162 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



suspended directly from the eyelet, by means of a galvanized iron 

 or copper wire. The rods should have the eyelets bent before 

 they are galvanized, so that the zinc may solder over the space 

 which otherwise would exist where the tip of the recurved eyelet 

 joins the main stem ; also because if bent after galvanization the 

 zinc tends to split off during the bending, and thus exposes the 

 iron beneath to the weather. Shorter rods of a similar kind are 

 kept in the wire stores, but long ones are more desirable, as the 

 label is kept higher up from the earth and therefore cleaner. M}"" 

 rods are pushed into the ground to the depth of about ten inches. 

 Their recommendations are : that they last forever, are long enough 

 to take a good hold in the ground, are not thrown out by frost, 

 will bend if accidentally struck, and not break as a wooden rod 

 might ; they are inconspicuous, and the labels are quickly attached 

 and removed, — an important consideration in labelling bulbs which 

 are annually taken up. A label suspended in this manner cannot be 

 lost except by wanton pulling up of the rod. If it is desired 

 that labels should hang horizontally to facilitate their reading, 

 . they can be hung from their supports by looping a wire through 

 the ej'elet and twisting the free ends through two holes bored at 

 the extremities of the label. 



It may be well to note here a very good and simple method of 

 attaching cards for plants and flowers on exhibition. It is a pin 

 an inch and a quarter long, the top twisted in the form of a flat 

 double ring. The card is held tightly between the opposing sides 

 of the rings, and the pin is stuck in the table, thus holding the 

 label in such a position that it is easily read by visitors, and is not 

 likely to be meddled with. These are sold under the name of 

 " Wilson's Card Pins." 



In gardens containing large numbers of hardy perennials or 

 trees, it is well to have some counter-check upon labels, so that if 

 lost the names of plants may still be known and the labels re- 

 placed. If a catalogue is kept this counter-check is easily 

 maintained. Let the fence-posts running in one direction be 

 numbered, and those running in the opposite direction be lettered. 

 Thus the garden is crossed by imaginary lines of pseudo-latitude 

 and longitude, and about eight feet apart, as that is the ordinary 

 distance of fence-posts. In the margin of the catalogue may be 

 entered in pencil against a plant the location, as E 15, which 

 designates and will lead one directly to the close proximity of the 



