lu 



IRISH GARDENING 



Myosotis azorica, a mass of deep purple, made 

 an effective display. 



Campamila longestyla was still in fine flower, 

 showing the advantage of planting in various 

 positions and at different times, for, though 

 only a Inennial. this is an indispensable species, 

 with its large drooping bells of blue. 



Pohjgoniryn affini.'i. \\ith spikes of pink flowers 

 over leaves turning red suggests a good plant for 

 massing in quantity. 



Allium cyaneum, a dainty blue-flowered 

 species; could be made much of at this season 

 by planting in good breadths ; the blue colour is 

 always admired, and the habit of the plant is 

 neat. 



Fuchsia jmmila is a real gem for this time of 

 the year, forming compact bushes a foot or 

 little more in height, and nearly as much through 

 and bearing freely its graceful scarlet flowers. 



Carlina acanthifolia, forming a rosette of 

 handsome thistle-Hke leaves lying close to the 

 soil and a single central flower head, cannot 

 boast of a striking colour, but in appearance is 

 certainly unusual, and not unattractive when 

 the bracts roll back in the siin, displaying the 

 whitish central florets. 



Carlina acaulis has narrower prickly leaves 

 and short-stemmed flower heads of a purphsh 

 hue. 



Sedum Emerrii is quite an attractive plant, 

 Avith its prostrate stems clothed with roundish 

 glaucous leaves and terminated by corAanbs of 

 reddish puiple flowers. 



Alyssum floribundum, a sub -shrubby species, 

 with iiarrow grey leaves and long-stalked branch- 

 ing inflorescences of bright yellow flowers, is 

 welcome flowering so late. 



Omj^halodes LucilicB, in the granite moraine, 

 was still a mass of pale blue flowers, and has 

 been flowering for months. 



Acce7ia microphylla, filhng a goodly pocket, 

 made quite a display with its bright pink prickly 

 heads of fruit. Anox. 



Teaxacae at Aldenham. 



By Thk Hon. Vicary Gibbs. 



The English Yew. Taxus haccata, is a very old 

 type, and is, I believe, to be found in fossil state 

 on tlie bed of the Bristol Channel and on sea- 

 submerged land off the coast of Norfolk. Though 

 one of the comparatively few trees which are in- 

 digenous to the British Isles, its habitat is not 

 so widely extended as might be imagined, and, 

 so far as Europe is concerned, it is confined to 

 the temperate north. Although most people re- 

 gard it as conspicuously hardy it will not stand 

 extreme cold, and cannot, for instance, be culti- 

 vated in America north of Philadelphia or thero- 

 ahouts. In Massachusetts, where the Arnold 

 Arboretum is situated, they luive to content them- 

 selves with the Canadian and Japanese forms. 



viz.. T. canadensis and T. cusjnditta. Neither can 

 it tolerate a great deal of heat, and I remember 

 seeing it in the Botanical Gardens at Palermo, in 

 Sieily, just existing, hut eertainly not llouiish- 

 ing, and I imagine this to be about its southern 

 limit. So far as soil is concerned it is far more 

 accommodating than it is with regard to climate. 

 lis natural soil is, 1 take it, calcareous, but here, 

 where there is solid clay and no trace of chalk, 

 it thrives excellently, and, indeed, I know of no 

 decent ground in which it declines to grow. 

 There is only one thing which it cannot put up 

 with, and that is standing water at its roots, and 

 in a heavy soil like that of Aldenham I have 

 found it liable to be killed by this cause after it 

 has been planted for ten or even twenty years; 

 for instance, owing to the drain pipes having 

 become blocked by elm roots we very nearly lost 

 a fine yew hedge roimd the rose garden from this 

 cause. I have found from experience that if one 

 can afford the extra labour, it pays very well in 

 planting yews on heavy ground such as ours, not 

 to dig any hole at all but merely break up the 

 surface and set the yew on the top of the 

 ground, bringing the lightest available soil to 

 cover the roots. Yews are not a common avenue 

 tree, but if primed to a single stem, and with 

 any overcrowded branches removed and all 

 branches up to a height of 6 to 8 feet cleared away 

 so as to expose the reddish trunk, they make a 

 very stately and impressive show. The first 

 avenue of this kind which I ever noticed was in 

 a wood in Somerset, where it formed the 

 approach to a cenotaph; though the trees were 

 certainly not more than 80 years old they already 

 produced a most noble effect. I imitated by 

 plantmg an avenue here in 1897 to commemor-ue 

 Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, of which the 

 two inner rows were of yew and the two outer of 

 silver birch; it is generally admired at every 

 season of the year. 



As a general rule I do not regard Yews as well 

 suited to shrubberies, for as they increase in size 

 they tend to crush out the more elegant and 

 delicate subjects, and if in any number they ])ro- 

 duce an appearance of gloom; their dense, dark 

 foliage calls loudly for the relief of turf, or at 

 any rate grass, in their vicinity, and everyone 

 can recall some churchyard where a dignified old 

 Yew makes a perfect contrast with the grey 

 stone and " grassy barrows " that forni its setting. 

 I believe, however, that the frequent occurrence of 

 the Yew in churchyards is not so much due to any 

 question of taste as to the fact that it was the 

 sacred tree in Druidical times, and that the earliest 

 Christians used to build their churches on the 

 sites which had been dedicated to an older 

 Faith. It is not only with our religion that the 

 Yew has been associated ; its boughs were at one 

 time as essential to us in fighting on land as the 

 Oak to our warfare on the sea; nevertheless, it 

 is, I am convinced, a delusion to suppose that 

 our bowmen at Crecy and Aginconrt were armed 

 with bows of English Yew; our trees do not, and 

 never did, furnish good bows, and any learned 

 toxophilite would confirm what 1 say. Even in 

 the 14th century our bows were imported from 

 the Pyrenees, and it was with Spanish Yew that 

 we got the better of our present gallant allies, in 

 the peculiarly unjustifiable invasion so success- 

 fully conducted by King Harry, the 5th of that 

 name. 



It is connnon knowledge that Yews make the 

 best of hedges, being more patient of the knife 

 than any other conifer, and provided that 



