309 



allied to the Magnolias. The plants 

 should be grown in loam and peat if 

 kept in the stove, and they may be 

 propagated by layers and cuttings ; 

 but by inarching them on Magnolia 

 purpurea, they may be brought to 

 flower in a conservatory or a green- 

 house. 



Tali'num. — Portulacece. — Suc- 

 culent plants, shrubby and perennial, 

 mostly natives of the West Indies, 

 and with dark-red or purple flowers. 

 They should be grown in sandy peat 

 with a little loam, and they require 

 but little water. They are propagated 

 by cuttings. 



Tallies for plants are of various 

 kinds, according as the plant is large 

 or small, grown in the open air or 

 under a glass, and according as the 

 object is of a permanent or a tempo- 

 rary nature. Tallies for trees, as in 

 the case of an Arboretum, which is 

 to endure for many years, are formed 

 of iron, stone, or brick ; those for 

 herbaceous plants, of iron or wood ; 

 and those for plants in pots kept in 

 houses, of porcelain, wood, lead, zinc, 

 and sometimes, though rarely, of 

 iron. Tallies for plants kept in 

 nursei-ies in pots, are commonly of 

 wood, on which a little white paint 

 is rubbed with the finger, and the 

 name written with a black-lead 

 pencil ; those for plants taken up 

 and packed to be sent to a distance, 

 are commonly of parchment, with 

 the name written in ink ; but nursei-y 

 labels are formed of wood and tied 

 to trees, or of pieces of lead stamped 

 with numbers. The object in every 

 case connected with the nursery 

 business is simply to identify the 

 species or variety ; biit in the case of 

 private gardens, it is not only to do 

 this, but to pi-oduce an object that 

 shall not be unsightly in a garden. 

 For this latter purpose, porcelain 

 tallies (fig. 54), which are formed of 

 various sizes and shapes, are best 



for pots ; and tallies of cast-ii'on, 

 with panels for tablets containing 

 the names to be covered with glass 

 (fig. 55), are the most efl&cient for 

 plants in the open ground. Where 



^^ 



FIG. 04. — PORCELAIN TALLY FOR POTS. 



it is not desired to display the name, 

 the simplest and least expensive mode 

 is to mark a number on a wood tally 

 or stick, and this may be done either 

 by notching the stick with a knife, 

 which is the common practice among 

 gardeners, or by cutting a portion of 

 it smooth, rubbing it with a little 



FIG. 55.— CAST-IRON OR ZINC TALLY FOR 

 THE OPEN GROUND. 



white lead (white paint), and writing 

 the number while it is yet moist 

 with a black-lead pencil. Of all the 

 different modes which have hitherto 

 been devised of naming or numbering 

 plants in gardens (and they amount, 



