BOTANICAL LABELS. 
159 
BOTANICAL LABELS. 
The high and positive interest that a plant of which we know 
the name, history, and general properties or uses, possesses 
over another that we have little or no acquaintance with, even 
though they be equally beautiful, must have been felt by every re¬ 
flective mind, and acknowledged (though perhaps unconsciously) 
by the greater degree of pleasure with which the former is ob¬ 
served or spoken of: this feeling is so universal and so strong, 
that to it alone may be ascribed the true foundation of the 
science of botany, and, as a means to the assistance and more 
easy enjoyment of that science, the practice of placing labels 
inscribed with, at least, the name to rare and favourite plants. 
We have on some previous occasion expressed a desire to in¬ 
crease this interest, by extending the practice to other and 
more common subjects, which are, unfortunately and impro¬ 
perly, too often considered unworthy the distinction — the fact 
being overlooked that it is thus we render them of conse¬ 
quence, and impart the very interest required: with the same 
desire we resume the subject, to describe a peculiarly neat and 
ingenious label we observed in use at Tatton Park, and which 
we mentioned in our notice of that place last month. A great 
object in the construction of botanical labels is to convey all 
the information necessary to a thorough knowledge of the 
plant with as much brevity as possible. The usual mode of 
writing the name, habitat, date of introduction, botanical ar¬ 
rangement, &c., though it may at first seem the easier mode, 
yet to contain it the label must be so large as to be unsightly, 
which we believe to have been the great objection to their 
general application. Now, with those we are about to describe 
the major part of this information is conveyed by the dispo¬ 
sition of colours and certain dots or lines, which do not interfere 
with the portion that it may be necessary to write on, and which, 
once learned, is as easy to understand as even typography. 
The form of these labels is (as we mentioned last month) 
the outline of a butterfly, with its wings expanded as in the act 
of flying; and from the base of the two lower ones the strig or 
tail is fastened, which is thrust into the earth to support and 
retain the label in its place, in the same manner as with those 
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