74 



IRISH GARDENING 



R. ccrcHDi, from North America, is a dwarf 

 species bearing' white flowers and liavint,' 

 roundish, crenate leaves. 



R. gordoinanum, a hybrid between R. s/iii- 

 giiineiun and R. aureiun, is intermediate in 

 character, and produces freely racemes oi 

 yellowish red flowers. 



R. gracile, a North American species bearing 

 few flowered racemes of white flowers and 

 havingf round, slightly lobed leaves and spiny 

 branches, attains a height of 5 feet. 



R. laciisire, a moisture-loving species from 

 the woods and swamps of North America, has 

 rather prickly branches, bearing cordate, deeply- 

 cut leaves and drooping racemes of greenish 

 flowers. Height about 4 feet. 



R, sanguineiitn, the well-known flowering 

 currant, is a native of California and N. VV. 

 America. It is too well known to need any 

 description. The drooping racemes of rose-red 

 flowers appearing in spring, with other early 

 flowering shrubs like the Forsythias, are always 

 welcome. 



R. sanguineiun albidinn is an excellent variety 

 bearing white flowers flushed with pink ; a very 

 fine shrub for a group in the shrub border. 



R. satigiiineum atrosanguineum, despite a 

 rather unwieldy name, is a really good plant, 

 bearing abundance of deep rose flowers, very 

 effective in a mass. 



R sangiiineiim splendens is one of the finest 

 early flowering shrubs in cultivation. The 

 racemes will reach a length of 6 inches on well 

 grown plants, with flowers as deep in colour as 

 the previous variety. 



R. speciosum (syn. R. fucfisioides), alluded to 

 above, bears numerous clusters of deep red, 

 tubular flowers, which are very effective in 

 March and April. A plant growing against a 

 south wall at Glasnevin has been a mass of 

 flowers for a month or more. It can also be 

 successfully grown on a north wall, but appears 

 less happy as a shrub in the open. 



R. villosum, from Chili, is quite hardy and 

 evergreen. The leaves are very hairy and 

 rather coriaceous. This species grows from 4 

 feet to 5 feet in height, and is a useful subject 

 for the shrub border. 



The above is but a selection of the more 

 distinct species and varieties, and does not com- 

 prise nearly all the species available, many 

 other interesting sorts being off'ered by nurserv- 



Current Topics. 



By E. KNOWLni.v, P'.K.H.S., Secretary, Royal Horli- 

 cultural Society of Ireland. 



THIS passing^ spring, surely, should stand out in 

 the annals of high art cultivation, and what 

 though the latest triumph of mind over matter 

 be not Irish we can — we must — join in the jubilation 

 and shout " Hosanna " to Burbank. " Burbank has gone 

 beyond nature. " (That's good travelling.) "Burbank 

 has given to the world a new botany." (Much wanted, 

 too.) " The Burbank potato has conquered the earth," 

 and "enough Burbank potatoes have been grown to 

 pave a street 200 feet wide entirely round the Equator." 

 " The Equator? " Humph! We're out of it again. 

 The San Francisco Wecklv Examiner is our informant, 

 and surely it is great news — news with a gladsomeness 

 about it that our own prosaic Press must envj-. What 

 its all about we don't exactly know, but that doesn't 

 matter. Turning to more tangible, if tamer things, we 

 note the new form of copper and lime, the " Woburn 

 Bordeaux Paste," for eliminating the grievances of our 

 troublesome old tuber. Mr. Pickering praises it, and 

 the name of Woburn, if it does sometimes shake our 

 old theories within a shade of shattering, is at 

 least a guarantee of good faith. It is made by Walter 

 \'oss and Co., Ltd., and is a uniform preparation 

 of the famous fungicide of the "always ready, keep it 

 handy " kind, and should be a boon to small growers, 

 tall growers, all growers in fact. Fifteen pounds of the 

 paste make loo gallons of the solution, approximately 

 sufficient to spray an acre, .^nd it comes opportune, 

 as a poisonous compound, which presumably it is 

 within the meaning of the .\ct, for one can now get it 

 with one's seeds and sundries from one's seedsman, 

 and this without prejudice to the provider of our pills 

 .'ind potions. Ves ! My Lords in Council have at 

 last accorded this privilege to Irish cultivators, for 

 whom, in petition parlance, we are ever bound to pray. 

 Thanks, my Lords, for the next. Now, if the Depart- 

 ment w-ill only feel to the full its responsibilities, how 

 nice things are going to be until the millenium — we 

 mean the Burbank — arrives. Ev'ery potato plot in 

 Ireland will be sprayed, without a doubt, when the 

 plotters are shown what to do, how to do it, and, of 

 course, it is done for them by the Department's experts. 

 " I often wonder why the Englishman has need to 

 purchase from Spain, Egypt, Bosnia, France, and other 

 distant places, onions that he could grow at home," 

 " wonders " a contemporary. So do we. And we must 

 be in a pretty pickle if the statement that there are no 

 English onions in the market except bulbs for pickling 

 is correct. However, the Englishman must have his 

 " ing'uns," and why shouldn't we grow him a tew, and 

 a few over, too, for ourselves? Is the big prize bulb 

 responsible for all this? That, at least, is the question 

 which crops up when our greeiigrocer unblushingly asks 

 threepence a pound for the common culinary kind. 

 Threepence per pound ! "V'egods! ;{r56perton! What 

 his conscience would allow him to demand for a pound 

 or a pound and a half of prime cut off an exhibition 

 bulb it is hard to sav, especiallv as the big bulb, having 

 accomplished its main object in life — viz., being talked 



