1 8 4 



IRISH GARDENING 



If a small lot of trees has tu be done with a 

 Copper Knapsack sprayer, first rub some thick 

 grease over the inside of the sprayer to prevent 

 the lime-sulphur corroding the copper. With 

 reasonable care in greasing the inside of sprayer 

 and washing it out with clean water every night 

 there is very little risk of injuring the copper. 

 Copper Knapsack sprayers are now procurable 

 tinned, for use with lime-sulphur. They can also 

 be used for Bordeaux mixtures. Where much 

 spraying has to be done, I find that hand-power 

 sprayers do the work most effectively and most 

 economically. 



I know some growers who still stick to giving 

 an occasional winter cleansing with lime-wash, 

 and the condition of their trees compares very 

 favourably with trees sprayed with stronger 

 caustic washes. Peter Brock. 



Holly, Ivy and Mistletoe. 



" In times when Arthur ruled the land 



/Vs ane : ent legends tell. 

 The ivy was a garden lad 



Who loved a lady well " 



Surely such inspiration could only have come 

 from the spirit of Christmas. Odes to evergreens 

 are not common among poetic warblings. Even 

 the mystic mistletoe has not. that we are aware, 

 ever inspired the melody maker into chanting 

 its virtues. True, we know " the mistletoe hung 

 in the castle hall," at least we have heard so 

 often enough to obviate any wish to dispute it : 

 hut that, after all, is but a bare statement of fact, 

 further flights of fancy being promptly shunted 

 on to the next line : " the holly branch shone on 

 the old oak wall " ; but. indeed, our subject 

 seems to have received scant courtesy from the 

 muse. We are told the name is derived from the 

 Anglo-Saxon word holegn, or holy-tree, so it is 

 no novice in its association with the festive 

 season. 



Old Customs. — Time honoured, we are told 

 is the custom of Christmas decorating with ever-, 

 greens, by which we ^reet the great Christian 

 festival, and only, in fact, a page out of the 

 pagan past. Our ancestors, if we will own them 

 as such, appear to have been folks of strong 

 belief, some second-sight, and, withal, practical, 

 the evergreens they thus employed being for no 

 mere decorative purposes, but as a propitiation 

 to the spirits, good or had. who then, apparently, 

 were rather meddlesome with mortals. But even 

 in our own day early days there was a good 

 deal more spirit investing the decorative schemes 

 when pretty well all the village rustics, young 

 and old. lugged in green boughs and branches on 

 Christmas Kve to the old church galore, and 

 lixed them pretty well as they liked, all of which 

 has given way to high ait, with possibly consider- 

 ably less heartiness. 



^> The Mistletoe seems sufficiently evergreen to 

 obviate ever withering or custom stealing 

 its infinite virtues and fateful responsibilities. 

 Cnless for affections of the heart, of course, 



it is no Longei the medicinal agent reputed to 

 have been availed of by the Druids, who. 

 doubtless, credited so remarkable a plant with 

 peculiar [lowers in their mystic riles. 



Tradition, anyway, has it so. hut that it is still 

 indispensable to us is evident in the large quan- 

 tities imported annually at this season. Prom 



France alone a few years ago one season saw as 

 much as 2,300 crates of about one hundredweight 

 each consigned to London 



Our Grievance. — One might conclude in fact 

 that the peer-less parasite was some tender exotic 

 that would not grow in the Green Isle, when as a 

 matter' of fact our humid climate is admirably 

 suited to its production. But it is an old 

 grievance, and presumably will remain as such 

 until our colleens positively and patriotically take 

 the matter up seriously — no larking — and join in a 

 sympathetic strike by refusing osculation under 

 any but bushes bearing the brand " Real Irish," 

 which, perhaps, they will find not only equal to 

 the imported article, but actually superior in 

 flavour. As a curious and interesting plant, too, 

 apart from utilitarian purposes, a bush is always 

 welcome in the garden. 



We are aware that many try to grow it, and 

 fail by simple reason that immature berries are 

 used for the purpose. Berries for this purpose 

 must mature on the growing plant until February 

 or .March. 



Ripe berries rarely fail in germinating a certain 

 percentage of seeds if macerated on the bark of an 

 apple tree, and are protected from birds by tying 

 a bit of muslin over them, germination taking 

 place in about three months, when the spear-like 

 growth intuitively turns to the bark and pierces 

 it for a foothold. One will not, of course, penalise 

 their prize apple tree for this purpose, and their 

 is something very peculiar in the influence of the 

 parasite on its host inasmuch as instances have 

 been recorded in which, after a growing plant of 

 mistletoe has been cut clean off the tree, tiny 

 kissing bushes have subsequently sprouted from 

 pretty well all over trunk and limbs. Our 

 earliest recollection of the mystic plant was a 

 bush on an apple tree in an old dame's cottage 

 garden which never' berried, owing, as she told 

 us. to its being a " Man-Mistletoe." Perhaps it 

 was. anyway it was one of the sexes of this 

 dioecious plant living out its life in single blessed- 

 ness, for male and female flowers are borne on 

 different plants. Was it not, by the way. the 

 subtle influence of this plant which beguiled a 

 bashful young " Meenisfer " into asking if it was 

 " Kistoinary to cuss the bride " ? 



Berried Things. — It is a matter for surprise 

 t hat among seasonable berried subjects the showy 

 and easily grown hybrid I'ernettyas are not 

 oftener met with, as their simple wants are surely 

 well worth catering for. We shall never forget 

 the lovely display at Ntraffan many years ago: 

 line bushes profusely clustered with big berries 



ranging from white on through pale pink and deep 



crimson to rich dark plum-purple, hut apparently 

 the plants eventually came under' the influences 

 Of the Limestone, and suffered to all but extinc- 

 tion. As berried things, too, some of the Coton- 

 easters can scarcely be overpraised, and that 

 C. horizontal is can behave so well in this direction 



ci ■ as a revelation on seeing far-extending 



growths on the walls of a building at the Royal 

 Dublin Society's premises. Ballsbridge, where' 

 Ian-like sprays, gracefully free of the main 

 growths, were thickly studded with the coral-like 

 fruits. C. microphylla is. of course, always good, 

 and the rampant growing 0. frigida, too, with its 

 pendant clusters, is very conspicuous in most 

 County Dublin gardens — rather overdone, in fact. 

 In conclusion, in the words of the old carol, 

 " Cod rest vim, merry gentlemen, let nothing yon 

 dismay." K-, Dtblin. 



