FEBRUARY 



IRISH GARDENING. 



23 



and plants raised early in the ^-ear under glass and 

 planted out will ripen good seed, but at Kew the 

 self-sown seedlings springing up the next year flower 

 too late to form good seed. At Glasnevin last year 

 it flowered, but was sown too late to ripen good 

 seed. 



Mr. T. Smith recommends as a substitute for the 

 Canadian rice our native plant, Caicx pendttia, for those 

 who require a plant to improve duck and other wild 

 fowl shooting. Carex pcndula is a handsome perennial 

 sedge growing by the waterside, and Mr. T. Smith 

 says that duck will eat the seeds with avidity. 



The Berlin Botanies publish a small, well illustrated 

 work on their gardens. The plants 

 are arranged according to their 

 country. One photo of part of 

 the rock garden shows a pretty 

 Pyrenean group consisting of 

 Ratnandia pyretmica and Saxi- 

 fmgannibrossa,\\\\h Viola carnuta 

 at the base. We might well adopt 

 an idea from Germany for our 

 conservatories where plants are 

 grown for ornament and not 

 for collection. The palms and 

 plants are either planted out or 

 plunged, and the ground carpeted 

 with Sellaginella apoda minor, 

 giving the idea of tropical shrubs 

 on a lawn. 



From Berlin also comes a pro- 

 mising new tree sent out by L. 

 Spath Baumschulenweg, Berlin, 

 at six marks for a small plant. 

 The raiser's description of Acer 

 penjisylvanicxtm erythrocladum is 

 as follows: — "After the leaf-fall 

 the j'oung shoots of this beautiful 

 new plant turn a wonderfully 

 vivid carmine red colour and 

 form even from afar a bright 

 winter ornament." 



Like the type, this new variety 

 has the old stem of a slaty colour, 

 streaked with silver, but the 

 young shoots are brighter in 

 winter than the dogwood. 



Our old friend Ampclopsis 

 vcitchi is having a rough time. But a few )cars ago 

 the name was changed to Vitis inconsfans, a name 

 which was never taken up by gardeners, so it is still 

 less likely that they will take up the new name recently 

 given to it. An assistant in the Kew Herbarium now 

 announces that we ought to call Ampclopsis vei/c/ii by 

 the cumbersome and unwieldl)- name of Ptirlliciiocissiis 

 tricuspidafa. 



The following incident will show that it pays lady 

 gardeners to study and cultivate other things than their 

 profession— for instance, a winning disposition and an 

 attractive appearance. An employer in Ireland sent 

 her lady gardener to buy some manure at a sale, but 

 when the lady arrived she found the manure was already 

 bought by a certain gentleman. The lady was then 



sent by her employer to persuade the purchaser to part 

 with some of the manure. On calling to see about the 

 matter and after a pleasant talk, it was amicably 

 arranged so that each should have half of the manure. 



r:^ 



The Pendulous Carex (Carex Pendula) 



One of the largest of our native sedges, flowering 



early summer. Its three-cornered fruit is developed 



from the 3 stigma ovary shown in the figure. (After 



Bentham.) 



Sweet Peas. By h. j. r. digges. 



EPORTS from all sources tell of a disastrous seed- 

 ing season last year, there being practically only 

 ten days or a fortnight of summer weather alto- 

 gether. This short spell occurred at the beginning of" 

 August, when sweet peas came along with a glorious 

 promise of seed, and hope ran 

 ^X high after the cold and miserable 



June and July which had retarded 

 growth and made the plants 

 look wilted and unhappy. How 

 splendidl}- the rows and clumps 

 responded to the sunshine ; their 

 pent-up energies burst out into 

 magnificent bloom, germination 

 followed with great abundance, 

 and all fears ot a bad season were 

 allayed. But, alas ! the sun 

 seemed to have made his last 

 and only eff'ort for the year - cold, 

 dark, sunless days followed with- 

 out a break, the seed refused to 

 develop or ripen, and a general 

 shortage in the harvest inevitably 

 followed. Seed is scarce, seed 

 is dear, but on the other hand 

 growers are more determined 

 than ever that the seed they are 

 sending out is of the finest quality ; 

 they know how serious a matter 

 it would be if a corresponding 

 failure should occur with their 

 clients through a distribution of 

 inferior seed. We may have to 

 pay more for our seeds, but we 

 need not fear that growers will 

 endanger their reputation by 

 sending out indifferent seed, and 

 if the lesser quantit}' induces us to 

 sow more thinly the scarcity will 

 prove a blessing. 

 The shortage will be felt most in the newer varieties, 

 and "sold out " will be a frequent reply to our orders. 

 There is all the more need, therefore, to order at once. 

 Happy are they who have anticipated, sending their 

 orders even before catalogues were received and 

 having them filled at once. The gardening newspapers 

 which give special attention to sweet peas prove their 

 usefulness in such an emergency, noting the new 

 varieties, their raisers and their distributors, so that 

 readers are enabled to place their orders before cata- 

 logues are issued, and so ensure a supply of seed. The 

 ordinary grower who is not keen on new varieties will 

 have no diflnculty in procuring the older and well-tried 

 kinds as before. Stocks of these will hardly be affected, 

 if at all. 



