November 21. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
133 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
Weather near London in 
1853. 
Clock Day ol 
af. Sun. Year. 
M 
w 
NOVEMBER 21 — 27, 1854. 
Barometer. 
Thermo. Wind. 
ltain in 
Inches. 
Rises. 
Sets. 
It. & S. 
Age. 
21 
To 
Princess Royal dorn 1840. 
30.292—30.230 
16—21 
N. 
_ 
30 a 7 
2 a 4 
4a32 
1 
13 58 325 
22 
w 
' 
30.295—30.179 
36—23 
S. 
— 
32 
1 
5 19 
2 
13 42 326 
23 
Th 
30.227—30.039 
33—24 
s. 
— 
34 
0 
6 25 
3 
13 26 327 
24 
F 
30 . 057 — 29.924 
41—29 
S. 
12 
35 
III 
7 44 
4 
13 8 328 
25 
s 
Deluge said to have been. 
30 . 095 — 29.959 
46—33 
S.E. 
26 
37 
68 
9 10 
5 
12 60 329 
26 
Sun 
24 Sunday after Trinity. 
29-974—-29.781 
43—31 
N. 
05 
38 
57 
10 37 
6 
12 32 j 330 
27 
nr 
Oak leafless. 
30.119—30.038 
40—37 
N.E. 
— 
40 
56 
morn. 
3 
12 12 331 
1 
Meteorology of the Week. —At Chiswick, from observations during the last twenty-seven years, the average highest and lowest tem- 
peratures of these clays are 47.6°, and 35.1°, respectively. The greatest heat, 59°, occurred on the 21st, in 1833; and the lowest cold, 18°, on 
the 26th, in 1849- During the period 94 days were fine, and on 95 rain fell. 
“ You practical Gardeners, in explaining why plants 
require shifting, from time to time, into larger pots 
! during their progress of growth, say, that if a plant is 
j put at first into a large pot (so as to avoid the trouble 
! of re-potting), the roots do not extend downwards, but 
| in a horizontal direction till they reach the sides of the 
pot, and then downwards upon the sides of the pot till 
they roach the bottom, enclosing the ball of earth in the 
centre, from which they receive no support; and to 
prevent this, the plant is put first into a very small pot, 
shifting to a larger as the pot becomes filled with roots. 
“ Again, when instructing us as to when plants should 
be re-potted, you say,—Do it whenever the roots reach 
the sides of the pot. Now, if the roots have gone on in 
a horizontal direction, and the plant has been shifted 
from each pot whenever the roots came into contact 
with the sides of it, they will have gone on horizontally 
till they reach the sides of the last, or largest, pot, and 
will just be as they would have been had the plaut been 
put into the largest pot at first. If the plant wore 
allowed to remain in each pot till the roots reached tire 
sides of tiro pot, and down the sides to the bottom, or 
even half down, \ could better understand the above 
reasoning. You will see there is a something I do not 
properly understand. 
“ The nursery people always keep their plants for 
sale in very small pots. I bought two lately, Azalea 
triumphant, and Mitraria coccinea , and both are in such 
small pots, compared with the size of the plants, that 
the ball of earth in each is completely enclosed with 
roots, and sucli a mass of roots that the earth 
cannot be seen, nor anything but a solid body of 
roots, round and round, and underneath, completely 
enveloping earth and drainage and all. How do you 
advise me to treat these in repotting? Should I 
just put them as they are into larger pots, filling up 
the space, of course, between the roots and sides of the 
pots with mould ? or do you advise me to disentangle or 
cut the roots in any way? I believe it will be im¬ 
possible to disentangle them without breaking and 
destroying more than half the roots. 
“J. M-, Hamilton.” 
The above letter is one of three (the other two being 
signed Alpha and Robert G.), all making the same 
mistake relative to the object to be attained by potting. 
The mistake is in the opinion, that when a plant is 
shifted from one pot into another, it is always for the 
purpose of giving more side-room for the plant’s roots. 
Now, so far is this from being true, that we may say, 
without any reservation, that a plant properly cultivated 
is shifted for that purpose more seldom than for any 
other. In fact, shifting into a “larger pot, beyond one 
nine or ten inches in diameter, ought never to be 
practised, except in the case of large shrubs, or where 
gigantic specimens are required for exhibition. 
If a plant is required to increase in size and luxuri¬ 
ance, then let it be shifted at once into a large pot— 
much larger than the ono it is to be turned out from— 
and let the soil added above, below, and around it, be as 
rich in the decomposing matter most suitable to the 
plant as is compatible with its health. By such treat¬ 
ment, you induce the plant to extend its roots in length, 
and to increase their number; they thus are empowered 
to draw from the soil a much larger quantity of food, 
and it is a law of vegetable life, from which we kuow of 
no exception, that just in proportion as a plant takes in 
food by its roots, does it increase its amount of leaf- 
surface to digest it. 
Now, another law of vegetable life is—the more luxu¬ 
riant you render a plant in leaves, before the blossom- 
buds are formed, the more you diminish its blossoms. 
This brings us to the answer which we conceive applies 
to our three correspondents. If they require moderate¬ 
sized specimens and abundance of blooms, they must not 
re-pot their plants until their roots “ reach the sides of 
the pots, and down the sides to the bottom nor should 
they be re-potted then, until the flower-buds desired make 
their appearance. Then, the roots should be loosened, 
and even shortened, sufficiently to allow the plants, after 
removing some of the old soil, to be re-potted with a little 
fresh soil all round, in pots of the same size as that from 
which they have been taken. A little shading for a few 
days will prevent any flagging, or check, to the plant’s 
digesting processes; and liquid-manure, judiciously 
applied, will supply sufficient nourishment to sustain 
the crop of flowers, however abundant. 
The November Meeting of the Entomological Society 
was held on the Oth instant. The President, Edward 
Newman, Esq., F.L.S., in the Chair. 
Mr. Curtis rose to correct an error which had appeared 
in some of the reports of the proceedings at the last 
Meeting relative to the jumping seeds received from 
America by Sir William Hooker, and in which it was 
stated, that Mr. Curtis had expressed the opinion that 
No. CCCXXI., Vol. XIII. 
