Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 9 (1871).djvu/400

 372 SHORT NOTES AND QUEKIES.

experience goes, tlie plant growing- on seaside saudliills is always C. letran- drum, whereas C. pumilum oceurs on calcareous banks, or among the short herbage of the chalk downs near to the sea, but not on the sand- hills of the shore. — A. G. More.

��SiBTHORPiA EUROP^A IN SussEx. — This rare plant has been re- ported to be extinct in Sussex [Journ. Bot. VI. p. 264 ; comp. Cyb. Brit. p. 26-i], but it still lingers in at least one spot on the borders of the county, namely, in the parish of Waldron, about eight miles north of Hailsham, where, hy the side of a little stream at the bottom of a deep valley, the writer found it growing sparingly last summer. The locality was courteously pointed out by the Rev. H. Ley, the rector of the parish, to whom it has been long known. Waldron is noted for other botanical rarities, especially the Phyti-nina sp'icatum, which grows there abundantly. The beautiful and sweet-scented Lastraea fcenlsecii is also found there.— A. K. Cherrill.

��A New Garden Label. — The indestructibility of solid paraffin sug- gested to nie its use for the preservation of printed plant labels. The plan having proved successful, and the ' paraffined ' labels having resisted the adverse atmospheric influences of two seasons, I cannot but hope that more extended trials will confirm my conviction that a permanent garden label, legible and inexpensive, has been attained. The following is a brief description of the mode of preparing the labels : — Print the names, etc., of the plants on stout, smooth, white paper of suitable dimensions and form. Prepare cast-iron label-holders with a flattened spike to keep them straight in the ground, and with the upper expanded portion so contrived as to have a sunk flat space about a quarter of an inch deep, and the right size for the reception of the printed label and its protective glass cover. Paint this sunk space with several coats of good white paint, and allow it to dry thoroughly. The next step is to unite the label to the glass plate with paraffin. The paper-label and the glass be- ing cut to the same size, the latter is cleaned and kept hot, — about as hot as boiling water, — while the label is being dipped into a bath of melted paraffin. The label is then cpiickly pressed on to the hot glass, a board and a weight being put upon both. When cold, the glass with its adherent label is placed in the sunk space of the label-holder, and secured with good putty. Subsequently, a coat or two of paint on this putty will keep all secure. The above directions are much easier to carry out than they appear to be at first sight, while several contrivances and precautions will suggest themselves to any one who carries them out on a large scale. For instance, the glass plates may be kept hot in an oven, and removed with a pair of crucible tongs as wanted, while another pair of tongs or pincers will be useful to hold the labels during their im- mersion in the melted paraffin. Here it should be stated that the best paraffin is that which is freest from any kind of fat or grease, and melts at a temperature at least above 56° Centigrade. It might be found advisable to imbed the label and glass in paraffin, or to modify the plan of fixing the label to the glass by putting it, soaked in paraffin, between

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