83 
grouped in a large bed, and at the time of my visit were laden 
with berries—mostly scarlet, but many of them golden yellow. 
The glass-houses teem with a rich and varied tropical and semi- 
tropical vegetation, but it would of course be a work of superero- 
gation to recount the names of the thousands of species contained 
in this excellent institution. 
The Dublin Botanic Gardens—or, as they are called, the Royal 
Botanic Gardens—are situated in the suburb of Glasnevin, on the 
Tolka River, about 3 miles north of the metropolis. The general 
contour of the gardens being of an undulating character, has 
enabled the designers of it to make much of little more then 
40 acres, and the work has been very artistically planned. 
As the visitor strolls along the sweeping walks or over the 
well-kept turfy expanses, broken by clumps of green and variegated 
hollies, maples, rhododendrons, laurels, and numerous individuals 
of British and foreign timber trees, the scenery is every where 
varied, interesting, and delightful. The ever-flowing Tolka 
stream, with its emerald-green banks studded with silvery-leaved 
willows (Salix venenata and S. regalis) and drooping reeds and 
bamboos, is a factor in the landscape which adds a great charm to 
the surroundings. 
Dotted about the lawns are some glorious examples of golden- 
leaved yew trees and copper-coloured beeches. These light up 
the dark background of firs and other trees outside the grounds. 
Trees with coloured foliage well blended with the greenery of a 
landscape often afford more pleasing effects than the most fantastic 
beds or borders of flowers that the gardener can design. 
A prominent feature is the rock garden, which is well stocked 
with luxuriantly growing alpine vegetation, ferns in suitable 
positions, rare wild flowers from the highlands of Europe, bog 
plants in great variety growing in peat beds at the base of rocky 
recesses where moisture is obtainable. 
This rockery is so artistically made that in many places it 
creates the impression that the native rock has cropped up through 
the turf in the natural way. Orchids and pitcher plants are 
largely grown in houses specially provided for them, and the 
collections of these embrace nearly all of the best kinds known in 
cultivation. But to any person taking an interest in quaint forms 
and the anomalous development of plant life, so varied and 
extraordinary, there is in the collection of North American 
sarracenias alone quite a study. They number about ten species 
and many hybrid varieties. The plant is called “ side-saddle flower,” 
or “trumpet leaf.” The flowers themselves are of no great beauty, 
but the highly-coloured pitcher-like blades—often mistaken for 
flowers—are in reality the leaves in a distorted condition. The 
real pitcher plants are the nepenthes, of which the giant species 
(NV. Rajah), found a few years ago at Kina Balu, a mountain in 
F2 
