42 OPERATIONS OF GARDENING. TART I. 



LABELS. 



Labels of card or paper, inserted in pieces of split bamboo, 

 are all but certain to be in a very short time pecked off and 

 destroyed by crows. 



When zinc labels are used, a combination of the following 

 ingredients is said to form an indelible ink for writing upon 

 them : 



1 dram of powdered sal -ammonia, 

 i dram of lamp-black. 

 10 drams of water. 



For great durability strong iron labels are often used, painted 

 black, with the name of the plant they are intended to designate 

 written upon them in white. A simple and speedy way of 

 effecting the same thing is to paint the labels white ; and when 

 quite dry paint them over again black, and while the black 

 paint is still wet write upon it with a broad-nibbed reed-pen 

 the name of the plant. The reed-pen, as the writing is pro- 

 ceeded with, removes the wet black paint, and leaves exposed 

 the name of the plant on the white paint below. 



One of the commonest, easiest, and most serviceable modes 

 of labelling plants, however, is to prepare splints of bamboo, by 

 sharpening one end for sticking in the ground, and flattening 

 the other end ; over the flat end smear some white paint, and 

 while wet write upon it with a lead pencil any particulars to be 

 recorded. When the paint dries the pencil- writing will remain 

 fixed in the body of the paint, and will last indelible for a very 

 long time. 



VERMIN. 



Gardens in India are exceedingly infested with vermin of 

 very many kinds, and unless great vigilance be used to detect 

 them and arrest the ravages they occasion, the better part of 

 the gardener's labours will be sure to be in vain. 



INSECTS." For insects," Miss Maling says, " nothing does 

 better than a spoonful of soot in a small can of water. It is a 

 happy certainty that even wire worms hate this." * 



The Eev. J. G. Wood disapproves of the use of lime, as when 



* 'The In-door Gardener,' p. 131. 



