ON FLOWER PEGS. 277 



common fern (Pteris aquilina) ; only in tlie props the shank or 

 stem runs downward, whilst in the hooked peg ihe sliank runs 

 upward in regard to tlie frond from which they are cut. Although 

 I am anxious to introduce a better and a cheaper article than 

 fern timber for tiiis purpose, I prefer stating the case in this 

 homely way in order that certain old fashioned parties may try 

 the experiment, and likewise tliat by contrasting the two systems 

 all sorts of readers may comprehend more clearly the drift of ray 

 argument, which is that props and pegs manufactured by expe- 

 rienced hands can be rendered less clumsy and less expensive than 

 those formed by the clasp-knife of the labouring man. 



It is impossible to make liooked pegs out of the fronds of fern 

 without having the small end tapering to tlie earth; so that how- 

 ever hard it may be to thrust them in, it is not hard to pull them 

 out, especially if they are put in perpendicularly to the eartii's 

 surface as they generally are, whereas if put in slanting (he weight 

 of earth would help to keep tliem firm ; but all pegs made of green 

 materials naturally shrink in drying, and consequently get loose. 

 In addition to the fern frond pegs above alluded to, there are 

 wooden ones made from the spray of birch, &g. : indeed, the uses 

 of a birch besom about London may be stated thus, — first it is 

 employed to sweep the lawn, secondly to peg the flower beds, and 

 lastly to light the hothouse fires. 



Iron hair pins are used as pegs for plants, and are both neat 

 and cheap, and when luade sufficiently large answer for some 

 plants, but still they are liable to corrosion and other faults. 

 The wooden loop of deal or willow, of the same shape as the hair 

 pin and of the strength of a lucif'er match, answers very well, but 

 it is subject to very clumsy mishaps in unpractised hands : never- 

 theless this loop as well as the hair pin has always a leg too many 

 to be neat, since any article that could do its work with one sup- 

 port is preferable to one requiring two, and the very character of 

 these pegs and loops necessarily limits them to the small size of 

 pegs. 



When a shoemaker wants pegs to tack heel pieces together, it 

 is quite astonishing to see how cleverly he cuts them out : sections 

 of a beech branch are sawed from half an inch to an inch in thick- 

 ness and 5 or 6 inches in diameter, these are cleft into pieces of 

 the size and shape of a gentleman's dressing comb, and these 

 combs are again cleft as it were tooth by tooth, and thus the pegs 

 are formed. Now if a labouring man were set to work at 

 6 o'clock in the morning to make pegs, and were told that every 

 one must be wedge shaped and pointed, and that he had to make 

 30,000 before night, he would certainly think it a very unreason- 

 able demand, whereas the shoemaker would accomplish the task 

 in tlie ten hours and have time to spare. Now if the shoemaker's 



