IRISH GARDENING. 



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siiiii, \^•llic•ll puts f(H'tli iti^ flnwevs, tinted like 

 oil! ivoi'v, in spi'ing. It is a shi'ub most rarely 

 seen in British gardens, but one that I hold in 

 very high esteem. 



Then for sombre green, has J. W. B. no en- 

 comium for Garrya ellyptica, draped with its 

 grey male catkins ? One usually sees it trained 

 against a wall, where it is too apt to get 

 untimely priming, whereby it is debarred from 

 flowering. But it grows well in the open with- 

 out protection : witness a fine specimen in the 

 Edinburgh Botanic Garden, where winter is no 

 slight ordeal to sensitive things. Tricuspidaria 



the deciduous B. virescens, which atones amply 

 for its dingy sunnner blof)Ui by the brilliant 

 burnt-sienna of its arching stems when bai'e of 

 leaves. 



Perhaps the prettiest of all shrubs in winter 

 is Bieris japonica, which j^repares its flower 

 clusters months before the flowering season, 

 setting them in rosettes of carmine-tinted 

 racemes at the end of almost every shoot. And 

 when these buds biu'st into ivory bloom in April 

 it is hard to find anything fairer. 



About mid-M'inter, when strolling through the 

 Edinburgh Botanic Gardens, I caught sight of 



lanceolata and Eucryphia cordifolia have fine 

 dark foliage ; but they only thrive in mild 

 quarters. 



Among rhododendrons, J. \V. B. mentions 

 R. Falconeri as " a gem for the warmer coun- 

 ties " (it flowers in the open in Edinbvu'gh) ; it 

 may be well to add that where it does not 

 succeed, E. Hodgsoni flinches not from any 

 cold it has to face in these islands, and its 

 foliage is quite as grand as that of the other. 

 Two species of Barberry are conspicuously de- 

 sirable for winter effect — viz., the evergreen B. 

 japonica, bearing among its huge armoured 

 leaves clustered racemes of fi-agrant lemon- 

 yellow flowers from Christmas onwards, and 



a bush covered with drooping, white racemes. 

 There are whites and whites — milk white, snow 

 white, marble white, and so on. The flowers of 

 this bush are of a peculiar gleaming white, the 

 effect being enhanced by the intensely dark, 

 dull green of the foliage. I was puzzled about 

 it. Evidently it was an Arcto-staphylus ; but 

 which ■? Mr. Bean describes A. Manzanita as 

 blooming in March and April, the flowers being 

 deep pink. Howbeit, it turns out that this is 

 a white-flowered Manzanita, and a most lovely 

 thing it is. It is growing at the foot of a wall, 

 but not trained against it. 



Herbert M.axwell. 

 ^lonreith. 



