IRISH GARDENING 



153 



flowering clump gets a fair amount of sun, and 

 the soil has lime rubble and granite chips 

 through it. Two offsets planted in granite 

 moraine, with some lime rubble, are growing 

 and increasing with great vigour, but time alone 

 will tell whether the moraine will make much 

 difference. 



Two or three Aizoon Saxifrages behave badly 

 with me. Two plants of rosea adjoining each 

 other behave di verse I3' ; the}^ came from different 

 sources. One goes on making a big mass, 

 liberal with flowers, and maintains a robust 

 health. The other also blooms and increases, but 

 every year considerable portions turn rusty and 

 decay, and although I lift, take out the good 

 pieces and replant in renewed soil, the same 

 thing occurs again. S. Kolenatiana is another 

 that gives me trouble. Three years ago I had 

 a plant that flowered Well, the colour a very 

 lovely pink, and then quietly died away. A 

 second plant with typical foliage gave white 

 flowers and afterwards rusted away. 



Last autumn three new plants were put into 

 the moraine — one expired ; a second, after losing 

 most of its rosettes, seems to have just survived, 

 and the third is in a moderate state of health. 

 The rosettes make a very tight, humped-up 

 clump, and it is j)ossible the plant needs frequent 

 division and re-planting. 



The easier members of the Kabschia family — 

 Sax. apiculata and its whitevariety, Elizabethae, 

 L. G. Godseff, and Salomonii make large masses, 

 but the last-named is very shy in the matter of 

 flowers. Scardica (vera) flourished for twelve 

 months and then suddenly died away without 

 flowering. I lost several plants of Burseriana 

 Gloria, and a variety I had under the name of 

 '■ major " ; they flowered once and then the 

 tufts grew paler in colour and dwindled away. 

 I have now got promising pieces of both in soil 

 that is about half stone and chips, in a more 

 shady position, and they look healthy and 

 vigorous. Petraschii in the moraine was 

 splendid from mid-March to May, but is now 

 looking rusty. In the same place two plants of 

 rocheliana died off after blooming. 



Faldonside, Paulinse, and Ferdinandi Coburgii, 

 also in the moraine (the sunniest place in the 

 garden), look as if they arc going to succeed, 

 I am satisfied that many of the Kabschias, 

 whilst small, arc inipaticnt of the winter rains, 

 and 1 should not think of putting out a small 

 nursery plant of any of the choice kinds in the 

 autumn unless I could protect the foliage from 

 rain until March. 



Some other treasures that do not appear to 

 be very common in rock gardens and which do 

 well here are: — Polemonium mellitum, with 

 lovely long tubular flowers a ghstening milky 



white, in bloom from May to September. 

 Shortia galacifolia, in peat and granite, in a 

 position where it gets a little sun, but is very 

 sheltered, has done well; it bloomed freeh' 

 early in the spring, and is now a fine 

 vigorous and increasing patch. Oxalis ennea- 

 phylla, on a cool ledge, blooms over along period, 

 and is increasing. Asperula athoa (suberosa), a 

 small plant, put out on the moraine between 

 two pieces of rock, has grown most vigorously, 

 and for quite three months was covered with 

 bloom. Its long but very narrow, pale pink trum- 

 pets are charming. The beautiful downy foliage 

 looks as if it Would like a piece of glass to throw off 

 the winter rains, though Asperula nitida takes care 

 of itself here. 



Will there be a Food Shortage 

 in Ireland ? " 



There is every reason why the average man 

 should be uneasy about food sui)i)lies since the 

 war began. He is, no doubt, less uneasy now 

 than when the first panic with its prohibitive and 

 fluctuating prices for food made hinx believe that 

 the shortage was upon us even from the very 

 beginning of the war. But his uneasiness can 

 only be set at rest by his knowing what the facts 

 are ; how much food we have, and how much we 

 are likely to have if the war lasts, and what steps 

 should be taken to produce more food. He also 

 wants to know whether prices are likely to 

 fluctuate again, and what he can do to prevent 

 an undue rise. All this information has been 

 prepared for him in an extremely well-done little 

 book by Messrs. L. Smith-Gordon and Cruise 

 O'Brien, the Librarian and Assistant Librarian 

 respectively of the Co-operative Jieference 

 Library, Dublin. The book is divided into two 

 parts ; the first dealing with the facts of oiu" food 

 sui)ply, and the second dealing with the causes 

 of an undue fluctuation in prices and the means 

 which can be adopted to prevent any future 

 panic. There is no important fact concerning 

 either of these matters which the writers have 

 neglected to deal with. The book is written in 

 a lucid and i)ractical manner, and its iigia-es are 

 X)resented in an easily understood form, the 

 writers having been at i)ains, to render all foreign 

 measures into English equivalents when dealing 

 with our ini])orted foodstuffs. The searching 

 examination of the remedies for undue fluctuation 

 of ])riccs, ])articularly in very V)oor districts, is 

 adiuirable, and the scheme put forward by the 

 writers appears to us in the interest not only of 

 the consumer, but of the trader and the prodiu;er. 

 The Co-<)i>erative Beference J library was estab- 

 iisluKl by Sir Horace l*hinkett to act as an 

 Intelligence Departnu^nt on agricultural economics. 

 It has certainly l)egun itsworkwell. Tlu!ap])endix 

 c;ontains a collection of the leaflets on food sup- 

 plies issued by various departments since the out- 

 break of war. Valuable information on poultry 

 raising and catch-cropi)ing is given in these. 



* " li-eland's Food in War Time." By L. 

 Sjuith-Ciordon and Cruise O'Brien. Issued by 

 the Co-operative Keference Library, The Plunkett 

 House, Dublin. 1911. Price, 3d. net. 



