Present State of Gardening in Ireland. 1 1 



provements on an extensive scale, or where success depends 

 upon any degree of accuracy in their application, to be car- 

 ried into effect ; and it is more than reasonable to expect that 

 gardeners not feeling an interest in their situation, will enter 

 warmly into any thing tending to the permanent benefit of the 

 place ; they will take advantage of such crops as may be pro- 

 duced, without any regard to the ultimate consequences. 



While on this subject, it is but fair to state that the gentry 

 of Ireland have evinced an extraordinary degree of luke-warm- 

 ness, in not coming forward to establish a horticultural society, 

 after the noble practical examples set before them in the sister 

 kingdoms. The society bearing the name of the horticultural 

 society of Ireland, under the management of nurserymen and 

 practical gardeners in the neighbourhood of Dublin, is too 

 local in its influence to advance the art in a national point of 

 view. 



These strictures, as regard the relative situations of garden- 

 ers, and the taste of their employers, we are happy to say, are 

 only applicable in a very general sense. There are many 

 honorable exceptions. In the course of our observations, we 

 shall feel great pleasure in showing that, where the proprietors 

 have given proper encouragement, their gardens vie, in point 

 of extent, design, and management, and their gardeners in 

 point of respectability and intelligence in their profession, with 

 any in the empire. 



There are three botanic gardens in this country ; two in 

 Dublin, the other in Cork. The last mentioned is small in 

 extent, and the collection of plants few, comparatively speak- 

 ing. Of the two in Dublin, one belongs to the Dublin 

 Society, the other to Trinity College. The former is the 

 largest in the mpire, and in point of picturesque beauty is 

 wholly unequalled. The botanic gardens in Dublin possess 

 this advantage over those in Britain, namely, a classical ar- 

 rangement of trees and shrubs. It has often occurred to us, 

 as an extraordinary circumstance, the great attention paid in 

 the British botanic gardens to the collecting and arranging of 

 herbaceous plants, while the greater part of trees and shrubs 

 have been, till of late, neglected. The Dublin Society's gar- 

 den is open to the public. A course of lectures is delivered 

 annually, which is also free, and even the young men em- 

 ployed in the garden are obliged to attend. This garden was 

 not laid out and managed by the late Dr. Wade, the professor 

 of Botany, as was generally supposed, but by the present ca- 

 lented superintendant, Mr. W. Underwood. Mr. Mackay, the 

 curator of the College garden, is so well known as an indefati- 

 gable botanist, that any observation here regarding him would 



