THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
95 
j May 18.] 
than often is incurred in making strong common-look¬ 
ing boxes ; and when we add to all this the certainty of 
such ornaments lasting our lifetime, surely it will be 
worth while to strain a point or two to get a few of them 
into our rooms and gardens. 
I am no great admirer of what is called Wardian cases; 
they might pass muster in the house of a Mandarin in 
China, where such childish things are highly prized; 
but I cannot bring myself to believe that they are at 
all suitable to our stage of civilisation. At any rate, 
let us keep them out of country places, and confine their 
use to large towns and cities; and in place of them 
let this style of household gardening prevail, for it is 
applicable to all our requirements, to any order of archi¬ 
tecture, and to every mode of house or room decoration! 
i any recess inside or outside a window, up or down 
stairs, where there is plenty of light and air,—out about 
the doors, under verandas, along the terraces, on either 
side of a summer-house door, aud, in short, in every con¬ 
ceivable way; and not only that, the plants may be 
changed in these boxes and baskets as easily and as 
often as if they were growing in pots; and, moreover, 
the plan is not a mere suggestion, for it has been in full 
operation here for some time, and is found to answer 
very well indeed, and like every thing else that is really 
useful it is a most simple arrangement. 
It is no more than making all these flower-cases, 
whether boxes, or baskets, or stands, without bottoms. 
Yes, they are bottomless boxes; all our fancy boxes 
here in which we show off some of our best plants in the 
living rooms, and out on the terraces, are without bot¬ 
toms. The sides and ends are made of ornamental 
wood, or painted in imitations, or made-up of exquisitely 
beautiful tiles of China-ware of different forms and 
colours. These are let into light-frames, just as we 
make glass-lights for a cucumber-bed; and sometimes 
the China or Dutch tiles, or coloured glass, are “ backed,” 
that is, placed in fancy patterns outside a light made 
box, and kept in their places with thin paste made of 
white-lead and oil. The whole side or end of a flower- 
box of this kind > might be made out of a plate of looking- 
glass, or some of my old window friends may make a 
flower-basket out of the finest willows, and of any fancy 
shape they choose, and it will last as long as Sally’s 
“ work basket,” which she has had since I was a boy; 
aud every other contrivance between this frail basket 
and that looking-glass sided box may also be made to 
answer the purpose equally well. Who, then, would 
stifle beautiful little plants in glass bottles, or Wardian 
cases, when any kind of fancy furniture may be imitated 
in a flower-box, case, or basket ? 
But how are the plants to be supported all this time? 
Simply by giving them water when they want it. No ! 
no ! I do not mean that kind of support. But how are 
they to stand in a bottomless box, as you say they will 
do so easily? I never said such a thing; but I see what 
you mean. We make use of all this finery just in the 
same way, and for almost the same purpose, as others 
use “pillow-slips;" if there were no pillow-slips, the 
pillows must have been unfeatliered every time they 
stood in need of the laundry-maid, just as flower-boxes 
of the common make need be taken to pieces when the 
bottom or sides are rotted by the damp mould; so that 
if they were made ever so handsome or costly, they 
could not last but a few years; hence the reason why 
this department of garden decoration has not kept pace 
with the other improvements of the day. With the aid 
of a few pillow-slips, or covers, one pillow will last no 
one knows how long, for I never saw a worn out pillow j 
yet; and it is just the contrary with these fancy boxes, 
one of them will last as long as a pillow ; and we can 
have a dozen rough-made boxes, and well tarred on both 
sides to hold the mould and the plants, and a zinc 
drawer attached to the bottom of each inside box to catch 
| and hold the drainage water, till the housemaids come 
round to take away such things; then, if we have twelve 1 
rough boxes for one slip or cover box, we could have a 
different set of flowers in each of them ; and when one 
of these fancy cases stands in a recess under the break¬ 
fast-room window, and we have a friend come to see us 
who will prolong his stay to twelve days, we can shew 
him twelve arrangements of flowers, or twelve kinds of 
window flowers, all in daily succession, and apparently 
in the same box, for there is the motto and the family 
arms wrought in the side of the box next to us in stained 
glass, and the box cannot be mistaken; and the way to 1 
effect the daily change of plants, is this, the gardener has ! 
twelve rough boxes tarred as I have just said, and he 
sows or plants in them long before they are wanted in \ 
the house, or on the terrace, &c., &e., just as they do lor 
the mignonette-boxes for the London windows. When I 
he learns that the said friend is coming to visit his j 
master, he will put one of his gayest boxes into the slip- | 
box the first morning. It has four legs, or rather it 
stands on four stilts, which the carved legs of the slip- 
box cover and keep out of sight, and there is a vacant 
half-inch space between the side of the box and that of 
the case. There is a round hole in each end of the 
rough box near the top, and exactly in the middle, and 
the gardener has two hooks, something like “ boot 
hooks,” which fit these holes, and with these raises up 
or lowers down the rough plant-box, as the case may be, 
into or out of the beautiful slip-box. For the sake of a 
“little chat,” Susan, the house-maid, will not object to 
help the gardener “of a morning” to remove and re¬ 
place these boxes, especially if she takes a pride in her 
“ profession,” and wishes to see the rooms look smart 
when strangers come to the house. Out of doors we 
shall suppose more, if not better help, is at hand, and 
the boot-hooks are on a larger scale, and probably a 
couple of stout iron links are attached to the hooks, and 
also a large iron ring to each of them ; through these 
rings a couple of handspikes, or stout poles, are made to 
pass, and by which very heavy boxes may be lifted or 
let down by a dozen strong men, should the weight re¬ 
quire so much strength. D. Beaton. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
A Few Words on Annuals. —Times change, and men 
and customs change with them! In our younger days the 
sowing and the rearing of annually-sown flowering plants 
were occupations of high consideration. They then 
graced the lawn, took possession of the greenhouse, in 1 
summer, added floral attractions even to the forcing 
departments, found a place on the balcony, and standing 
room on the window-sill. What has been termed “an i 
age of improvement” came, and, like a ruthless invader 
who could bear no rival, swept them nearly all away. : 
Gardeners can hardly be blamed, if blame there be. ; 
They, it is true, have originated the grandest aud 
finest ideas as respects the development of their art: | 
the grouping system without and within, with whatever 
advantage or disadvantage there is connected with it, is 
all their own; and its opposite, the fine specimen system, 
is a child of their own rearing; but, as servants, they 
must as a matter of duty carry out the tastes and the 
ideas of those who employ them. It matters not whether 
in their opinion the ideas of their employers he refined, 
original, and suited to the locality, or merely a servile 
imitation of what has been done in some great establish¬ 
ment, where circumstances are entiroly different. In 
the different cases the pleasure of working will be dissi- 
i milar; but all that, in the latter case, the gardener can 
: with propriety do, is respectfully to state his dissent, 
I and the reasons on which it is grounded; and if that , 
