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CAN LARGE SPECIMENS OF HARD-WOODED PLANTS BE GROWN IN SMALL POTS? 
"black, but not at once cast off. The inflorescence is axillary, the racemes forming dense globular 
heads, on woolly peduncles, which are somewhat shorter than the leaves, and have nearly the same 
horizontal direction. The bracts are caducous, dark brown, and shaggy, those at the base of the 
raceme trifid, with the lateral lobes longest, the upper ones obovate mucronate. The flowers are 
shortly stalked; the calyx bell-shaped, with five teeth, of which the pair forming the upper lip are 
slightly broader, and, as well as the next opposite pair, are obliquely ovate acuminate, the lower tooth 
being equal; the calyx is permanently shaggy, with loose hairs, which are dark coloured on the teeth, 
and much longer on the upper side of the two oblique pairs than on the lower. The corolla is large, 
bearing a proportion to the broad foliage and stout habit, and is of a deep rich orange-yellow, marked 
with dark maroon; the standard is sub-rotund, emarginate, (five-eighths broad, one-half inch deep), 
clear orange-yellow, with a small horse-shoe rayed band of reddish brown around a small yellow base; 
the wings are oblong^spathulate (three-eighths long), deep yellow, covering the boat-shaped, maroon- 
coloured keel. The style slightly exceeds the stamens, and is twice as long as the calyx. The ovary is 
two-ovuled, subsessile, villose, half as long as the calyx.—M. 
CAN LAEGE SPECIMENS OE HAED-WOODED PLANTS EE GEOWN IN 
SMALL POTS? 
t T is now about nine years since I first called attention to the growth of plants upon the large or 
“ one shift system,” as it was at that time very inappropriately called. How far the art of culti¬ 
vation has improved since, the metropolitan exhibitions fully testify; for though there may be many 
who deny the practicability of the plan, the large shift system has answered in the hands of good 
gardeners, and even bad ones must have profited by it. My object, however, in this essay, is to 
direct the attention of cultivators in an opposite direction, and to enquire whether it is not possible to 
grow specimen plants in pots much smaller than those generally used, and to some extent considered 
indispensable. "We all know that some years back Pelargoniums and Calceolarias were grown in 
large pots, at least in pots very much larger than those allowed at the present time. But were the 
plants finer than they have been since growers have been confined to eight-inch pots ? Though not a 
grower for exhibition at that time, I think I may unhesitatingly assert that Pelargoniums were never 
shown in finer condition than during the past season, for some of the specimens produced by Mr. 
Cock, of Chiswick, were matchless, and, as was remarked at the time, he “ quite eclipsed himself.” I 
recollect, some years back, when Mr. Cock used to show magnificent plants, but very deficient in 
bloom ; but in small pots no person has bloomed them more superbly, not only for quantity, but also 
for quality, of flower. The same might also be said of all the leading growers, for, though some may 
have had a “ miss,” the majority of exhibitors have presented Pelargoniums in very creditable condi¬ 
tion. Now the question naturally presents itself,—How has this been accomplished ? Why, by 
using composts in a highly concentrated form, by feeding, in addition, with manure water, or, in a 
word, by putting as much food into a small pot as used to be contained in a large one. This is the 
secret of success with soft-wooded plants, and can the same result be attained with hard-wooded ones ? 
With those who have not studied the subject, the question will be answered in the negative, at once, 
and they will “ whistle me down the wind” as a simpleton for proposing it; but others, who look 
beyond the surface of things, if they look to their own collections, or to the collections of neighbours, 
may possibly recollect plants that have been growing in small pots for a number of years, and yet, at 
the present time, have not a very discreditable appearance. Many of the London exhibitors will 
recollect a large specimen of Erica ampullacea , which Mr. Bruce, gardener to Boyd Miller, Esq., used 
to show in fine condition every season, That plant was grown in a pot considerably smaller than was 
generally considered necessary, and I think, the last time I saw the plant at Chiswick, Mr. Bruce told 
me it had not been shifted for either five or seven years. The large Heaths shown seven years back by 
Mr. May, gardener to E. Goodhart, Esq., were remarkable for the smallness of their pots as compared 
