boxes of boards, however, are found more econo- 

 mical. There are also square-made pots, which, it is alleged, by filling up 

 the angles left by round pots, allow of a greater quantity of soil being obtained 

 in a given space in beds or shelves under glass ; and pots with one side 

 flattened, and with a pierced ear or handle, to admit of hanging the pot against 

 a wall or a trunk of a tree. Many other fanciful pots might have been figured 

 and described ; but in the general practice of gardening all these peculiar pots 

 (figs. 52 to 58) may be dispensed with ; and, in truth, with the exception of 

 the last forms (figs. 57 and 68), they are only found in the gardens of some 

 amateurs. It is useful, however, to know what has been done or attempted in 

 this way, in order to prevent a waste of time in repeating similar contrivances. 



421. From the porosity of the material of which common earthenware 

 plant-pots are made, it is evident that when the soU within the pot is moist, 

 and the pot placed in a warm dry atmosphere, the evaporation and transpi- 

 ration through the sides must be considerable ; and as evaporation always 

 takes place at the expense of heat, this must tend greatly to cool the mass 

 of soil and'fibrous roots within (252 and 257.) This may be prevented by 

 glazing the exterior surface of the pot ; but as this would add to the ex- 

 pense, and be chiefly useful in the case of plants in pots kept in rooms, it is 

 seldom incurred. To prevent evaporation in rooms the double-pot is sometimes 

 used, or single pots are surrounded by moss, or cased in woollen cloth or bark of 

 trees : in plant-houses, the atmosphere is, or ought to be, so nearly saturated 

 with moisture by other means, as to reduce the evaporation from the pots to 

 a degree that cannot prove injurious. From the bad effects of this evaporation 

 in warm countries may be traced the practice in these countries of growing 

 plants in wooden boxes, which was probably instinctively hit upon, without 

 any reference to principles. The advantage which earthenware pots have 

 over boxes is, that they can be made round, by which means shifting is 

 effected with much greater ease than it can be with any rectangular utensil. 



422. Earthenware saucers for pots are made and sold on the same prin- 

 ciple as pots, viz. : in casts ; a cast of saucers for sixties or thumbs costing 



as much as a cast for thirty-two, or 

 sixes. Saucers are chiefly . used in 

 living rooms, or in other situations 

 where the water which escapes from 

 the hole in the bottom of the pot 

 would prove injurious; and to pre- 

 vent this water from 

 oozing through the 

 porous material of 

 the saucer, it is 

 sometimes glazed on 

 the inside. There 

 are also saucers, or Fig. 59. isolating- 



flats, as they are 



Fig. 60. AMar water -saucer. caUed, made with raised platforms in 



the centre, for the pots containmg the plants to stand in ; m some cases, in 

 order that they may stand dry and not be liable to be entered by earth- 

 worms ; and in others, in order to surround them with water, and thus isolate 

 them from the attacks of creepmg insects, such as wood-lice, ants, &c. 

 Utensils of this kind are also used for supporting boards in the open garden, 



