164 



FLORA AND SYLVA, 



hardwood trees and is much used for 

 beams and planks in building ; it splits 

 well, is excellent for telegraph posts, 

 props and woodwork in mines, &c. 

 It varies extremely in density and in 

 quality. As a fuel it is less valuable than 

 the best hardwoods, but is better than 

 some of the other Pines, and the roots 

 are excellent fuel in closed furnaces." 

 The last thing to say about this pre- 

 cious Fir is, that we should never thin 

 it in the usual scattered British way, in 

 which every tree stands out by itself 

 like a maypole on a green. The trees, 

 like most of the Pines, stand like sol- 

 diers shoulder to shoulder in their na- 

 tural condition, and so they should be 

 in the cultivated state, if we look for 



timber or even beauty. The Scotch 

 Fir in England, dressed all down with 

 branches, rarely attains the dignity of 

 a Pine. Another mistake is planting 

 too thickly. I have often seen the trees 

 — I do not know for what reason — 

 planted 15 to 18 inches apart. They 

 should never be planted closer than 

 four feet, which gives the young tree 

 a chance of growing sturdily. They 

 should be thinned in time, but never so 

 as to let in the sun, or allow the grass 

 to grow about them. The proper way 

 is to creep in under the wood when it 

 is grown up and take out the weakest 

 trees, always preserving the leaf canopy 

 overhead. 



NUTLEY. 



Nutley was the late Mr. George Roe's place, 

 well planted long ago, and improved by Fraser, 

 Niven, and others, and with its lawns, park, 

 good trees, and mountain views is charming ; 

 one long border, 150 yards or so, along a 

 straight and handsome brick. wall,covered with 

 choice evergreen and flowering shrubs, was 

 as fine as ever I saw one — filled with great 

 groups and clumps of all the best old things — 

 Iris, Paeonies, Oriental Poppies, Asphodels, Lu- 

 pines, Stocks, Alyssum, Aquilegias, Foxgloves, 

 and many other well-grown things, every one 

 of them seemed proud of the soil, climate, and 

 shelter a good and common-sense gardener had 

 allotted them. Tree Pasonies, fifty or sixty, 

 perhaps more, years old, were superb, 6 feet 

 high and much more, though weighed down 

 by great rosy flowers. These are on the grass, 

 and look all the better for it. The Arum Lilies 

 [Richardia) do well here in a Reed- and Iris- 

 fringed lake with Water Lilies near them, and 

 wild fowl breeding along the rushy banks. To 

 see them rise and whirr away over the trees 

 and the park, in which Jersey and Hereford 

 cattle graze, is quite like being in a bit of open 

 country, and only about five minutes from the 



lawn and house. The prize Herefords, which 

 took three cups at R.D.S. Spring Show, and 

 the gardens, inside and out, are managed by the 

 same man, and he can grow grapes and toma- 

 toes and decorative things of the best. Creep- 

 ers cover the:wire-trellised sides of the house, 

 Jasmine, Pyracantha,Ceanothus,Honeysuckle, 

 and Roses, trained by the same hand that wrote 

 so ably and sympathetically of our English 

 master, William Silence — who dearly loves his 

 fine and well-stocked old garden. On the ir- 

 regular lawn are great beds of beautiful things, 

 Wall-flowers, Stocks, Roses, sweet-scented Pe- 

 largonia, Tree Pasonies before-named, and bos- 

 ky clumps of shrubs, and several very fine trees 

 — a fine Robinia, Cobbett's Locust tree, has a 

 noble netted trunk and a great green head of 

 leafage as tender in hue as maiden-hair fern. 

 Beneath it a large bed of scarlet Oriental Pop- 

 pies show like fire in the lowering sun. Shel- 

 ter, colour, and peace are all here, though the 

 east wind is blowing across Dublin Bay, and a 

 soft grey-blue haze bathes the distant trees and 

 half hides and half reveals the rolling moun- 

 tain tops beyond. Great bushes and trees of 

 Phillyrasa, snowy Mespilis, Walnut, Arbutus, 



