IRISH GARDENING 



VOLUME V. 



No. 58 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE 



ADVANCEMENT OF HORTICULTURE AND 



ARBORICULTURE IN IRELAND 



DECEMBER 

 1910 



Christmas Trees. 



By A. E. .MOKRAN. 



I SUPPOSE most of us have one favourite 

 kind of tree, and we flatter ourselves that 

 our judgment has selected the species 

 that really is the most artistically perfect in all 

 the myriad details that 

 blend and harmonise 

 to form the thing- of 

 beauty that is the ob- 

 ject of our cultured 

 admiration. 



With some it is the 

 lordly oak, sternly up- 

 raising- his rug-g-ed 

 arms in stout defiance 

 of centuries of time 

 and tempest. With 

 others it is the queenly 

 beech, sweeping- the 

 diamond dew drops 

 with her trailing- skirts 

 of wondrous work- 

 manship and colour- 

 ing-. Through all the 

 rang-e of trees our 

 fancies go. From the 

 grand and sombre 

 cedar, the chiefest 

 ornament of some 

 stately park, to the 

 dancing, feckless, 

 silver-decked birch 

 that clings to the lone 



hillside where the bracken ends and the world 

 of heather begins. It is strange that there 

 should be such diversity in our mature opinions, 

 because there was a time when we were all 

 agreed that there was only one tree that really 

 mattered at all, only one tree that possessed all 



the atLributes that could be desired by the heart 

 of man or woman (little men and dainty 

 little ladies, but with big, big hearts)— and 

 that tree of course was the Christmas tree. 



In this country even 



•*cr^Wfgr- 



still a Christmas tree 

 is an event, an epoch. 

 It is even conceivable 

 that in some semi-civi- 

 lised families a whole 

 precious Christmas 

 time might pass with- 

 out the appearance of 

 this triumph of the 

 arboriculturist's skill. 

 It is from Germany 

 that we first learned 

 about Christmas trees, 

 and there each mem- 

 ber of the family will 

 have one for him or 

 herself, a big one for 

 ' ' die vater " and ' ' der 

 mutter" a n d a 

 little one each for 

 Hans and Gretchen 

 and Fritz. So they are 

 far in advance of us 

 in these important 

 forestry matters. 



The species is difli- 

 cult to classify. To my 

 youthful eyes the height appeared gigantic, 

 quite one hundred feet, and almost up to the 

 ceiling. The branches filled half the room, and 

 were laden with a crop of marvels which were, 

 truly, as the newspapers say, too numerous 

 and varied to mention. Even the tub from 



