MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES USED IN HORTICULTURE. 



167 



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 var- 

 nish, 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 power- 

 fully 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, oecause 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. 

 ( "olours of the best quality requisite for painting and lettering labels are to 

 be had of Messrs. Robertson & Miller, 51, Long Acre, London, whose prices 

 are, for flake white, per bladder, weighing ^lb., Is.; ivory black, per^lb., 1*.; 

 oil, per pint, 2s. ; copal varnish, per pint, 6*. Two Is. bottles of copal var- 

 nish will be sufficient for an immense quantity of lettering. (Gard. Mag. 

 vol. xiii. p. 58.) 



454. Nails, lists, and ties, are wanted in every garden. 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, and no 

 materials have hitherto been devised which have been found better or 

 cheaper. The nails, previously to being used, are heated nearly to redness, 

 and thrown into oil, for the reason before mentioned (453) ; 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 with rushes or the twigs of 

 broom collected in the winter season, and preserved 

 in bundles so as to retain a certain degree of mois- 

 ture to prevent them from becoming brittle, and at 

 the same time not to rot them. In this country 

 tarred twine of different degrees of thickness, and 

 bast matting procured by unravelling a mat, are 

 almost the only ties in use. Metallic wire and small 

 copper wire have been recommended, but they are 

 only fit for tying labels to trees sent out of nurseries 

 to a distance. A leathern wallet, fig. 100, is found 

 of great use in pruning and nailing wall-trees, when 

 Fig. 100. Wallet for pitting on the operator is standing on a ladder. It is suspended 

 ^ h t e a ^ Ung walt - trees /rom from his shoulder by straps, and contains a large 

 pocket for the shreds, nails, and hammer, and two 

 small pockets over it for a knife and sharpening-stone. 



