AUGUST 



IRISH GARDENING. 



117 



Remarkable Effect of Lightning. 



MR. FRAXK BEDFORD, gardener at Straffan 

 House, Co. Kildare, has kindly sent us a remark- 

 able photograph (here reproduced) showing the 

 destructive effect of lightning which struck a hand- 

 some specimen of Cedrus Deodora on the 8th of June 

 last, at 3.40 o'clock in the morning. So far as our own 

 knowledge goes there are very few recorded cases 

 where the force exercised was anything like so terrific 

 and the resulting effect so amazingly destructive as in 

 the present case. Usually the damage done is confined 



hundredweight twenty or thirty yards awa)- against the 

 branches of neighbouring trees. As Mr. Bedford says, 

 the photograph does not convey a full appreciation of 

 the appearance presented on the morning of the storm, 

 as the photograph could only be taken from one side, 

 and that the least effective one. A neighbouring oak 

 was also "struck," but in this case a strip was merely 

 torn from the trunk from top to bottom. 



Hardiness of Petunias. 



Mrs. Fayle, of Merlin, Greystones, Co. Wicklow, 

 sends us the following note: — "I have at present in 



[Rohert I. huh 



Destkictive Effect of Lightning upon a Cedrls Deodora in the Groinds of 

 Straffan House, Co. Kildare. 



to the work of separating the cortex from the wood in 

 longitudinal strips, the current following the direction 

 of the fibres — running a straight course in straight 

 fibred trees and a spiral course when the growth is 

 spiral. The wood is either left uninjured or riven 

 in longitudinal fissures. Occasionally the trunk is 

 completely barked. 



In the Straffan case the result was not a mere injury, 

 it was a complete and instantaneous destruction of the 

 tree. The central attack was directed against the trunk 

 about fifteen feet from the lop, cutting it off, and this, 

 falling vertically with tremendous force, pierced the 

 ground and planted itself beside the riven trunk, firm 

 and upright, just like a young and naturally grow- 

 ing tree. After striking the main stem and cutting off 

 the top the current passed downward, splitting the thick 

 trunk into matchwood, hurling pieces of wood of a 



flower in my garden a double pink petunia. It was 

 reared, and had always been, in a heated greenhouse 

 until last summer, when I had it planted against a 

 south wall for decoration for a few months, expecting 

 at the first touch of frost it would perish. Not only did 

 it live through one of the most severe winters that has 

 been known in these parts, but without any protection 

 whatever it did not suffer in the least, the leaves keep- 

 ing quite fresh and green, although at times covered 

 with snow. The flower buds appeared in the spring, 

 and it has been in bloom for two months ; it is a lovely 

 shade of pink. Such things as calceolarias, heliotropes, 

 geraniums (ivy-leaved and zonal), which usually pass 

 through the winters unscathed in this mild locality, have 

 been nearly all killed. Is this experience of the hardi- 

 ness of the petunia an unusual occurrence ? It came as 

 a surprise to me. 



