IRISH GARDENING 



VOLUME IV. 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE 



ADVANCEMENT OF HORTICULTURE AND 



ARBORICULTURE IN IRELAND 



SEPTEMBER 



Native Plants for Our Gardens. 



Bv R. I-I.OV11 Prakgkk, B.A. 



THE Editor has invited me to write some 

 notes on the value of our native plants 

 for garden purposes, and I do so the more 

 willingly because there can be little doubt that 

 many of the species that grow wild in Ireland 

 are well worthy of cultivation, being quite as 

 beautiful and interesting as others, introduced 

 from foreign lands, which are frequently grown. 



It should be pointed out, in the first place, 

 that many of our favourite garden flowers are 

 in reality native species — some still in their 

 pristine condition, others altered by selection or 

 bv crossing almost beyond recognition. For 

 instance, the columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris), 

 tlie Welsh poppy {Meconopsis cambn'ca), and 

 the dropwort {SpircBa Filipendula), all common 

 garden flowers, are native Irish plants. So 

 among our shrubs, arbutus, holly, and hawthorn ; 

 and among trees, oak, ash, birch, alder, and 

 others, are truly wild in Ireland. In the kitchen 

 garden, too, we find the asparagus and sea-kale, 

 which are rare natives, inhabiting our sea- 

 shores ; while in the fruit garden the raspberry, 

 apple, and other important species have their 

 native representatives. 



It may be pointed out that the converse 

 process has also been going on, and plants 

 introduced into gardens have escaped, and have 

 so thoroughly settled down amid the native 

 flora that the most expert botanists are some- 

 times puzzled to distinguish the truly indigenous 

 from the alien flora. As examples of such 

 aliens may he mentioned the traveller's joy 

 {ClemntisVitalba), the soapwort {Saponaria affici- 

 iKi/is), the Alexanders {Stnyrniuin Olusa/runi), 

 the monkey-flower {Mimulus Langsdorfii), the 

 water-thyme (Elodea canadensis) — the last two 

 having their real home in North .America. 



To come now to indigenous plants which are 



well worthy of cultivation in our gardens we 

 may begin with the larger species whose proper 

 place is the border. Two of the crane's-bills 

 Geranium pratense and G. syhaticum, which 

 as natives are confined to Co. Antrim, are well 

 worthy of a place, especiall)^ the first, of which 

 there are double and white varieties in cultiva- 

 tion. A smaller species, the bloody crane's-bill 

 {G. sanguineuni), which maybe seen in profusion 

 on the sea-slopes at Howth, is beautiful in the 

 garden ; there is a delightful white variety of it, 

 and the dwarf prostrate pink-flowered form {lan- 

 cas/rieuse), which grows only on the sea-sands 

 of Walney Island in Lancashire, is one of the 

 most charming of rock-plants. The shrubby 

 cinquefoil (Pofentil/a fruticosa) is an interesting 

 dwarf shrub, pretty both in leaf and flower ; as 

 a native it occurs in a few limestone areas in 

 the west. Its var. Friedrichseni has lemon- 

 vellow, instead of golden-yellow, flowers. Then 

 1 must confess a leaning towards the Irish 

 spurge {Euphorbia hiberna), so interesting to 

 the botanist as being one of those Spanish- 

 French species which reappear in Ireland, far 

 northward of their main habitat. This plant is 

 execrated by all persons interested in salmon 

 and trout fishing, as it is singularly poisonous 

 to fish, and is often used on that account by 

 poachers. In the garden it produces in spring 

 pleasing rounded masses of bright yellow-green 

 leaves and flowers. 



For dry or sandy ground several plants 

 commend themselves — the horned poppy 

 (Glaucium flaviini), with its beautiful grey 

 foliage and handsome yellow blossoms ; the 

 rare sea cudweed (Diotis mariiima), one of 

 the most woolly of all plants, and the sea holly 

 {Ervngium niarifimuni), another handsome 

 grey - leaved plant. The sea wormwood 



