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XV.—NOTES ON TREES AND SHRUBS, IRELAND. 
W. J. BEAN. 
The following notes were taken during a fortnight’s visit to 
Ireland in February last. Several places visited are not dealt with 
in detail because an account of them has already appeared in the 
Bulletin (1906, p. 219-224) such as of Glasnevin, Castlewellan, 
Mr. T. Smith’s nursery at Newry, and Mount Ussher. 
Powerscourt, which I visited on February 12, provides a 
wonderful feast for the tree-lover in the numerous and beautiful 
specimens of Abies Nordmanniana, the Araucarias, a splendid 
Abies grandis, one of the finest Nothofagus betuloides in these 
islands, a golden weeping Nootka Sound cypress, and _ ver; 
attractive examples of Cupressus torulosa, Picea polita, P. hondoensts 
and Fitzroya patagonica. 
At Old Conna Hill, a few miles from Powerscourt, is the seat of 
Capt. L. Riall, where some of the most admirable gardening in 
Ireland is done. The chief feature of the place is the pinetum not 
far from the house, where some very fine specimens may be seen. 
Thus of silver firs, Abies Lowtana is 60 ft. high, A. Pinsapo 55 ft., 
A. religiosa 70 ft. Torreya californica is 28 ft. high and Pinus 
monophylla 18 ft., probably the largest in the British Isles. 
Castanopsis chrysophylla, the Golden Chestnut of California, has a 
clean smooth trunk 1 foot in thickness. In an enclosed, old-world 
garden is a splendid Cordyline australis with a much branched head, 
and a trunk 6 ft. in girth, and bushes of Erica arborea 10 it. high, 
shapely and dense. Dendromecon rigidum, the Californian, tree- 
poppy, is 12 ft. high against a wall, its main stem 6-.ins. in thick- 
ness; Capt. Riall says it is always in flower. Acacia dealbata 
has been out 10 years and is now a charming tree 30 ft. high, 
thickly branched, its trunk 15 in, in diameter; on February 12, 
it was just opening the first of a great crop of flowers. Genista 
fragrant, too, 15 ft. high, growing against a wall was full of 
lossom. 
A visit was paid to Hamwood, the home of Mr. Chas. R. Hamilton, 
near Dunboyne, where there is a very excellent selection of conifers 
and flowering trees and shrubs. I was attracted to Hamwood by 
searing of the fine Griselinia littoralis there. Mr. Hamilton has 
th the male and female plants and the latter bears fruit freely. 
They are like small ivy berries and the seed they contain is 
quite fertile, young plants springing up all over the garden. i 
place appears to have been the first, perhaps as yet the only one, 
where Griselinia littoralis has borne fruit in this country. Amo 
the conifers is a very fine Pinus monticola 70 to 80 ft. high which 
must be about the tallest in Ireland, and P. aristata is 20 ft. high. 
Other interesting plants of unusual size are Fagus sylvatica var. | 
cristata 45 ft. high; Retinispora ericoides (a juvenile form of 
Thuya orientalis) 8 ft. high and 15 ft. through; Berberis 
Darwint 18 ft. high, A beautiful spring effect is produced by 
