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and the plant will die : but, if the empty space be permitted to 
remain empty, the inner portion of the pot receiving moisture 
only from the watering required for the well-being of the plant, 
the outer side having water occasionally poured on it, or the 
pot being immersed for a few minutes in it, he feels assured 
that the sides of the pot will be kept so fully saturated by these 
means, that they will be constantly giving out into the empty 
space a vapour, by which the inner portion of the innermost 
pot (towards which the young roots always incline, and with 
which they are in contact) will be kept sufficiently cool and 
moist, and (he roots will be preserved from injury.” 
We presume Mr. Brown never contemplated making a pot 
that would supersede all others, but one that should meet 
certain circumstances in cultivation; and in this he has, doubt- 
less, succeeded. Where flowers, in pots, are required to decorate 
balconies, terraces, or other similarly exposed situations, in 
summer, these will be exceedingly advantageous, inasmuch as 
they will save care and labour. As regards the value of the 
principle, we think that neither has Dr. Bindley, or his Corres- 
pondent, carried out his observations quite far enough. They 
have treated the subject as if all plants were alike in habit and 
constitution ; as if every vegetable being would be alike either 
killed or cured by this new hydropathic mode of treatment. 
Scores of people have rejoiced in the wet sheets of the Silesian 
Peasant, but many also have suffered for their boldness in 
trusting to the cold-water doctors. So would Mr. Brown’s 
cold-water pot be health to hundreds of plants, but disease 
to others. 
Early in our gardening career, we had hard Staffordshire 
flower-pots in common use, but soon discovered that these were 
too retentive of moisture ; that the soil in them continued too 
long wet, and that when laid by, without attention, it soon 
produced a crop of liver- wort; many plants in them were, also, 
much injured by the continual moist state of the soil. We 
then obtained Bristol pots, of a very porous nature, which are 
well adapted for general use, but not for all. Having now 
both hard and soft pots at hand, it would seem impossible 
ever to use the one or the other without thinking of the suit- 
ableness of the tenement to the tenant. The florist, in potting 
his pinks, would take those pots wliich were softest, that his 
