294 



THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



up by mowers or others, and in this way to get lost, while the labels 

 on the stems are safe from such mishaps. 



For low trees and bushes to which copper wire may be fixed 

 with ease, the simplest and most enduring labels are those that are 

 made of cast metal galvanised, and as they are very enduring they 

 are best for hardy trees and shrubs. The words on them should be 

 as few as may be, and all needless ones omitted. Thus in fruit-tree 

 labels it is needless to use the word Pear or Apple, but simply the 

 variety, as " Ribstone." This plan makes these labels more legible 

 than when they are crowded with letters. For half-hardy plants, 



annuals, and plants of a season only, 

 wooden labels are often the most 

 convenient. In most gardens it is 

 the practice to write the name at the 

 part that goes in the ground, and to 

 go on from thence to the top a 

 bad way, for the label always begins 

 to decay at the base, and thus the 

 beginning of the name is lost, while 

 the end of it may be quite legible. 

 After a little practice it becomes as 



easy to write from the top as from the other end, and, in writing 

 the names, always begin as near the top as possible. 



The use of the wooden label should be given up in favour of 

 labels with raised or incised letters. The main reason is that the 

 endurance of the wooden label is too slight ; moreover, some kinds of 

 good stamped-metal label are less conspicuous in the garden than 

 the wooden label, and any kind of conspicuous label is bad. At 

 Kew they now use a lead label of their own stamping, so that should 

 many labels get out of use, as is the case in large collections, it is 

 easy to melt them down and use the metal again for trees and 

 enduring plants of all kinds. 





Cast-iron labels ; the simplest, neatest, and 

 best form for shrubs, bold herbaceous plants, 

 and for all cases where the label has to be 

 fixed in the ground. 



