February 3, 1863. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



£7 



A PEW DAYS IN IRELAND. 



■WOODSTOCK. 



{Continued from page 75.) 



On the north side of this wall are the usual sheds for garden- 

 ing purposes, flanked with beds of flowers, and backed with 

 rich masses of Rhododendrons. Well back, so as to have 

 plenty of light, are three or four ranges of houses and pits, 

 with broad walks between them. A walk at the west end and 

 a bank of Rhododendrons separate these from the conservatory, 

 which stands at the north end of the first raised terrace. These 

 houses were well supplied with plants for growing and forcing 

 in winter — as Cinerarias, Primulas, Oranges, Justicias, Ruellias, 

 Poinsettias, Euphorbia jacquiniseflora, bulbs &e. Other houses 

 were filled with Fuchsias in bloom, Oranges, Camellias, &c, and 

 all in good condition. We noticed a number of fine healthy 

 plants of Cantua depenclens, which is managed successfully, if we 

 recollect aright, by resting the plants in summer and growing 

 them in January. Most are more or less span-roofed houses ; 

 and a fine one, devoted to Pine-culture, is covered with Hartley's 

 best rough plate-glass. The Pines, planted out and in pots, 



with and without hot-water pipes beneath them, were in the- 

 finest health, stems thick, leaves short and stubby. In this, 

 and another house Vines in pots are forced early with great 

 success, the pots being placed beside and over an open gutter 

 through which a hot-water pipe passes. To enumerate all the 

 outs and ins of these houses would require an article. Mr. 

 McDonald traced something of the fine condition of the Pines 

 to the rough glass, which he considered allowed more of the 

 beneficial rays of light to pass through than even the clear 

 plate. He had evidently studied deeply the subject of light 

 in reference to glass houses, and we should be glad to have 

 a detail of the conclusions at which he may have arrived, 

 as in general we are rather in a maze on this important sub- 

 ject. These houses — those in the walled-in gardens and the 

 conservatory — are heated by one of Weeks' tubular boilers, and 

 a tunnel takes away the smoke, the most of which, however, 

 is consumed. 



GREY GRAVEL 



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From these houses we mount a granite stair and stand in 

 front of the circular conservatory with domed roof, the roof 

 being coloured delicately blue, and the bottom glass a light grey, 

 thus requiring no shading and giving rise again to questions 

 of suitable colours in glass. In order not to confuse our readers, 

 however, it will be better to step through the walled garden and 

 come out at the gate of blue and gold at H, where the three 

 flights of steps stand facing us, and such a combination of 

 bright colours presents itself to the right and the left, and on 

 three different levels as can rarely be witnessed. We first find 

 ourselves in the middle of a parterre next the wall, formed of 

 T-beds. We rise six steps and we are on terrace H, 30 feet 

 wide, formed of circles in chain pattern, extending to the right 

 to the conservatory, a distance of we should eay more than 



170 feet, and to the left even considerably further, and terminated? 

 by a fine iron circular garden seat, of a bright blue and yellow 

 colour, which is backed by a group of evergreen Oaks. Each circle 

 in these chains is 12 feet across. We mount to the next terrace, 

 which is of the same width and length, and which is formed 

 with a chain of diamonds, with blunted triangles in the openings. 

 These diamonds are 18 feet across. 



The T-beds next the wall would have looked very well any- 

 where else except in the vicinity of the larger and more dazzling 

 masses on these two upper terraces. We made a number of 

 memoranda but from a drenching rain they became much oblite- 

 rated. We must, therefore, confine ourselves less to particular 

 than to general features. First, We were glad to find the beds 

 well raised in the centre, the circles not only being circular in 



