devotion to be studied more satisfactorily than here. Ferns for Its Horti- 
instance. What more deplorable object as a rule, even in large culture 
and scientific gardens, than that gloom-saturated corner usually 
dedicated to Ferns? Here, whether we look at the matter 
from the point of view of massing or of rarity, the result 
is alike satisfactory. I hardly recall a garden effect that seems 
to me to be, upon the whole, at once better and simpler than 
the one produced here by a sort of broken hilly slope, covered 
with Ferns, up which you climb, and, having reached the top, 
turn and see below you a perfect sea of tossing light green 
fronds, backed and emphasised by the opening into a heavily- 
shaded Yew-walk beyond. Of the Water-Lily tribe again, 
suffice it to say that all, or nearly all, both of natural and hy- 
bridised forms, from the merest pigmies up to the huge Nymphaea 
Colossea, are to be found in the pools, the only exceptions being 
such desperately fastidious creatures as require that the water 
they live in should be warmed in winter, and these, along with 
one of the longest grown and still grandest of the whole family 
—the Victoria regina—will be found in the tanks indoors. Of 
shrubs, wall-plants, and creepers, again, the list is an almost 
endless one, easily-killed personages such as Romneya Coulteri 
and Carfenteria californica living and flourishing as to the 
manner born. Of genuine natives the great Irish Butter-wort 
(Pinguicula grandiflora), mentioned a while back as almost 
impossible to induce to grow permanently, has become a regular 
inmate of Glasnevin, re-establishing itself recently of its own 
accord in wet grass beside the Lily pond. But the truth is that 
an article twice the length of this one would still come short, 
and the wiser plan is to simply counsel the explorer, as he 
values his own self-respect, not to fail to visit both this and the 
Cc 17 
