IRISH GARDENING. 



119 



tender salads in early spiinij by the adoption of some 

 of the methods described in this \'olume. 



French gardening:, however, as a means of earning- a 

 livelihood is exceptionally hard work, and only those 

 who are prepared to toil incessantly all days and all 

 weathers should entertain the idea at all. In the market 

 gardens in the suburbs of Paris the work is carried on 

 by men, their wives .and daughters, and the working 

 hours are exceedingly long — in fact from day-break to 

 dark throughout the whole round of the year. When 

 the evenings get long the "spare" time is occupied 

 in making mats, shifting soil and manure, packing 

 produce for market, &c. The rent of land near Paris 

 is very high {£30-^0 per acre), the French growers 

 therefore can neither afford to lose time nor waste 

 ground (paths are frequently reduced to 9 inches wide, 

 the manure being carried on shoulder baskets throughout 

 the plots) in the prosecution of their calling. French 

 gardening as practised round Paris is hardly likely to 

 get acclimatised in Ireland, yet there is much to be 

 learned from a study of the system, and there is no 

 book written in English from which a more authoritative 

 account may be obtained than from the work under 

 review. 



Practical School G.\rdening. By Percy Elford 

 and Samuel Heaton. Oxford, at the Cl.irendon Press. 

 Price 2S. — The rapid spread of school gardens within the 

 last decade has produced a crop of text-books more or 

 less suited to the requirements of the schools, .\syet no 

 writer seems to have caught the full and true spirit of 

 school gardening as an educational method. The ideas 

 of these book-makers are of gardening rather than of 

 education. They, therefore, to that extent fail as safe 

 leaders in a movement having such splendid possibilities 

 for rural schools. The object of school gardening is 

 tiot so much to teach gardening as to interest the child 

 in life, to encourage original observation, to experiment, 

 and to draw correct inferences from the things seen — in 

 other words, to teach the child to think for itself, to be 

 self-reliant, and to be intelligently interested in the 

 processes of growth and development of crops. Our 

 present authors, in their introduction, seem to appreciate 

 all this, but in the preparation of their chapters they seem 

 at once to fall back on the ordinary and easier plan of 

 simply writing a text-book on horticultural operations. 

 This is all the more regrettable, as the work has been 

 primarily written for elementary school teachers, who, 

 by adopting this as a text-book, will naturally follow its 

 methods in their own teaching. The right note is 

 struck in a short essay on "The School Garden and 

 Discovery Lessons " by P. E. Meadon, inserted as an 

 appendix at the end of the book. This ought to be care- 

 fully studied bj' all teachers who intend taking up 

 school gardening as a subject of class instruction. So 

 far as is attempted the work in this book is carefully 

 done. There is a large number of illustrations, although 

 some appear to be of very little value — for example, do 

 the authors expect any reader to be able to recognise 

 any one of the eighteen varieties of apples from the 

 illustrations on page 116? or the twelve pears shown on 

 page 121. And, again, why should a whole page be 

 devoted to the illustration of a vvheel-barrow and a 

 watering pot ! 



Notes from Glasnevin. 



Shrubs. 



Carpcntcria calijarnica. — This shrub can be well 

 recommended as an evergreen for sheltered and favoured 

 localities. At Glasnevin, planted in a warm border, it 

 flowers well, and during July is covered with large, 

 white, waxy flowers with yellow- stamens. The leaves 

 are lanceolate, and of a bright shining green. This 

 plant is a native of California, and was introduced into 

 cultivation in Europe by Max Leichtlin, of Baden 

 Baden, to whom we are indebted for many good garden 

 plants. The plant is figured in the Botanical Magazine, 

 T. 691 1, from specimens received from Miss Jek}'ll, of 

 Surre}', where the plant flowered at an elevation of 400 

 feet above sea level without protection. 



Olearla macrodoiita. — This shrub is one of the many 

 introductions from New Zealand, which at Glasnevin 

 and in other parts of Ireland flowers freely in the open 

 without protection of any kind. The leaves are holly- 

 like, the undersides being a soft grey green. The 

 sweetly-scented flowers are white, borne in clusters. 

 When healthy the plant grows quickly, and in a com- 

 paratively short time will form a bush from 7 to 10 feet 

 high. It is also figured in the Botanical Magazine from 

 specimens taken from a plant presented to Kew by Mr. 

 W. E. Gumbleton, of Queenstown. 



Olearia stelltdata is better known than the foregoing 

 species, and is almost common in gardens. It is 

 undoubtedly one of the freest blooming shrubs we have, 

 and in early summer the whole plant is often covered 

 with white daisj" flowers. It is a native of Australia, 

 perfectly hardy, forming sometimes quite large bushes. 



As well as the shrubs here mentioned, we may note in 

 flower now at Glasnevin a large bed of the H. P. Frau 

 Karl Druschki rose. This rose is a strong grower, the 

 large flowers are borne in quantities, and are all well 

 shaped. At the summer show of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society, held in Merrion Square on the 20th Julj', this 

 rose figured strongly as the best white. At Glasnevin 

 not only are the flowers large and well-formed, but the 

 succession of bloom extends over a considerable period. 

 One point not in its favour is (he fact that, like so 

 many of the newer roses, it is scentless. 



R. M. Pollock. 



The Dean Hole Medal. — In commemoration of the 

 long services of the late Dean Hole as pre.-ident of the 

 National Rose Society, that society has decided to 

 present from time to time a medal, to be known as the 

 " Dean Hole Medal," to such rosarians as have rendered 

 "substantial service" to the cult of the rose The first 

 recipient is the Rev. J. H. Pemberton in recognition of 

 his work on " Roses, their History, Development, and 

 Cultivation," which was reviewed in these pages on its 

 publication last year. 



National Vegetable Society. — A new society to 

 further the progress of vegetable culture has been 

 formed under the above title. The subscription is 5s. 

 a year, and the Hon. secretary is Mr. E. G. Ouiok, 

 Harrow View, Wealdstone, Harrow. 



