DUBLIN NATUBAL HISTORY 80CIXTT. 4 1 



luxuriance, throwing out innumerable suckers, and which, gaining strength by 

 growth, again sent out their branchlets in all directions. Among the Rosacec, 

 Kosaarvensis, and many of the ornamental briars, grew on the sunny slopes of the 

 peat embankment with great beauty. The sides of the once desolate valley of 

 Glencar, which were exposed to the furious and sweeping gusts of the north- 

 west gales, are now clothed and tinged with the fine growth and the varied hues 

 of the larch, the pinaster, black Austrian pine, and the stone pine. The judi- 

 cious olanting of the Austrian pine has proved a sheltering screen to the fair 

 growth of the rest. The Pinus Austriacus, peculiar to the Briema Forest in 

 the Austrian States, is a valuable tree, serving as a shelter, and enduring 

 exposure to the storms of the coast better than the pinaster or sycamore, and 

 of all the pines it bears transplanting with the least injury to its growth. These 

 improvements have been carried on extensively on each side of Lough Gill — a 

 lake five miles in length, and, in parts, nearly two in breadth, and, with its 

 islands, beautiful in its scenery. This lake, Mr. Wynne observes, was frozen 

 over during the severity of the past winter; its waters are only twenty feet 

 above the sea. The silver firs are among the finest in the kingdom, exceeding 

 ninety feet in height, and, at a few feet from the ground, eleven and twelve ia 



firth. Sixty to seventy of these fine trees were blown down in the storm of the 

 th of January, 1839; one of the trees, thirteen feet in girth, boarded a loft 

 forty by twenty feet. The Chichester elm grows well, and becomes a fine tree, 

 and the Turkey oak has a most rapid growth, and bears the wind well, but the 

 white American spruce appears the best suited for high grounds, and to stand 

 exposure to storms. The rockery in the gardens exhibits, in all their vigour of 

 growth, some of the choicest plants and ferns of the mountains of Switzerland, 

 and there also Pteris longifolia, a West Indian plant, Trichomanes radicans, 

 and Adiantum Capillus Veneris, bear the open ground throughout the seasons. 

 Mr. Wynne informs me that the Trichomanes flourishes luxuriantly in his 

 Wardian case, but does not bear involucra ; on the rockery it fruits most freely. 

 The Pinguicula grandiflora blooms there with surprising beauty and profusion. 

 The influence of temperature has always affected the phenomena of vegetation, 

 and we find plants, natives of opposite spheres, enduring, in many instances, 

 extreme degrees of temperature, either of heat or of cold, if that temperature 

 be even, and not subject to sudden changes or transitions. Those plants, trees, 

 or shrubs, that suspend their powers during the winter, bear, without injury, 

 the utmost rigour of that season, whilst those, like the sweet bay (Laurus 

 nobilis), Laurustinus, and shrubs of similar habits, that have greater or less 

 vitality during the winter months, suffer most extensively. At Glazenwood 

 nursery, when remarking on the extensive ravages caused by the frost of 1837- 

 38, Mr. Curtis says : ♦♦ I have never known a more mischievous winter. Among 

 standard roses I observe that a great many that were moved in the months of 

 October and November survived, whilst those unmoved, of the same kinds, 



f)erished from the fulness of their sap-vessels." In looking over Mr. Wynne's 

 ist, I find that amongst the plants that were altogether killed, or much injured, 

 were heaths, myrtles, old plants of the species of Edwardsia and the Laurus 

 nobilis; while, among those that were uninjured, were Pteonia montana, 

 Cedrus deodara, Araucaria imbricata, Trichomanes radicans, and the Rhodo- 

 dendra and pines generally. In my own fernery, which is enclosed in a small 

 greenhouse, the Trichomanes did not in the least suffer, although the fronds 

 were coated with ice the greater part of the period the frost lasted — neither did 

 Adiantum Capillus Veneris, nor the species of Hymenophylla. I have partica- 

 larly noticed in Mr. Wynne's list the Cedrus deodara and Araucaria; for, in 

 reviewing the records of the severe frost of the winter of 1837-38, those plants were 

 invariably found to stand the severity of the season, while, in all instances, the 

 destruction to the Laurus nobilis, or sweet bay tree, appeared to be generaL 

 These notices are from the principal gardens in England and Scotland. The 

 manager of the gardens ana Pinetum at Dropmoro states: — ** Araucaria im- 

 bricata — plants of this species, though not protected, and growing in exposed 



