136 



IRISH GARDENING. 



Glasnevin in Late Summer. 



NE mig^ht g-o a \ong way to 

 find a prettier piece of garden 

 scenery than that presented 

 by the bit of the Tolka valley 

 inside the Botanic Gardens in 

 the vicinity of the ornamental 

 water. Let the visitor seek 

 out the bigf beech near the 

 Bamboo Walk, and repose for a 

 time on the seat placed beneath 

 its wide-spreading top. In the 

 foreground is the miniature lake well nigh choked 

 by the summer's luxuriant growths of common reed, 

 bull-rush, horsetail, white water lily, and other aquatics. 

 Its margin is fringed with a mixed assembly of 

 moisture-loving species, among which are conspicuous 

 the purple and the yellow loosestrife, meadow 

 sweet, and wild angelica. On the islet, in the centre, 

 grow tall bamboos, giant spiraeas, great gunneras, 

 grey tamarisc, and cotton thistle. Beyond, the view 

 embraces a most interesting collection of trees, mostly 

 conifers, notably a fine, rugged old specimen of 

 PinKS paUasiana. Among others may be discerned 

 Abies nui?iidica, A. finna, Picea pinsapu, P. oiiiorica, the 

 deciduous cypress (Taxodiuin distichuni pendiilioii), and 

 the cedar of Lebanon (a very fine specimen of this is to 

 be seen a little further oft', in a field belonging to the 

 convent, on the opposite side of the river). The pictur- 

 esqueness of their grouping and the fine contrasts of 

 foliage tints are both heightened by having for a back- 

 ground the great billowy masses of silver foliage of the 

 willows that have their station on the banks of the Tolka. 

 Moving westward, many other interesting trees come 

 into view- Jit niperus rec/a-va, the tulip tree, the cut- 

 leaved aldei (a fine old specimen that a casual glance 

 might pronounce to be an oak), the fern-leaved beech, 

 and its relative Zelkova crenata. The further end of the 

 pond presents a less wild, but not a less interesting, 

 feature. Here are gathered several choice Nympliceas, 

 the giant N. colussea and N. gladstoniana, the tiny iV. lay- 

 dekeri rosea prolifem, and A . pygnicea helvola, and the 

 wine-coloured A", atropurpiirea. The view from this end, 

 looking east, is superb. But a complete and leisurely cir- 

 cuit should be made of the water ; every step will reveal 

 fresh and charming combinations, and a couple of hours 

 could hardly be more profitably spent than in this the 

 beauty spot of the gardens. Should the botanical 

 visitor pause to compare this miniature piece of water 

 with the " Lake " at Kew, he will note with satisfaction 

 the untarnished condition of the herbaceous vegetation 

 in comparison with that in the sister establishment, 

 where crowds of ducks, geese, and other water birds 

 are permitted to foul the grass and break down the 

 taller growths, and where water lilies are only saved 

 from destruction by unsightly rings of wire netting. 

 Now and again a red-beaked coot may swim out from 

 its haunts among the tall reeds ; this is the largest 

 water-fowl that has an abode here. The smaller land 

 birds, however, find here a sanctuary, and song thrushes 

 and robins abound. (On a clear, still evening last winter 

 one had the pleasure of watching from the distance of a 

 few yards, and in full view of the bathers,as many as eight 

 thrushes at one time enjoying their bath in the shallow 

 of a bit of submerged bank.) One must not overlook 

 the little railed-in bog garden filled with such plants as 

 bog myrtle, flag irises, spiraeas, rushes and sedges, 

 royal fern, the grass of Parnassus, the marsh heleborine. 

 Primula and Mimulus spp. There is also the weir with 

 its rushing waters overhung by yew and laurel. Over- 

 looking this little paradise is the Rock Garden, from the 

 higher part of which the view looking down into and 

 across the valley is very fine indeed. 



So far these notes have only had reference to a 



comparatively small division of the gardens. Westward 

 lies the new arboretum, where the young trees are 

 being trained " into the way they should go " by 

 diligent use of knife and Standard tree pruner, and these 

 in the hands of those who may be neither artists nor 

 physiologists. Tbe uniformity of outline and the brush- 

 like density of branches resulting is most striking in the 

 winter time when the leaves have fallen. They suggest 

 as their model the " wooden " trees of the Noah's Ark 

 familiar to childhood. But even at Kew we have seen 

 this important and highly technical operation performed 

 by army reserve men, whc)se ideas on the subject one 

 hardly expects to be scientific. One is inclined to ask — 

 Did "the trees of the garden " share with man the fall, 

 or did the charge to our first parents to "dress and 

 keep" imply an earlier instance of original sin in the 

 vegetable world? (Except that their natural instinct 

 for roaming or an occasional propensity to indulge in a 

 meal off their visitors may be restrained v^e do not 

 usually find the occupants of a zoological garden inter- 

 fered with in their healthy, natural development.) 



The large and representative collection of herbaceous 

 plants, 7iaturaJly classified, are arranged in a series of 

 informal beds (not perhaps quite so convenient for the 

 student as the parallel beds obtaining elsewhere), and 

 are further relieved by a wide bisecting walk, having on 

 either side a wide border filled with a brilliant assembly 

 of hardy and half-hardy garden flowers. 



The various glasshouses at any season repay a visit — 

 the water house (containing the Victoria regia), the 

 succulent houses, the cool fernery, the long range 

 embracing cool central and stove, the orchid house, 

 the palm house and the camellia house. In the palm 

 house are several fine cycads, which are best seen from 

 the gallery. In none of these, if we except the succulent 

 house, has the system of planting out in borders been 

 adopted, but probably the structures here, with the one 

 exception alluded to, belong to an older order of things, 

 and do not lend themselves to this system of cultivation. 



There is on sale at the gate a little guide, containing 

 a plan of the gardens, which should be of use to visitors. 

 There has also been recently opened, just outside the 

 gate, a refreshment room ; but once outside the gardens 

 visitors, it would seem, prefer to go further and seek 

 elsewhere what, were it procurable within the gardens, 

 might have allowed them to prolong their stay and to 

 resume, with revived interest, their inspection of the 

 extensive collection. 



As the visiting committee had long recognised the 

 desirability of providing facilities for refreshments it 

 does seem a pity it was not carried out in a manner that 

 would meet with the appreciation of the many who must 

 travel a considerable distance to reach the garden. 

 Something in the way of the pavilion at Kew might 

 have taken the place of the old band-stand now trans- 

 formed into an unsightly shelter, or rather cave, of the 

 wind ; for being open on two opposite sides one may 

 here at all times enjoy a draught. W. B. B. 



^5*' ^5^ ^5^ 



The man who has planted a garden feels that he has 

 done something good for the world. He belongs to 

 the producers. It is a pleasure to eat of the fruit of 

 one's ow^n toil, if it be nothing more than a head of 

 lettuce or an ear of corn. To dig in a mellow soil — to 

 dig moderately, for all pleasure should be taken spar- 

 ingly — is a great thing. One gets strength out of the 

 ground as often as one really touches it with a hoe. It 

 is not simply beets, and potatoes, and corn, and string- 

 beans that one raises in his well-hoed garden : it is the 

 average of human life. There is life in the ground ; it 

 goes into the seeds ; and it also, when it is stirred up, 

 goes into the man who stirs it. The hot sun on his back 

 as he bends to his shovel and hoe, or contemplativeU' 

 rakes the warm and fragrant loam, is better than much 

 medicine. — Warner. 



