LORD POWERSCOURT ON PLANTING, 



59 



shorter, denser, and held more erect ; there is 

 also a yellowish spot upon the upright petals in 

 contrast to the prevailing pale rose. The flowers 

 appear a little later than in the Common Lo- 

 cust Tree, and are scentless ; in fine seasons it 

 often flowers a second time. Its name is due to 

 the clammy gum with which the branches, and 

 particularly the young growths, are covered ; 

 when out of leaf it may be known by this pe- 

 culiarity and the reddish-purple colour of its 

 branches. It grows wild amongst the hills of 

 Georgia and Carolina, but is so rare that, until 

 found again within recent years it was believed 

 to have disappeared as a wild tree. There is a 

 form known as rosea bella which bears flowers 

 lighter in colour and is free from the gummy 

 secretion of the parent; it is thought to be of 

 hybrid origin. 



Hybrid Forms. — The Doubtful Locust 

 Tree {R. dubid). — This is a fine tree of free 

 growth, reaching a height of 25 or feet, and 

 holding a place intermediate between the 

 Common Locust Tree (R. pseudacacia) and the 

 Gummy Robinia (R. viscosa) ; it is generally 

 held to be a cross between them. It is a beauti- 

 ful but scarce kind, bearing during summer and 

 later than either of its supposed parents, loose- 

 drooping bunches of pale rose-coloured flowers, 

 which are sweetly scented. The branches are 

 armed with very short spines, and bear also a 

 few scattered glands, but there is rarely any 

 trace of the clamminess of viscosa. The brown 

 seed-pods are thickly set with short prickles. 



Holdt's Locust Tree (R. Ho/dti) . — -This 

 isa variety newly discovered inColorado by Mr. 

 von Holdt, and believed to be a cross between 

 the Common Locust Tree and the Western 

 Locust (R. neo-mexicand). That this maybe 

 the case seems likely in view of a second sup- 

 posed cross having recently come to light in 

 the nursery of Herr Spath at Berlin, of which 

 he has sent us the following account : — "A 

 plant of the Western Locust Tree flowered in 

 my grounds in 1 893, but only one of its seeds 

 grew. Now that this has grown into a sturdy 

 tree some 20 feet high it has flowered and turns 

 out to be a cross between Rs. neo-mexicana and 

 pseudacacia. It is of vigorous growth, forming 

 a finestraightstem,betterthanis usual with the 

 Western Locust Tree,while its flower bunches 

 are longer, less crowded, and their colour 

 lighter, the flowers being nearly white save for 



touches of light purpleaboutthestandard. The 

 free growth of this plantislike that ofR. pseud- 

 acacia, while it is fully as hardy as the Western 

 Locust, and will prove of value for parks and 

 gardens. From the descriptions published this 

 cross would seem distinct from the natural 

 hybrid found in Colorado, and has been named 

 R. Ho/dti Britzensis, or Spath 's variety." 



LORD POWERSCOURT ON 

 PLANTING. 



When I was a young man, in the years 

 1861-1862, I began by enclosing part 

 of a mountain opposite Powerscourt, at 

 an elevation of from 700 to 900 feet 

 above the sea, enclosing some 350 acres, 

 part of which was an older plantation, 

 with dry stone walls, and planting it with 

 Larch and Scotch Fir. The old wood 

 was some 40 acres in extent, and I 

 planted the remainder. The trees have 

 thriven well, and I am now cutting and 

 selling Larch some 40 leet high, and 

 making a fair profit. The success of 

 these induced me to undertake a simi- 

 lar operation on a larger scale, and the 

 method was the same in each case. I 

 employed a small gang of seven or eight 

 men to build dry walls, 6 to 7 feet high, 

 with the stones on the mountain side, 

 round the site of the proposed planta- 

 tion, with a " Scotch coping " on the 

 top, the outer face of the walls being 

 built perpendicular, or with a slight 

 < 'batter" inward towards the top to 

 prevent its falling outward when the 

 stones had settled, the coping project- 

 ing some 8 to 1 o inches to prevent sheep 

 from jumping in from the mountain 

 outside. Wherever there were mountain 

 streams or rills crossing the wall we 

 made openings, with stone lintels and 

 iron gratings slung on bars at the top 

 and left loose at the bottom, to let the 



