40 
NEW METHOD OF POTTING PLANTS. 
perceive, likewise, that where the effect of such a practice is so soon apparent, it 
can be more easily regulated and modified than where its operation is more tardy. 
Perhaps, after all, the most gratifying and valuable result of this system is its 
bringing the specimens on which it is employed to early maturity. We have 
lately insisted that no plant can bloom well until it has gained a degree of ma- 
turity ; and facts demonstrate that there is the subversion of a great principle in 
permitting species to flower much ere they have reached what we would designate 
their prime. Potted as we are now suggesting, they would attain this prime at 
the end of their first or second year's growth, or, in short, whenever their roots 
had thoroughly filled the pot in which they are planted, always assuming that the 
size of the pots be adapted to the known habits of the species. After that time, 
they would be capacitated for flowering, in the richest prodigality, till they grew 
old and exhausted. 
The last advantage which we shall adduce is, that the saving in labour, in time, 
and in pots, will be immense. As regards labour, if each specimen be removed from 
the cutting-pot to one which is large enough for it when it has grown to its average 
natural size, all the trouble of re-potting it so many times, which is occasioned by 
the current system, will be spared ; and in respect to pots, none will be necessary 
but those in which the cuttings are struck, and such as are fitted for containing 
large plants. What we mean by the economy of time is, that, as the specimens 
will be reared so very much sooner, the long period now usually wasted on their 
cultivation will be saved ; and this of course includes a large amount of expense 
for house-room, for fuel, and for attention. 
It would look too much like a superfluity to augur that the plan which com- 
prises such advantages will shortly become common, and that it will produce some 
considerable changes for the better in the culture of exotics. There are two or 
three things, however, which are so essential to its success, that we should be 
wrong in not naming them. 
The main point to be observed in potting plants according to this as well as 
the customary mode, is to drain them thoroughly. To do this properly, it is 
requisite that a thick layer of broken pots or ashes, or some such material, be put 
in the bottom of the pot, and not merely a few pieces of potsherd. There should 
be at least an inch of drainage, and over all this should be spread a small quantity 
of dry moss, or a few lumps of very turfy peat or loam, in which all the vegetable 
matter is dead, but which contains a good deal of woody fibre. Either of these 
substances will assist the passage of the water, by preventing the fine earth from 
getting down amongst the drainage and stopping up its interstices ; while they will 
also, by retaining some degree of moisture in themselves, keep the roots cool and 
damp whenever the earth happens to get excessively dry. 
What is of nearly equal consequence, is the texture of the soil. It should by no 
means be reduced, pulverized, or sifted, any more than as the first of these may be 
needful. Vegetable fibre, and stones that are not too cumbersome, should be 
