SOILS AND CULTIVATION IN THE FLOWER GARDEN. 



401 



labels inserted in the grass in pleasure grounds are liable to be pulled 

 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. As regards 

 labels for large gardens and trees, 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 



