95 
THE LETTER-BOX. 
Mr. George Wright. Lechenaultia formosa is not a diffi¬ 
cult plant to grow ; if you reduce the quantity of loam employed 
in your compost, and increase the sand, you will improve it. 
The peat should be light and full of fibre ; sufficient sand should 
be added to make the whole mass when well mixed of a grayish 
colour. The plants at this season should never be allowed to 
become dry ; water should be given every day, enough to moisten 
the earth thoroughly. You are quite right with the drainage, 
and will find some further remarks on this plant at page 163 of 
our Second Volume. 
Dr. A. We cannot undertake to determine the special 
name of your Acacia by your description, graphic as it is; but 
as the treatment is similar for the whole genus, we advise you 
to repot it now, giving it a good-sized pot filled with rich turfy 
loam; allow it a shady place out of doors from this time till 
next September, observing to keep it well watered, and we 
promise you it will make a ‘‘noble shrub.” 
We have received a long letter from Mr. H. Hunt of Pimlico, 
on the subject of his patent pots; in which he accuses us of 
“ uncourteousness” and “ partiality,” because in our last we as¬ 
serted that garden pots of the same construction as those 
Mr. Hunt has patented was known to and had been made for 
us; and further, that we had published a description of the same 
in the Florist’s Journal some eighteen months ago. 
Mr. H. says it was uncourteous because we knew nothing of 
him, and he tells us that many eminent cultivators have patro¬ 
nized his pots; we are glad of it, because it shows the necessity 
of preserving a useful improvement to the public, whenever it 
can be done without infringing on private rights. For our¬ 
selves we were content to give the benefit of it to our readers, 
as soon as we were satisfied of its utility, and we assure him we 
should have attacked his patent before, had we been sooner 
aware of it; not that we are actuated by any personal motives, 
for, as Mr. Hunt says, we know nothing of him. But, although 
he tells us he sells them at a trifling advance on the price of the 
old ones, is not the existence of a patent a complete barrier to 
their use at a distance from the metropolis ? We should like to 
ask what would be the cost of a few casts of these pots after a 
journey of 100 or 150 miles ? 
That the improvement is highly useful there cannot be a doubt; 
and the whole merit of the case resolves itself into this question, 
which Mr. H. can best answer. Is the date of patent anterior 
to our first notice of these pots ? if it is we much wonder that he 
did not sooner make them known ; if it is not, we suppose the 
same gentleman will allow we may again get them made by the 
