IRISH GARDENING 



&c., uiot-a.'^siii ll(j\vfii- yC iii'i iitediuin), Black-oyed 

 Susans {llelidiitlni.i), snow on the inountaiiis, 

 wild pseonies, inimulus, hijiins, Marii^osa lilies, 

 and a score of others thai I connot remember, 

 might be expected to figiiic in any bouquet. 



Two of the most striking Californian plants are 

 the Matillija poppy (l<"i,,neyu) and the tree 

 poppy (Deiuliomecon). The former is a dweller 

 in hot valleys, the latter of equally hot mountain 

 sides, but seeking some slight shade. Most Cali- 

 fornians, however, think more of the beautiful 

 silvery acanthus-leaved Aigemone than of the 

 Bomneya. which is inclined to be coarse. The 

 Californian plant par e. re ell c nee is the Mariposa 

 lily. There are about forty s^pecies, of which by 

 far the most striking is the scarlet Oalochortux 



a Californian artist that looks like an explosion 

 in a paint faftfjry. It simply means that he has 

 been painting a mountain meadow in the High 

 Sierras where an acre or so of Orange Kumhuutti 

 lilies fought for supremacy wdth another acre or 

 so of lilac liix l>'iiglasi(nia, while a billow- of 

 yellow mustard lifiid up its voice in the back- 

 ground. Liliiiiii rarryi is considered the 

 handsomest of the Californian lilies, and it is 

 certainly the most pernickety, but I personally 

 give the prize to the charming lilyputian, L. 

 marititnum. 



A good many of the Californian Irises have been 

 brought to Europe, but they do not do well, and 

 in particular will not look at a bed that has a 

 particle of lime in it. In their native haunt, it is 



ZlXuI,IA ', A-\1.i1:I-'-M1:I'A I M'lMLi^.i. 



See Ericaceae on a Limestone Soil. 



Kennedyi, a rare desert-haunting species. I have 

 seen it in bloom once only, and that from the 

 unsatisfactory vantage point of a train. A colony 

 of these " tulips " was abloom a few hundred 

 yards from the track, and looked like a red 

 handkerchief dropped on tlic yellow sand. But 

 all the (.'(liochoAi are beautiful from chn-ntus, 

 with its black keyes lying in their yellow cup to 

 the silvery white Purdyi. There are two quite 

 distinct types of ('(docJioifus, dry sun-lovers like 

 r en list Its and damp shadc-lnvers like pidcheUus. 

 Failure to recognise this fact may account for the 

 inaljility of British gardem-rs to flower these 

 bulbs successfully. 



Most of the Californian lilies are too well known 

 to require description. There are about a dozen 

 species, many of them rare, and only two — purdn- 

 linum and Einnboldti — that might be called 

 common. The former throws up its seven-foot 

 stems at the edge of every wooded stream. Hiini- 

 huldti belongs properly "to the higher altitudes. 

 Occasionally Easterners are shown a picture by 



usual to find th.e plant in full flower in soil that 

 looks as if it had been powder dry for months, 

 but the long, powerful roots are many feet down 

 below, where there is percolating w-ater. The 

 finest of all is possilily /. lotx/ipeitda. and a fine 

 garden variety of this." called " Mrs. A. W. Tait," 

 will grow almost anywhere. 



Everyone has his ]ireference, but to me the most 

 interesting as well as one of the handsomest of 

 Californian flowers « as the perennial Lathynis 

 splendens. justly nicknamed " Pride of Califor- 

 nia." At least, it is classed as a perennial, but 

 I have my doubts aliout it. It is only just a 

 Californian plant, for its furtliest north is the 

 mountains back of San Diego^California's 

 furthest south. In my garden it bloomed pro- 

 fusely, but it never ripened seed and never 

 showed any signs of living to bloom another day, 

 or, rather, another year. It is a pecidiar plant, 

 for it likes a certain amount of shade, but 

 collapses instanter if it is watered during the 

 flowering season. The flower is about the size of 



