122 MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES USED IN HORTICULTURE. 



into which the label with the name is placed, and afterwards covered 

 with a piece of glass neatly fitted in, and puttied like the pane of a 

 window. The label should be a slip of wood, lead, pewter, or earthen- 



-p- 93 



ware, as not being liable to rust, 

 shrink, or warp, from drought or 

 moisture. Previously to putting 

 in the labels, the tally should be 

 carbonized by heating it nearly 

 red-hot and immersing it in oil, 

 as is practised with gun-barrels to 

 render them impervious to the 

 action of the atmosphere. This 

 being done, a coat of paint may 

 be dispensed with, or the iron- 

 work may be painted black, and 

 the part on which the name is 

 written white ; or the label may 

 be simply rubbed over with a 

 little white lead, and the name 

 written with a black-lead pencil. 

 In the Glasgow Botanic Gardens 

 this kind of label, with the slip of 

 wood, has been extensively used 

 for many years. For plants 

 in greenhouses or stoves, very 

 neat porcelain tallies are made at 

 the potteries, and they are perhaps 

 the handsomest of all. They cost 

 from 2d. to Sd. each, and readily 

 receive black paint, Indian ink, or 

 common ink, without previous 

 preparation : in the open air, how- 

 ever, they are very liable to be 



Cast-iron tally, with the label of wood broken. Terra-cotta labels are, 

 placed in a sunk panel, and covered however, more durable, and the fol- 



lowing are ugeful either for potg 



with a piece of glass secured by putty. 



out of doors. For alpine or other herbaceous plants in pots in the open 

 air, no tally is better than strips of sheet lead, about an eighth of an 

 inch thick, with the name at length stamped in with steel type an 

 operation which the gardener may perform in inclement weather. For 

 large tallies for trees, bricks, moulded with a sloping face and a sunk 

 panel to contain a label of lead, zinc, or wood, may be used ; or tallies 

 of heart-of-oak, previously steamed to draw out the sap, and after- 

 wards boiled in linseed oil, painted black, with the name in white. 

 The simplest of all labels for large trees are formed of pieces of zinc 

 four or five inches long by about three deep, half an inch of the upper 

 side being turned down to act as a small coping. This may be very 

 conveniently fastened to the bole of the tree, at about six feet from the 

 ground, by passing a wire through two holes formed immediately be- 



