CHAP. II. 



BRITISH ISLANDS. 



107 



girt. It formed rather an immense bush than a tree, and con- 

 sisted of four limbs, the branches of which extended from the 

 root to the length of 36 ft. There is one equally large at Powers- 

 court, Wicklow, which was planted about 90 years ago ; and 

 one, of similar size and age, at Newton Mount Kennedy, was 

 blown down in ISO^. The ^rica mediterranea was found grow- 

 ing, by Mr. Mackay, in Cunnemara, on the western coast. (See 

 Gard, Mag., vol. vii. p. 230. and the forthcoming Irish Flora of 

 Mr. Mackay.) ^rica mediterranea has not only been found on 

 the side of Errisbeg mountain, covering a space of three acres, 

 but in the wild district of Erris, in the county of Mayo, in the 

 greatest profusion. It is a distinct variety from the plant of the 

 same name in gardens, and is considered by Dr. Greville to be 

 the same as that found in the Western Pyrenees. 



We have not been able to procure much information respect- 

 ing the dates of the introduction of foreign trees and shrubs into 

 Ireland^ though we have looked over numerous books, and 

 entered into an extensive correspondence for that purpose. On 

 the whole, there appears to have been comparatively few foreign 

 trees planted in Ireland previously to the middle of the 18th 

 century ; except fruit trees, and probably some ornamental 

 shrubs, as the arbutus, &c., in the gardens of the monastic 

 institutions, and other religious establishments. 



A work, entitled Botanologia Ufiiversalis Hiber?iica, by J. 

 K'Eogh, A. B., chaplain to Lord Kingston, published in 1735, 

 appears to contain the names of all the foreign trees and shrubs 

 that were in Ireland at that time. 



In the preface to this work, the author says ; *' When I was 

 writing on this subject, I had the advantage daily of viewing 

 the gardens belonging to the Rt. Hon. James Lord Baron of 

 Kingston, wherein were contained near 200 different species of 

 herbs and trees. I was not acquainted with any garden which 

 could show so many. This was no small advantage or con- 

 veniency to forward this undertaking." The trees and shrubs 

 enumerated in K'Eocrh's work are the following : — 



" Abele, about mansion-houses, for shelter ; arbutus, wild in 

 Kerry, and is manured in gardens ; great bay ; box ; chestnut, 

 frequently planted in gardens and parks ; cypress tree, in gar- 

 dens, for its pleasant verdure; fig tree ; jasminum, planted in 

 gardens ; lemon tree, to be seen in the gardens of Mitchelstown, 

 belonging to the Rt. Hon. Lord Kingston ; medlar tree, in 

 gardens ; myrtle tree, it grows in my Lord Kingston's green- 

 house, Mitchelstown, and there are also hedges of it in the Lord 

 Inchiquin's gardens at Rostillon ; mulberry tree, in gardens. 



" Orange trees; of late years they had been transplanted here, 

 which now, by the industry and cultivation of curious gentlemen, 

 are in some gardens brought to perfection. I have seen about , 



