42 Town Gardening. 



within our city bounds, and even within the influence 

 of its smoke, which I would scarcely have ventured 

 to try out of doors in those earlier days. I need not 

 remind anyone Avho knows Dublin, that the circum- 

 stances, and I may say climates, of Fitzwilliam and 

 Rutland and Mount joy-squares materially differ 

 each from the others, with respect to the growing of 

 many plants. Hitherto our squares have not had 

 proper staff or other provision for having them at 

 all as ornamental as they may be. However, consi- 

 derable improvement has been made in some of them 

 since I first took an interest in Mount joy-square, 

 where I lived for over quarter of a century. Soon 

 after entering manhood, very peculiar circumstances 

 led me to take part in the improvement of that 

 Square. Then two or three starved Hollies were its 

 chief evergreen shrubs, with perhaps a few Aucubas, 

 and the numbers have increased a hundredfold in 

 that, and in Merrion and Fitzwilliam-squares. 



Of Evergreens and plants with permanent foliage, 

 many hybrid Hollies, remarkable for both foliage and 

 berry, and worthy of particular attention, have of 

 late been planted in some of our Squares. Also lies 

 Dipyrena, I. crenata, I. furcata, I. Fortuni, I. Tarago, 

 and /. cornuta, all of peculiar shape of leaf, promise 

 to succeed in our towns, and some of them are doing- 

 well in Merrion-square. The latter variety is 

 figured in Curtis' Botanic Magazine for the year 

 1858, Tab. 5059. And of these, as well as of the 

 kinds with which we are more familiar, new and 



