MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES USED IN HORTICULTURE. 123 



neath the coping. The letters are best painted white on a black 

 ground. Perhaps the most economical and durable tally for plants in 

 pots is a small strip of zinc, about three-quarters of an inch broad and 

 six inches long, on which the name may be written with a black-lead 

 pencil, after rubbing on a little white-lead paint, or with Indian ink on 

 dried white paint, or on the naked metal with prepared ink which is 

 sold on purpose. The neatest, least obtrusive, and most durable tallies 

 for this description of plants are undoubtedly strips of sheet lead, with 

 the names stamped in, and the letters distinguished by being filled 

 with white lead. Temporary labels for plants are written on strips of 

 parchment, or narrow slips of wood, and tied to them with twine, or 

 sometimes, when the plants are to be sent to a distance, with copper or 

 metallic wire. In all cases of writing or painting names or numbers 

 on permanent tallies, the words or figures may be rendered more con- 

 spicuous and durable by painting them over when dry with mastic 

 varnish, or with boiled oil. Instead of painting tallies black, Mr. 

 Nesfield prefers a very dark lead colour, composed of ivory black (not 

 lamp black) and flake white, mixed with boiled linseed oil. His reason 

 for disapproving of a pure black ground is founded on the fact that 

 certain colours, having a greater affinity for water than for oil (such as 

 blacks, umbers, and ochres), are liable to be affected by damp, unless 

 they are held together by a powerfully oleaginous vehicle, with a small 

 portion of white lead. The lettering Mr. Nesfield recommends to be 

 done with Paris white, mixed with nearly equal parts of copal varnish 

 and nut oil, avoiding turpentine, because it soon evaporates, and causes 

 the colour to look dead and chalky. The white should be used as thick 

 as it will flow from the pencil, because the letters in that case will be 

 so much more opaque ; and the varnish should be mixed with only a 

 small quantity at a time, on account of its setting very rapidly. Tur- 

 pentine must be entirely avoided, except for cleansing pencils, as it soon 

 evaporates, while the varnish remains and hardens as it becomes older. 

 Nails, lists, and ties are wanted in every walled-in garden, though 

 the wiring of walls with copper, zinc, or galvanized iron, or the cover- 

 ing of them with wide-meshed netting, has reduced the original im- 

 portance of these requisites. Cast-iron nails, about an inch and 

 a half in length, and the lists from the selvages of woollen cloth, are 

 in general use for fastening the branches of trees to walls. Various 

 preparations of canvas, warranted proof against insects of all kinds, are 

 now offered instead of lists, which often prove harbours for them. 

 Kope-twine is also frequently used in the place of shreds on the same 

 principle of affording no hiding-place to insect pests. The nails, pre- 

 viously to being used, are heated nearly to redness, and thrown into 

 oil, for the reason before mentioned ; and old lists, before they are 

 used a second time, are boiled in water, to destroy any eggs of insects 

 that may be deposited on them. The most common material in use 

 for ties are strands of bast matting, and these are rendered much 

 more durable when previously steeped in soft soap and water. For 

 large branches, ties of the smaller shoots of willows or of clematis are 

 sometimes used ; and on the Continent, the smaller branches are tied 



