JAN U All Y. 
warm. If there is a good place at all in these rooms it is in the window ; and 
a basket hanging at the top, or midway down, is but little obstruction to the 
light. 
The reason these baskets have been so little used hitherto may be traced to 
various causes. One of the principal is their bad construction for watering; 
another, the way in which they are generally planted, and the plants used 
being frequently unfit both for the purpose and for places where they are 
intended to be used. 
Nothing is so disagreeable in rooms of any description as water splashing 
about; and to get over this difficulty we had our baskets contrived with a 
loose zinc case to fit inside the wire ; and underneath another small zinc case 
furnished with a small tap, which the other fits into, and the watering could 
be done at any time and drawn off. 
The woodcut, jig. 1, represents the basket with the case in it. The bottom 
partly. 2, also encloses a case of zinc 
within the wire of the basket, fixed to 
which is the tube 4, furnished with a 
little round brass nosel, and a small 
ornamental tap, 5, to let the surplus 
water off when required, and without 
any particular care being necessary. 
The zinc case, 3, is a simple affair— 
something like a round dish with holes 
in the bottom, which allows the water 
to pass into 2. These zinc dishes are 
used as baskets, a wire being put 
round the rim. In making them, 
three or four holes are left to put the 
hooks of the chains in. They are then 
filled with plants which are grown on 
for a succession, and as those in the 
rooms begin to show signs of being sickly, these replace them in the same 
basket as the others were. But when properly filled it is surprising how long 
they will remain healthy in the rooms. 
An excellent method of keeping these baskets interesting is, when filling 
these cases to place in them several empty pots, 6, 6, according to the size ot 
the basket; in small sizes one will be sufficient, pressing the soil round each 
pot. Suppose we take one of these cases ready for a drawing-room for this 
month of January, 1864. It is well furnished all round with the beautiful Davallia 
elegans, fully illustrating its title to that name by hanging gracefully down all 
round the basket. In the centre is an empty pot, known as 32-size, or 5 inches 
across the top ; round this are four smaller sizes ; and on the surface of the soil 
are dotted a few patches of Adiantum capillus-Veneris, the whole covered with 
Lycopodium denticulatum. When this is put into the rooms in place of the 
empty pots, the same sizes, each filled with a plant in bloom, are introduced ; 
the smaller sizes in a similar way, and a succession is easily kept up where there 
is plenty of glass with Begonias, Hyacinths, Ixias, Tulips, &c. If the 
basket was wanted for a sitting-room, say in London, we would then plant 
Saxifraga sarmentosa round the sides, or for the sake of a choice, we have 
found the following succeed well in sitting-rooms during the winter : The 
Disandria prostrata ; the common Loosestrife (Lysimachia nummularia); the 
variegated Ground Ivy (Gleclioma variegata) ; the variegated Cobooa, and Ivy¬ 
leaved Geraniums. But the Saxifraga is the best, and most certain to succeed 
with least light; it is besides a handsome object in itself, and a small basket of 
