JULY 



IRISH GARDENING. 



IC3 



constitutes an amateur? It is always a topical topic, a 

 troublesome topic, but b_v no means a trivial topic, to 

 those interested in exhibiting. Amateur? Even old 

 Dr. Johnson, in what a French friend called " dat amus- 

 ing- little work de Ingleesh Dictionnaire," was too near- 

 sighted to forsee the trouble this word was going to 

 give in gardening. At different times and at different 

 places various interpretations have been put on the term, 

 but nothing definite has been arrived at, and never was 

 there a more pressing need for it. Each society can, of 

 course, make its own rules and be a law unto itsell, 

 but that neither fills an universal want nor docs it 

 always give that local satis- 

 faction and confidence the 

 subject demands. Every- 

 one says a line must be 

 drawn, but as things are at 

 present the line would have 

 to be drawn as cleverly as 

 that New England farmer 

 made his fence who con- 

 trived it so cunningly that 

 every time the old mule did 

 get through it still found 

 itself inside. We should 

 like to see this knotty 

 question unravelled by the 

 combined wisdom ot the 

 governing spirits of the 

 Royal Horticultural Society 

 of England, who have done 

 so much to take the tangle 

 out of Horticultural judg- 

 ing. Certainly, in the latter 

 direction they have, we 

 may say, done no more 

 than they ought to have 

 done, for soft words won't 

 butter even Wisley par- 

 snips, andjudging by what 

 they have done in the 

 code of judging rules the}' 

 surely might take up the 

 amateurs, sift them into 

 sorts and sizes if necessary, 

 and to the shillingw'orth 

 of judging rules, or is it 



eighteenpennyworth? tack on a twopenny appendix, a 

 classification list if needs be, resolving this exhibition 

 worry into something like law and order. We would, 

 in fact, like to see the Royal Horticultural Society code 

 of judging rules going even farther, by embracing 

 every pertinent subject to exhibiting, one of which is 

 prize-winning with other men's produce, of which there 

 is some jet black evidence found in a perusal of the last 

 twenty years' history of gardening. That, of course, 

 may all have been stopped, but in our gallop over the 

 twenty years' course of three leading gardening period- 

 icals we did not notice the stopping place. Any W'ay, 

 how valuable, and what a tower of strength would be a 

 completed gospel edited by the apostles of horticulture 

 under the asgis of the Royal Horticultural Society ! 



By the way, Mr. Editor, what a pretty peep you 

 gave us, last month, of daffodils all a growing and 



A Fine Cordvlink 



[Reproduced through the courti 



a-blowing in the People's Gardens! .\s nice a little 

 picture as ever we met, with its glorious backgrounds, 

 of which those fine gardens provide so plentifully 

 for the bedding. "The result must be highly satis- 

 factory," &c., &c. (See footnote, June No.) But, Mon 

 Editeur, Ma Chree, did ye no see another bed, right 

 forninst the Parkgate street entrance? A big bed, 

 thickly sown W'ith hyacinths, king of the blues, hundreds 

 of them, any one spike of which would not have dis- 

 graced an exhibition board. Oh ! my, sich whoppers ! 

 But what we want to talk about was the daring mixture 

 OT Kcizcr's Kroon Tulips through them. Shades of 

 Turner and the old Teme- 

 raire ! We saw the glowing 

 mass against the setting 

 sim. Blue, and scarlet, and 

 gold, and live sunrays, all 

 blended in a glowing trans- 

 parency : the richest, mad- 

 dest, merriest combination 

 we ever saw. Gentle 

 reader, who planneth bulb 

 beds, do likewise. 



The Club-Palm 



(Cordyline). 

 This handsome plant, 

 although palm-like in 

 appearance, is not a true 

 palm. It really belongs to 

 the lily family, as is shown 

 in the structure of the 

 llowers, which are small, 

 white, and arranged in 

 branched panicles. The 

 fruits are berries. The 

 woody stem, frequently 

 stoloniferous at base, bears 

 a large.terminal tuft of long, 

 narrow, drooping leaves, 

 more or less leathery in 

 texture. The hardiest 

 species are natives of New 

 Zealand, some of which 

 attain a height of 30 to 40 

 feet. 

 The Cordylines flourish best on rich, loamj- soils. 

 Well-grown specimens are very effective on lawns, 

 giving quite a sub-tropical aspect to the whole 

 garden. It is only in the mildest parts of the country 

 that Cordylines succeed. In the Dublin district they 

 flower and ripen seed annually. 



The illustration shows one of a large number of 

 cordylines grown at Old Conna Hill, near Bray, the 

 residence of Captain Riall. The photograph was 

 taken by Mr F. G. Bell early last month, on the 

 occasion of the visit of the Dublin Seed and Nursery 

 Employees' Association. The climbing plant covering 

 the bare stem of the tree is a crimson rambler rose, but 

 whether its presence really improves the appearance of 

 this fine specimen of cordyline is, of course, a matter of 

 personal taste ; for ourselves we would prefer the trunk 

 in all its natural nakedness. 



AT Old Conna Hill. 



sv of the Editor ol the F.i 



