450 Gardens at Adare, 



fields, and thus serve as a support for them. This fruit pro- 

 duces an annual income of 1 '2,000 livres, Milanese money, to 

 Desio, when the year is favourable. They have suffered much 

 this year on account of the frost and cold in spring. In the 

 beginning of May, we had one degree of frost for two or three 

 nights. 



I have sent you, through the Baron Jacquin, the dried flowers 

 and the seeds of the Populus diiatata. In the same parcel you 

 will find a small glass phial containing the oil of the Taxodium 

 distichum, which I mentioned in a former letter, and which, 

 according to the opinion of several well-informed medical men, 

 mifht be used for the same purposes as the oil of turpentine 

 now is. The celebrated Baron de Grimm, aulic counsellor, 

 &c., a very scientific man, told me that a very small dose of this 

 oil gives a tone to the stomach, and that it has a diuretic effect. 

 Next autumn I will give you a notice respecting the quantity 

 that can be obtained from a given weight of cones. 



Art. II. A brief Description of the Gardens at Adare, the Residence 

 of the Eai'l of Dnnraven, in the Countij of Limerick. By Mr. 

 Andrew Coghlan, Head Gardener there. 



Agreeably to your request, I proceed to give you a brief 

 description of the Adare gardens ; reserving the demesne, the 

 park, the forest, and other interesting matters, for a future article. 



At the entrance into the premises stands a commodious 

 garden-house, tastefully built, and displaying magnificence and 

 comfort, both interiorly and exteriorly : contiguous to which are 

 a melon-yard, with pits and frames ; and mushroom, tool, and 

 compost sheds. 



The gardens, which contain more than three Irish acres, and 

 are so highly celebrated for their fine fruit trees, particularly apri- 

 cots, fifs, and peaches, are surrounded, and divided into three 

 equal parts, by lofty walls faced with brick, and communicating 

 with each other by great double stone arches. In the middle 

 garden stands a fig tree ; a rarity indeed, for its equal would be 

 souo-ht for throughout this country in vain; having never been 

 known to fail, and generally producing two yearly crops, one in 

 June and the other in August. In the lower, or cherry, garden 

 stands a curious chain of rocks, beautifully planted with alpine 

 plants, rising to a great eminence, and surrounded by a pond 

 planted with water lilies ; on the banks of which are some 

 quince trees, that are remarkable for their fine fruit. The 

 interest of this spot is increased by the circumstance of an eagle 

 havino- taken up his residence here; where he sits perched upon 

 the tallest rock, while the small birds look upon him with terror, 



