IRISH GARDENING 



21 



The Arbutus as a Native- 

 Irish Ti-ce-. 



Hv K. 1.1 i>vii I'K \Kiii:u. H.A. 



THIS aboriginal beautiful ever-i,'reen tree 

 of Clreece is now uneciuivocally ascer- 

 tained to be indiicenous in that part 

 o( tlie county Kerry, called Killarney ; it de- 

 corates the fascinatini,'^ lakes oi' this enchantinjj 

 snot, hanginij from the crevices of the seeniinijly 

 barren limestone rocks in the i:fre;itest state of 

 luxuriance and beauty, 

 with hardly any earth 

 about its roots. I am 

 told that it is to be met 

 with at tileuijariff, anil 

 in all the mountainous 

 situations west ot Han- 

 try Hay, Coimty Cork. " 

 So wrote Walter Wade 

 in 1804, and the various 

 Irish Moras published 

 since then, while sup- 

 plying' more minute par- 

 ticulars as to its occur- 

 rence, do not substantially 

 add to the statement of 

 the author of " Plantae 

 Rariores in Hibernia in- 

 ventae." The .\rbutus, 

 most beautiful and most 

 interesting of our native 

 trees, grows often in 

 abundance within a lim- 

 ited area, which may 

 be defined as lying 

 within a twenty-five-mile 

 radius of lilengarilT. Its 

 absence from the rest 

 of Ireland, and from 

 tireat Hritain, led some 

 of the earlier observers 

 to suggest that it was an 

 introduced species ; but, 

 as Wade said over a 

 century ago, there is no 

 doubt as to its being 

 indigenous. .\s regards 

 its general distribution, 

 it is essentially typi- 

 cal of the Lusitanian 

 group that makes both 



the flora and the faima of the south and 

 west ot Ireland of such supreme interest to 

 European naturalists. Outside o( Ireland 

 it is found in south-west France, throug^h- 

 out the .Spanish peninsula, and all along the 

 Mediterranean. It is, in fact, a typical .Medi- 

 terranean species, with an outl_\ing station 

 in Ireland, full six degrees north of its most 

 northern Continental station (Charente Infer- 

 ieure). In its habit, too, it conforms to the 

 same type, its branched, Inishy, evergreen aspect 

 recalling the "Maquis" vegetation-tvpe which 



Photo hy-] 



'Drinnmoni. 



l-'Rin or Arbiti^ I'sKno 



