42 
IMPROVEMENTS IN GARDEN-POTS. 
Those who have studied the subject of cultivating exotics are well aware that 
a very large amount of influence is exerted on plants by the pots in which they 
are planted, and that such influence may either, by judicious contrivances, be 
brought to aid the cultivator in the development of his plans, or may altogether 
frustrate his designs. We therefore devote a chapter to the discussion of one or 
two modern expedients, and to some suggestions which will make the recently- 
expounded principles of science bear on the present topic. 
One of the questions which have lately been raised regarding pots, and which 
has caused considerable dispute, is the propriety of having them glazed. It seems 
to have been assumed that their appearance must be improved by such a process ; 
and the matter of contention is how they affect the health of the plants. 
Respecting the aspect of glazed pots, we should have thought there could have 
been but one opinion. However clumsily the ordinary pots may be finished, and 
whatever may be the roughness of their surface, these circumstances could readily 
be altered without glazing ; and the most listless observer must at once acknow- 
ledge that a dull, instead of a shining surface, is the only appropriate one for 
garden-pots. To glaze them is to assimilate them to culinary utensils ; and we 
never yet saw a glazed receptacle for plants that was not perfectly abhorrent to 
refined taste ; excepting, perhaps, the large Chinese vases which are used for 
placing plants in during the summer. 
In reference, however, to the health of the plants, experience is most decidedly 
in favour of the hardest pots. The less porous the material, the less likely is it to 
become sodden or saturated with water, or to carry off moisture with too great 
rapidity in the burning heat] of summer. Soft thick pots, that are imperfectly 
baked, are universally discarded by good cultivators, and those which are hardest 
and thinnest preferred. Pots or tubs of slate are found, likewise, to be excellent 
receptacles for most plants ; and hence, we discern nothing but that which is 
fitted for proving beneficial to plants in the idea of glazed pots. But, as their 
hardness and closeness may almost be realized without the glazing, we deprecate 
their use on account of the appearance. 
Within the last few months, a new kind of pot has 
been manufactured by Mr. Brown, of the Kingston pot- 
tery, which is a happy modification of the double pot long 
ago described in our Magazine, and of the plan often pur- 
sued in the case of tender plants, of placing one pot within 
another, and filling the interspace with damp moss, with 
water, or with wet sand. The design (see Fig. 1.) is that of 
combining two pots in one, so as to have on the exterior 
the appearance of only one, to be cheaper than two, and yet to have hollow sides, 
NO.l. 
