IRISH GARDENING 



VOLUME XIII 



No. i5i 



Editor-J- W. Besant 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE 



ADVANCEMENT OF HORTICULTURE AND 



ARBORICULTURE IN IRELAND 



SEPTEMBER 

 1918 



Summer Flowering Shrubs. 



Bv Sir John Eoss of Bladensburg. 



The genus Eucryphia is interesting in more ways 

 than one, not only on account of the great 

 horticultural merits of the various species that 

 belong to it, but also because botanists have 

 not yet decided where to place it in the vegetable 

 kingdom. It is usually classed in the Rose Order, 

 and is considered by some to be a close ally of 

 Quillaja, of which Q. Saponaria, an evergreen 

 shrub from Chile, is occasionally seen in this 

 country ; but other authorities are of ox)inion 

 that it has no afifinity with the Rosacese, and 

 perhaps the formation of the seed pods — quite 

 unlike the fruits that generallj' distinguish the 

 plants of that family — would go to favour that 

 view. It contains four species ; two are natives 

 of Chile, and two of the Australasian Continent ; 

 but of the latter only one seems to be introduced. 

 I have not seen the other, which is said to have 

 pinnate foliage, nor have I heard of any place 

 where it is cultivated in Europe. The two found 

 in South America are E. pinna tifolia and E. 

 cordifolia. The first of these, discovered more 

 than seventy years ago and originally brought 

 to this country in 1859, is perhaps the best 

 knoAvn species of the genus, and is one of the 

 niost beautiful of the summer-flowering shrubs ; 

 indeed it compares favourably and holds its own 

 with th^ very choicest of all the plants that adorn 

 our gardens, and being hardy in the British Isles 

 it should be more extensively grown than now 

 appears to be the case. A specimen here, 

 obtained in 1803, is some 25 feet high, with 

 handsome shining pinnate siib -evergreen foliage, 

 composed of three to five leaflets, and it produces 



from the end of July onwards large pure white 

 flowers of good texture, some 3 inches in diameter 

 and formed of four petals, which are supphed 

 with numerous stamens ; the anthers are of a red 

 orange colour, conspicuous when the bloom 

 begins to open, then gradually fading away. It 

 is an extremely floriferous shrub, and when 

 decked out in full dress a singularly lovely sight 

 Uke as if it were a giant'plant of white St. John's 

 Wort, but with a very different leaf. In a little 

 more than a year it ripens its seed, which 

 germinates readily, and it can be very easily 

 propagated. 



E. cordifolia is evergreen, with dull 

 green, somewhat elongated, heart-shaped and 

 rather stiff foliage : flowers with five petals, 

 white and smaller than those of its companion ; 

 it was introduced in 1851, and appears to be 

 less generally cultivated, though it is a very 

 desirable s^Decies. I cannot say much about it, 

 as I have not been so fortunate with it ; the 

 plants in this place are now doing well, but up to 

 a short time ago one (at that time the only 

 specimen) was apparently put in the wrong 

 position, and refused to grow until its require 

 ments were satisfied. E. Billardierii, from 

 Tasmania, is probably the least known and 

 rarer in cultivation than any of the others ; it 

 does not seem to be hardy at Kew, but it grows 

 here remarkably well in a fairly sheltered i^lace, 

 and ought to succeed in all the milder parts of 

 the United Kingdom. It is an extremely neat 

 evero-reen, with entire leaves, somewhat Hnear in 

 shape and two to three inches long ; the buds are 



