330 



POTTING AND REPOTTING OR SHIFTING, 



up with soil. If the object should be to grow the plant in a smaller pot than 

 that in which it was before, then the ball must be considerably reduced, so 

 as to be somewhat smaller than the pot in which it is to be placed, in order 

 to allow room for some fresh soil. The implements, utensils, &c., necessary 

 for potting are : a bench or table, either fixed or portable, and which must 

 be perfectly level ; pots, tubs, or boxes; broken pots, oyster- shells, or other 

 materials for drainage ; proper soils, a trowel, a small dibber, a spade, and a 

 watering-pot and water. 



739. The main object of growing plants in pots is to render them portable, 

 by which a greater command is obiained in the application to them of the 

 agents of growth and culture, and by which they can be transported at 

 pleasure fi-om one place to another, whether for purposes of use or ornament. 

 A plant in a pot may be kept dry or moist, placed in heat or in cold, in the 

 shade or in the sun, in the open garden, the plant-house, or in the living 

 room, at pleasure. By limiting the size of the pot or box, and the quantity 

 of soil in it, the plants can be grown of much smaller size than when they 

 are planted in the free soil ; and hence the great number of exotic trees and 

 shrubs which can be maintained within a very limited space in plant-struc- 

 tures. In consequence of the roots of each plant being confined to its own 

 pot, the weakest-growing sorts can be grown side by side by the strongest, 

 without injury to either. Were there no means of growing hothouse and 

 greenhouse plants but by planting them in beds or borders under glass, a 

 very few plants would soon fill the largest house, and though they might be 

 pruned both at top and at root to keep them within bounds, yet this could 

 never be done so effectually as by placing each plant in a separate pot or 

 box, by which its growth is on the one hand limited by the quantity of soil 

 in the pot, and on the other not checked or suffbcated by the interference of 

 the roots of any other plants which may adjoin it. There are various other 

 advantages which result from growmg plants in pots, such as stunting the 

 entire plant by the limited supph' of nourishment, and thus causing it to 

 produce flowers at an earlier age, and when of a smaller size, than it would 

 do in the free soil ; enabling us to transfer plants in pots to the free soil at 

 any season, and without interrupting their growth ; to pack and send them 

 to a distance, without injury to their roots ; to grow them in particular 

 kinds of soil, to subject them to experiments, and in the case of seedlings 

 grown in pots either singly or in quantities, to transplant them with the 

 whole of their fibres and spongioles. 



740. The disadvantages of growing plants in pots are : the constant attend- 

 ance which is requisite to preserve the soil in a uniform state of moisture 

 and temperature, and to remove the plant from one pot to another when 

 additional space for the roots becomes requisite, or when the soil contained 

 in the pot becomes impoverished. We have seen (255 to 257, and again in 

 421) in what manner plants in pots, the sides of which are exposed to the 

 air, are deprived of heat and moisture, and of the former to such a degree as 

 to reduce the temperature of the soil of the pot considerably lower than that 

 of the atmosphere in which it is placed ; and there can be no difficulty in 

 conceiving how the soil in the pot is impoverished. The loss of heat and 

 moisture are to be counteracted by plunging the pot in soil or other earthy 

 matter, or by encasing it in any non-conducting material, or placing one pot 

 v/ithin another, and filling the interstices with moist moss or any other 



