m 



JOURNAL OP HOETICtJLTtEE ANt) COttAGE GARDENEfe. 



[ f obniary 37, 1873. 



so, now that tho fact is established, that if the ripe Grapes 

 are not eaten they can be cut and kept with the shoots in 

 bottles of water as well as on the Vines. 



But there is a family of plants of tho greatest possible value 

 and beauty, combined with easy c\ilture, that is perfectly at 

 home in conjunction with Vines. The progressive heat of the 

 vinery in spring and its attendant moisture are exactly suited 

 to the plants, and the dreaded shade of the Vines becomes an 

 actual advantage. It is something, that with a solitary glass 

 erection the finest of all the earth's fruits may be had hanging 

 overhead, while beneath may be enjoyed a family of plants 

 which, for variety, beauty, texture, and symmetry of bloom, 

 have few equals. It is sometliing — j'ea, it is a great deal, that 

 these great and acknowledged gifts of Flora and Pomona will 

 live so well in harmony together, both at home, and alike 

 happy in each other's company. The house-to-itself theory as 

 an absolute necessity is out of court the moment we mention 

 Vines and Camellias. — J. AV., Lincoln. 



LABELS AND TALLIES. 



OcE notice of the Gorrie ground-fast tally has induced two 

 other inventors to submit to us their patterns. In one case 

 the material of which the tallies are made is apparently 21-oz. 

 glass, and they are fashioned after the form of the ordinary 

 wooden tally used in flower-pots, the name of the plant being 

 scratched on the glass with a diamond. Another pattern of 

 the same material is a small rectangular piece with a hole 

 drilled near the upper edge to suspend it by a wh-e to the plant, 

 or to nail it against a wall or other support, the name also 

 being written on with a diamond. These are, no doubt, suffi- 

 ciently permanent, but the writing requires to be closely in- 

 spected to bo readable ; and those that are intended to be 

 inserted in the soil of the pot cannot fail to be liable to break- 

 age. They are certainly clean, neat, and imperishable. 



The other design is tlie same as what is used very commonly 

 in France, and consists of strips of thin lead, mimbered or 

 named by impressing stamps on them. There is no doubt 

 that these will be sufficiently permanent, the only objection 

 being the trouble and labour of impressing such long names 

 as are usually found among plants and fruits. If these strips 

 were of zinc, and simply written on with ink, no labour would 

 be incurred. These are prepared by E. Vanes, 1.5, Baker 

 Street, Portmau Square. The same maker produces them in 

 strips of brass, impressed in the same way as the lead is. 



To the amateur in gardening matters, I know of nothing 

 causing more annoyance than the question of labels and tallies ; 

 for mere bedding-out plants, and the entire class of the gaudy 

 ephemerals of the ribbon border, common white-leaded tallies 

 are quite good enough. But ther^ we have these gems, our 

 dear old herbaceous flowers, which year after year, at their 

 appointed season, come to greet us with their smiling counte- 

 nances, like so many old familiar friends, each of which has a 

 double history ; their addition to our collection, more probably 

 than from the nursei-y of a Ware or a Backhouse, the gift of a 

 neighbour, the memento of a visit, or the souvenir of some 

 departed friend ; and then that other history, full particulars of 

 nomenclature, derivation, and classiticatiou, the countries they 

 were natives of, year of introduction, etc., all faithfully gleaned 

 from our staunch ally " Johnson's Gardeners' Dictionary." 



If we depend for the names of the niunerous yearly additions 

 to our stock, on the common tally, ere another blooming time 

 comes round, it is almost illegible, if not a total blank ; or, it 

 may be, a matted package arrives from Sawbridgeworth or 

 Worcester — be it miniature fruit trees or Rose bushes, how 

 very few months do the little pennants flutter in the breeze, till 

 again obliteration ensues ! But it is the merest tyro who would 

 depend on such ; we must have the best of all plans, our gar- 

 den book, and a clear record of name and position registered in 

 black and white. But then our book is not at hand the moment 

 it is wanted, it has to be sought for at the house, and possibly 

 by another spring some poor shrinking little Mrs. Ward has to 

 relinquish her jjosition to a freshly imported Mademoiselle or 

 Madame, who takes her place beside her more stalwart 

 English brother, John Hopper. Or some symmetrical pyramid 

 is ordered, like a Bon Chri'tien, to move into a more prominent 

 site from his old stance in the nursery row, and after this has 

 been repeated many times in all the bustle of a spring day, 

 while pushing on work, the memory is too apt to bo depended 

 upon for the changes, and tho book meanwhile overlooked. 

 Is it to be wondered at, that by-and-by comes the question, 



Which is which ? And then how interest always languishes in 

 the anonyme, till at last, to solve the enigma, off goes the 

 basket of first fruits or first blooms to Fleet Street. The small 

 type of " our .Journal " bears ample evidence to the extent of 

 trouble our Editors must be subjected to, and I am at a loss 

 whether to admire the more the amount of their patience or 

 the extent of their knowledge. 



To obviate all this, is it surprising we should "go in" for all 

 manner of indelible inks, and be found scratching away with 

 an old goose quill on a greasy zinc surface, to afterwards dis- 

 cover how exposure to the weather causes first the hair, and 

 then the down stroke to disappear, and such discovery is by 

 no means enviable ? Next we may invest largely in a whole 

 box of the neatest of terra cotta labels, and with a camel's hair 

 brush and japanner's ink, go again hopefully to work ; the 

 winter passes, and how consolatory after all our trouble to be 

 told by our seedsman that he could not guarantee them to 

 stand frost, but they did capitally for inside work. 



The last summer found us as much as ever in quest of a 

 suitable and enduring tally. Some needful repairs induced 

 the substitution of plate for the common window glass, and 

 we parted with our old small panes and massive woodwork with 

 one regret — the numerous mementoes of " auld lang syne " 

 inscribed thereon. Here on one pane we had a row of ladies' 

 names in bold masculine characters, to which were archly linked 

 the names of the gentlemen writers opposite in sharp female 

 hand ; and but to think that the thoughtless amusement of a 

 passing hour, with a diamond ring, on possibly a wet day, in 

 a country house, dating far back into the last century, should 

 be so fixedly engraved long after that happy group were them- 

 selves mouldered into dust ! The same pane included, with 

 subsequent additions, the names of three generations of the 

 same family ; and we recognise the neat little caligraphy of 

 the moralist of fifty years ago, who aptly sums-up his cogita- 

 tions with " Ti'mpnx fiiiiil, niinqutim rci-i'ititiir." He, too, for 

 more than a score years has been numbered with the dead. 

 In the happy days of the writer's boyhood, when, awakened 

 from his slumbers by the cawing of the rooks or the cushat's 

 plaintive notes, he darted out of bed, on puUing up his 

 blind, ere he could drink in the full beauty of the landscape 

 and all the glories of the early summer's morn, the rising sun 

 made ah ! how plain, in the handwriting of a near relative, 

 alas ! too, passed away, the apropos line from Scott — 



" Wake Tvhere'er he may, 

 Mau wakes to care and toil." 



The full meaning of the words I could not so weU appreciate 

 then as now. But I forget the reader may very naturally ask, 

 What has all this to do with labels and tallies ? Simply this, 

 that thus the idea suggested itself ; here was what we are 

 searching for — indelible permanency ; that in our day glass 

 is marvellously cheap; and as for diamonds, why, the daily 

 press gives continuous quotations from the diamond fields. 

 So I forthwith procured a supply of labels and tallies in that 

 material of 21-oz. sheet and a wi-iting diamond, and set to 

 work again, with what success I will allow "our Editors" to 

 judge from the four specimens sent herewith, selected at random. 

 No. 1 I attach to fruit trees with a stout copper wire ; No. 2 to 

 octagon green-painted Rose poles. This is bevelled off at the 

 top, and a little below the bevel it is secured in its place with a 

 three-quarter-inch copper tack pressed with the thumb into a 

 hole previously bored with a little awl. Nos. 3 and 4 have their 

 place in the herbaceous borders, the smaller size for pot plants 

 and the more miniature varieties of the front rows. Both aro 

 inserted well into the soil and close to the plants, clear of 

 intruding foot and rake-head. The moist earth has the reverse 

 efl'ect on them that it has on the old tally — instead of re- 

 moving the inscription it enamels it into greater plainness. 

 The distinctness of the suspended labels is only temporarily 

 affected with hanging moisture or frost incrustations ; but no 

 sooner does the sun shine upon them than they reflect back 

 his rays, and glitter beautifully cleaned and as legible as ever. 

 I have thus detailed how a great gardening want has here 

 been satisfactorily supplied, in case any of your readers may 

 feel disposed to adopt the discovery of — A Renfeewsuibe 



BEE-KEErF.U. 



CHAM.EKOPS rOETUNEI. 



Vorr, correspondent " Experto Cuede'' having pointed out 



this plant as being hardy, I herewith beg to confirm all ho 



has said in this respect, with a certain amount of qualification, 



not as respects its hardiness, for I believe that has been fully 



