IRISH iGARDENING 



Correspondence. 



TO THK KUITOK HUSH GAKDKNING. 



SiK,— 1 have read with very great interest the 

 vahialile paper on the foliage of shrnl)S and trees 

 in your hist issue by my friend. Sir John Ross. T 

 r.M'i sure tliat he wi'U forgive uie if I call attention 

 to the fact that lie has been betrayed certainly into 

 one, and almost certainly into two, errors. He 

 treats Berheiis BedJii as a synonym of B. japnnua . 

 whereas, if not a separate species as it used to be 

 regarded, it is at any rate a striking variety which 

 can easily be distinguished ])V the delicious lily 

 of the valley like perfume of its lemon-coloured 

 flower racemes, whereas those of the type are 

 witliout smell. 



Further. I can hardly doul)t that when he talks 

 of the metallic lustre of the leaves of Sheplicnhn 

 (iiijentii he is really referring to Eluoiinns (i i- 

 fienfefi, which most nurserymen unfortunately sell 

 under the former name. 



The true Shepherdia (iiuottcd. is a hardy Cana- 

 dian slirul) with smallish glaucous leaves, and 

 lacks the metallic lustre so conspicuous in the 

 other. It is very rare in European cultivation. 

 There is a large plant here at Aldenham, and 

 doubtless one at Kew, but 1 know of no others in 

 England. No one should confuse the two genera, 

 for all the Elseagnus, as far as I know, have alter- 

 nate leaves, and both the Slie})lierdias— viz.. raiKi- 

 (Jcnsis and mgentcfi — have them opposite. 



Yours truly, 



ViciHY Gxr.Bs. 



Lilium testaceum. 



TO THE EDITOR IKISH GARDENING. 



.Sir, — Mr. Preston's praise of the Nankin Lily 

 (page lo8) is no more than this beautiful flower 

 deserves. It is to be regretted that the specific 

 name " testaceum " has been adopted instead of 

 " isabellinum," for " testaceum " means " brick- 

 coloured," which is a gross libel on the delicate 

 hue of the blossom. On the other hand, " isabelli- 

 num has an interesting historical origin. It is the 

 Latinised form of the French " isabelle," dove- 

 eolom-ed — i.e.. the colour of a Barbary dove, a term 

 coined by French milliners of the seventeenth cen- 

 tury in honour of Isabel, daughter of Philip II. of 

 Spain, and wife of the Archduke Albert. In 1601 

 the said Archduke laid siege to Ostend, and Isabel 

 vowed that she would not change her chemise till 

 the city was taken. The siege lasted three years 

 and ten weeks, and when the Archduchess at 

 length took off her chemise it was found to be of 

 a colour resembling the corolla of the Nankin 

 Lily ! 



Herbert Maxwell. 



Monreith. 



Pruning Trees. 



"On'looker" misses the point regarding the 

 pruning of trees as advocated in my former note. 

 'I'hc necessity for branch thinning is not. as he 

 suggests, the result of })revious inuning, but of the 

 want of it. Most trees in nature grow gregariously, 

 that is, they form woods and forests. In this 

 manner the lower branches automatically dis- 

 appear, the trunks grow straight and clean from 

 i)eing drawn up to the light above, and the heads 

 are comparatively small for want of room to de- 

 velop. Specimen trees, however, growing more or 

 less isolated, continue to extend all their branches. 



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and may develo]) into very noble S})iH-iiiiens. On 

 the other hand, an isolated tree is e.vposed to 

 every gale that blows, and disasters are frequent in 

 the laying low of many cherished specimens, and 

 at the least, immense limbs nici^v be torn off and 

 irreparable damage done. 



Thinning out the branches of young specimens 

 as they develop follows, to some extent, what would 

 hai)pen in the forest, and also provides a passage 

 for the wind which would otherwise blow down 

 the tree or seriously injure it. Old and large 

 specimens M^hich have suffered in this way can 

 often be saved and improved by cutting l)ack 

 l)roken limbs to the main trunk and incidentally 

 tliinniug out and lightening other branehes to re- 

 store the balance. " Onlooker," doubtless, has in 

 mind frequent examples of bad pruning seen in 

 the suburbs of large cities, where big trees have 

 to be indiscriminately lopped back l)ecause, as a 

 rule, a spreading tree like the fvondon Plane has 

 hetMi i:)lanted where Wheatley Elms would have 

 lieeti more suitable. 



A good tree ])ruiier will thin out and reduce tlu; 

 iivauclies of a large tree without altering the .shape. 



Arbok. 



Road Transport . 



This is a matter of vital importance to fu line is u ml 

 inarlct. (junleneis. The recent strike on British 



