IRISH GARDENING. 



149 



confused with the varieties of Delphinium Ajacis, a 

 better known but far inferior annual. At Glasnevin the 

 seeds are sown in October in a box in a cold frame. 

 About February or March they are ready to be trans- 

 planted two or three inches apart in other boxes, 

 and by the end of April they are hardened off and 

 planted out separately twelve to eighteen inches 

 apart. Another plan is to sow thinly in the open 

 ground in April, keeping- the seedlings thinned out, 

 eventually leaving them twelve inches from plant to 

 plant. 



Some Godetias and 

 Clarkias which were 

 given the same treat- 

 ment as the annual 

 Delphiniums have done 

 particularly well this 

 year. Some of the new 

 forms of antirrhinums 

 are very gay just now. 

 while other flower-^ 

 are fast disappearing. 

 Orange King, Ciolden 

 Chamois, Pure White, 

 Coral Red, Carmim- 

 Pink are among tlu- 

 best varieties. To flower 

 well through the sum- 

 mer the seed should be 

 sown in September or 

 October, or in heat in 

 January. 



The flowers of the Col- 

 chicums are welcome 

 even though they indi- 

 cate the time of the 

 year so well. C. Born 

 mulleri is the first to 

 open, but the best two 

 Colchicums are the Cau- 

 casian C. speciosum 

 rubrum and the beautiful 

 white variety C. specio- 

 sum album. 



Mr. Briscoe, an old 

 Kevvite, has had the 

 honour of raising the 

 first hybrid of Primula 

 bulleyana for Messrs. 

 Veitch and .Son. the 



other parent being P. japonica. The h)-brid is said 

 to have the habit of P. japonica with flowers similar in 

 colour to those of P. Unique. 



School Gardens. 



MOST Continental countries have recognised the 

 importance of school gardens as a means of 

 instruction in rural science, and have adopted 

 lliein in conjunction with their elementary schools. So 

 long ago as 1870 Austria-Hungary made it compulsory 

 for every national school to have a garden attached, and 

 Sweden quickly followed suit. Belgium, France, and 



Switzerland added school gardening to the curriculum 

 of their rural schools about ten years later. America, 

 with the able guidance and inspiration of Prof. L. H. 

 Bailey, has made rapid strides in the teaching of nature 

 study by means of school gardens. 



We in Ireland hope to have school gardens attached 

 to many of our national schools before very long, and 

 it behoves us to enquire how we can obtain the greatest 

 possible educational benefit from them. 



" No instruction without observation " should be the 

 ke)'note of the work in 

 the school garden. Its 

 aim must be something 

 higher than to turn out 

 the pupil a dexterous 

 garden labourer. In the 

 nature of things it can- 

 not hope to make him 

 an expert horticulturist, 

 but it can teach him the 

 essentials for the good 

 cultivation of garden 

 crops, and, what is 

 more important, it can 

 develop in him the 

 power of observation 

 and the ability to draw 

 proper conclusions from 

 what he sees. 



Yet another object 

 can be attained by the 

 school garden if rightly 

 used ; it can stimulate 

 in the child an intelli- 

 gent interest in the 

 common objects of the 

 countryside — the plants, 

 the trees, and the 

 animals. It should en- 

 courage, as Herbert 

 Spencer puts it, that 

 "instinctive inclination 

 which every child shows 

 to observe natural 

 beauties and investigate 

 natural phenomena." 



Working on these 

 lines the underlying 

 principles of every gar- 

 den operation should be 

 explained to the child before he performs it. He 

 should never be allowed to work mechanically, not 

 understanding the object of the work which he is at. 

 He must be taught to notice the plant forms and 

 structures which he meets in the garden, and their 

 uses must be explained to him. A labourer might 

 grow a bed of onions without in the least under- 

 standing the nature of a bulb or its use to the plant. 

 The benefit he would derive from growing the onions 

 would then simply be equal to the edible or market 

 value of the produce ; but if the growing of onions is to 

 have an educational value as well the grower should 

 seek to know what a bulb is, and why a plant produces it. 

 The autumn is now with us. and a few notes as to the 



AXNIAL LARKSI'IR 



Gardens, Cll.isnevin 



