November 2t, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



409 



done with the many beautiful varieties of Thorns. There is 

 ample room for Mr. McDonald to display his skill in planting, 

 and earn himself a name in Ireland. I should advise him to 

 take in hand our great London tree, the Occidental Plane, by 

 far the finest, and noblest, and most suitable of all our park 

 trees. I was told that the Planes had been tried and found 

 wanting. I did not observe a singlo specimen anywhere in the 

 park proper, yet in the Chief Secretary's grounds there is a 

 large and fine example, proving that it will Bucceed if planted 

 properly and cared for in its young Btate. Conifers might also 

 be introduced in some of the dells and hollows to give variety. 

 That they will succeed is proved by the numerous fine speci- 

 mens round Mr. McDonald's own residence at Whitetield 

 Lodge, which were the pet trees of the late Mr. Wilkie, for bo 

 many years chief ranger. 



Of the general features of the park it i^ difficult to give any 

 very correct idea. The extent, as already stated, is very great, 

 affording excellent pasturage for numbers of deer and cattle. 

 In the park, also, grand military reviews are held, and it is a 

 noble place for them, there being open spaces of many acres 

 where troops can mancecivre to much advantage. Oa the 

 southern side the ground undulates considerably, and here 

 there are many naturally pretty spots with splendid views of 

 the surrounding country, and the Wicklow hills in the distance. 

 This is the place to roam and wander on sunny knolls and in 

 shady dells — 



" Beneath the milk-white Thorns 

 That scent the evening gale ;" 



yet, singularly enough, it is the least frequented. But then 

 the Irish people do not walk or wander about ; they all ride in 

 their everlasting cars. This is a singular feature of the Irish 

 character ; they take all their exercise riding and driving, not 

 walking. Near the principal entrance on the left-hand side 

 stands a massive monument in granite to Ireland's greatest 

 hero — Wellington ; it is not by any means handsome, yet is at- 

 tractive by its very ponderosity and hugeness, resembling, as 

 the Irish critics say, " an overgrown milestone," and by no 

 means a bad comparison. 



Opposite to this monument on the right-hand side of the 

 entranoe lies the People's Garden, " a rale pretty place," as the 

 carman told me, " with lots of flowers." "That was made in 

 Lord Abercorn's time. He was a good man ; he was tha man 

 for Ireland," he continued to observe, finding I was a stranger. 

 This People's Garden is a small enclosed portion of some few 

 acres, where a first attempt has been made to introduce the 

 ornamentation of flowers, &a., as in our London parks. It is 

 but an attempt, and as such it is scarcely fair to criticise it too 

 severely. It would be scarcely possible, however, to conceive 

 anything in worse taste. The situation is the top of a high 

 ridge, and the principal features consist of several patches or 

 mounds of loose stones with soil representing rocky mounds ; 

 on these many expensive plants have been placed, which of 

 course soon die. These mounds have a very paltry appear- 

 ance, and Mr. McDonald should lose no time iu sweeping them 

 away. In the hollow by the water close at hand something very 

 pleasing might be effected with the stones referred to. A few 

 flower beds are cut out here and there on the grass, but without 

 any style or order, and these were planted with Pelargoniums, 

 Calceolarias, &c, in an equally higgledy-piggledy fashion. I 

 must except several magnificent beds of the dwarf Chrysanthe- 

 mum-flowered Aster, which were the most effective beds of Asters 

 I have ever seen ; but the Aster is a plant not at all suited for 

 such a prominent position, as it is so late in flowering, and 

 lasts but a short time. There were one good group of the dwarf 

 Dahlias, some good Gladioli, and a bed or two of Mrs. Pollock 

 Pelargonium with Centaurea ragnsina ; but of the general ar- 

 rangement of the design as a whole the less said the better. I 

 thought, If this is " raley pretty" I am a poor judge, or the 

 Irish people are easy to please. There is a grand opportunity 

 for Mr. McDonald to remodel this, the People's Garden. What 

 splendid scope there is, too, in the lower ground between it and 

 the zoological gardens. A fine broad walk should here be 

 formed straight through, and groups of Rhododendrons and 

 other shrubs introduced. This part could bo formed with 

 great ease into one of the loveliest of spots, and at no great ex- 

 pense. A few of the trees, which are here pretty numerous, tall, 

 and fine, would perhaps have to be removed, but that would ha 

 no loss, but the contrary. 



Phoenix Park as a public park stands almost unrivalled, but 

 it wants embellishments. More trees are required to afford 

 shelter and enhance its beauty ; and of the People's Garden, 

 if it is to be worthy of the name of the park in which it is 



placed, and of the good people of Dublin for whose pleasure it 

 is maintained and was created, it must be greatly altered and 

 extended. It rests with Mr. McDonald to suggest and plan for 

 all this, and for a liberal government to enable him to do his 

 duty to the good people of Dublin. — B. 



BLANCHING CELERY. 



Theue are many people who take vast pains to grow Celery, 

 but beyond throwing a little earth up to it towards autumn the 

 blanching for the most part has to take its chance. Preparing 

 for table, or what I call putting on the finishing touch, is re- 

 garded too lightly, for there is no comparison between a well- 

 blanched head of Celery and one that is not so. The former 

 has a transparency which recommends it, for it looks well on 

 the table ; one maybe tolerably sure it is tender and sweet; 

 and its crispness shows plainly that the cultivator knows what 

 he is growing it for. The latter is almost certain to prove more 

 or less rank-tasted and tough, with only a small portion of the 

 heart at all palatable, the remainder being only fit for soups or 

 to be thrown away. I need hardly point out the waste of time 

 and labour when the crop is in the condition I have just noticed, 

 but I may remind those carelesB in sr.ch matters that there is 

 probably no kitchen-garden crop more creditable than a tho- 

 roughly well-blanched lot of Celery. 



In a deeply-trenched and well-worked soil earthing Celery is 

 not much trouble, because there is no lack of fine earth to 

 place round the plants ; this should be pressed to them with 

 one baud, while the other hand should be used to hold the plant 

 upright and keep the leafstalks straight and close, so that no 

 earth may penetrate to the heart of the plant. Afterwards the 

 bulk of the earth may be added with a spade. In heavy stub- 

 born soils the work of preparing the soil for earthing-up must 

 be carried on regularly during the summer, and, if at earthing- 

 up time it is not sufficiently broken up to apply next the plants, 

 some soil must be prepared. I have used burnt earth and old 

 potting soil with advantage, but it must only be very mode- 

 rately moist, or finely sifted coal ashes are remarkably good 

 substitutes ; these will also keep the stems free being marked 

 by worms, slugs, &c. 



It is very rare to find Celery taken out of the earth so clean; 

 and free from the markings of wireworm, and the like as it is 

 this autumn. I attribute this to the dry weather having either 

 killed such pests, or sent them down into the earth, where there 

 is mire moisture, and from whence they have not yet returned. 

 — Tnos. Recof.d, Hatfield Park. 



THE B OVINIA POTATO. 



Much has been written about that monstrous Potato, Pater- 

 son's Bovinia. I procured 1 Ih. last spring, which consisted of 

 one large and one very small Potato. I carved these into bits 

 with one eye to each, which were planted April 4',h under by 

 no means favourable circumstances, being, for lack of a better 

 available site at the time, planted between two rowB of Rasp- 

 berries, the spreading roots of which must have drained the 

 sail of much that might have gone to the support of the Pota- 

 toes. Nevertheless, on taking up and weighing the crop a few 

 days ago I found the weight of Potatoes to be 84 lbs., some of 

 the tubers weighing over 3 lbs. each. The largest Potatoes 

 were the oddest and most wonderful-looking objects imaginable, 

 the oddness of their appearance being greatly enhanced by their 

 having supertuberated to a considerable extent, the clusters of 

 young Potatoes (some of which were of a large size) sticking 

 about these monster tubers in all imaginable forms and shapes. 

 I think it will prove essentially a cattle Potato, being so deep 

 and many-eyed, and by no means handsome, though on trial 

 the flavour was found to be very tolerable. — W. Hudson, Chase 

 Cliff e, Derby. 



WORMS IN POTS. 



Flomsts are very anxious to exclude worms from pots, but 

 orchard-house cultivators seem to consider them as of no mo- 

 ment ; yet one must suppose that they are as injurious to the 

 roots of Strawberries and Peaches as to other plantB. Where 

 pots stand on the bare earth it is impossible to keep out the 

 worms, which foul the drainage, in addition to disturbing the 

 roo'.s ; for this reason I always now set my pot3 on tiles. But 

 wjrms or their eggs still get inside the pots in the compost, 

 and I should be glad to banish them altogether ; also the large 

 ysllow slug, which I often find among the crocks. Now, lime 



