Vases
There are various kinds of Vases in use, both for growing plants in, and also for arranging cut flowers. Vases for terrace walls and other positions in formal flower-gardening, and also for conservatory embellishment, are made in various sizes, and in great variety of design. Terra-cotta is largely employed in their manufacture, as it withstands all weathers, and is well adapted for the purpose. Vases are also made of stone and cast iron, amongst other substances. For the arrangement of cut flowers for table and room decorations, glass Vases are best---flowers do not look so well in anything else--but sometimes silver, old china, or other valuables, are used for the purpose of exhibiting them, in addition to making them receptacles for flowers. China and glass Vases may be procured in the greatest range of variety, and in shapes and sizes which suit all individual requirements. It is unnecessary to describe the various kinds, but those known as Trumpet Vases or Glasses are amongst the best for cut flowers. In dinner-table decoration the Vases should be low in stature, or, if one or more Trumpet Glasses are used down the centre, so lightly arranged with flowers that nothing shall be caused in the way of an obstruction to the view from one side of the table to the other.
VEGETABLE EARTH, or VEGETABLE MOULD. Soil largely mixed with humus or decayed remains of plants (see Humus). It is usually very dark, but the colour varies with the proportion of humus, and of the other constituents of the soil. Good Vegetable Mould may contain from 3 to 25 per cent. of humus, and is usually very fertile. A higher percentage of plant-remains is unfavourable, as organic acids are apt to be formed and to accumulate in the soil, to the detriment of most plants, though some species of wild plants prefer such a soil, e.g., several prefer peat, which consists of little but humus. To render such soils as contain excess of humus fertile, it is necessary to add certain manures or other substances to them in order to hasten the decay of the vegetable remains, and to bring them into a condition fit for the nutrition of the plants for which the ground is to be prepared. See also Humus.