154 MORE POT-POURRI 



That where we are but passing guests 

 We build such strong and solid nests, 

 And where we hope to dwell for aye 

 We scarce take heed a stone to lay. 



There is a strong, practical common-sense in the lines 

 which would have appealed to Wesley's instincts. 



I saw at Howth a beautiful plant of the Desfontainea 

 spinosa, with its foliage so like the Holly and its hand- 

 some flowers in the form of a tube, bright scarlet tipped 

 with yellow. This I had never seen flowering before, and 

 one is not likely to come across it except under circum- 

 stances as favourable as those which belong to the Irish 

 climate or to the west coast of Lancashire and Scotland. 

 It seems almost a platitude to say that it is worth while 

 going to Ireland to see the great beauty of the Irish Yew, 

 one of the forms of the Common Yew, Taxus fastigiata. In 

 old days in Ireland, I am told, it was called the Florence 

 Court Yew, from Florence Court, where it was raised from 

 seed about 1780. Seeds of this variety produce for the 

 most part only the Common Yew, though some vary in 

 form and tint. All the plants in cultivation are of the 

 female sex, according to Loudon. 



Whatever may be the climatic disadvantages of Ire- 

 land, such as sunlessness and damp, the air remains clear 

 and pure, the soil is unexhausted, and it is free from many 

 of the agricultural difficulties of other countries. In the 

 south, at any rate, there are no manufactures, no smoke, 

 no coal-mines, none of those things which injure the atmo- 

 sphere in parts of England, and make the cultivation of 

 vegetables and flowers difficult or even impossible. As 

 in the troubles of individuals few things help more than 

 sympathy with and an effort to understand the trials of 

 others, so it is, I think, among nations. If Ireland could 

 turn her attention to the trials England has gone through 

 at various epochs of her history, of a kind which 



