239 
plants might be kept tolerably dry ; but, for his polyanthuses, 
he would use the hard ones, for the advantage of continued 
moisture. Again, his lobelias would, of course, occupy the 
hard pots — they cannot be kept too moist; whilst for his chry- 
santhemums he would prefer the more porous description, for 
with undue moisture the leaves of these would become yellow 
and fall off. 
It will be no contradiction to these observations, should we 
be told that all these circumstances may be properly met by 
the use of soil of more or less sandy and pervious quality, 
combined with proper attention. We readily admit that a 
plant may be kept in health and luxuriant growth, in a glazed 
pot, or even in an iron vessel without a drain hole. Nice atten- 
tion to the quality of soil, and a supply of the precise quantity 
of water required by the plant, would surmount all inconve- 
niences that would otherwise arise from the quality of the pot; 
but this sort of accurate and exact management should never 
be expected; therefore, for common purposes, we should look 
out for that flower pot which will prove the most useful under 
all the circumstances which influence its employment — that 
offers the smallest amount of inconvenience under the common 
attention, or rather inattention, that more or less must inevitably 
prevail in every garden. 
At present, we have no clear and definite data from which 
deductions, otherwise than conditionally, can be drawn. In- 
deed, this must always be more or less the case, inasmuch as it 
is, we presume, impossil^le to burn pots, so as to produce them 
always alike pervious to moisture. A hard pot, cased with 
water, may transmit insufficient fluid to the |>lant; whilst a 
soft one, under similar conditions, may admit it so rapidly as 
to be injurious. Therefore alter all, it is pretty evident, that 
efficient cultivation is not to be effected without discrimination 
— without the application of common sense, to vary its oper- 
ations according to circumstances. 
W e are favoured with a letter from zEgaeon, the correspon- 
dent of the Chronicle, above alluded to, advocating the moist 
atmosphere system ; that is, by closing the aperture of the 
cistern, and depending on the moisture of the included air, 
which he thinks may be rendered more or less humid by the 
exterior application of water. Now, we cannot object to this, 
220 . AOCTABIDM. 
