THE GARDENING WORLD. 
533 
April 22, 1893. 
first took it in hand: small, ill-formed, spare of 
petals, thin of substance, impure, imperfectly marked 
and with fimbriated petals. From such crude 
materials has there been evolved in course of years 
types of such beauty and high quality that some¬ 
thing akin to miraculous agency might be imagined 
to have happened by those who do not correctly es¬ 
timate the possibilities of floral development, and 
that to which our old friend has attained to day is 
only a prophecy and foretaste of what is stored up 
for realisation by another generation. We inherit 
to-day a type of flower far beyond the most sanguine 
ideal imagined half a century ago, and as advance 
is made towards the ideal, there is the promise of 
even greater possibilities 
to be attained in the 
years to come. 
At Derby, later in 
point of time in London, 
and now at Oxford—let 
us hope for years to 
come—Mr. Dodwell has 
grown and improved his 
favourite flower. Just 
over forty years ago, 
at an important flori- 
cultural dinner at Notting¬ 
ham, Mr. E. S. Dodwell 
was called upon to reply 
to the toast of his health 
as the then secretary of 
the Midland Horticul¬ 
tural and Floricultural 
Society, and in doing so 
he laid down the prin¬ 
ciples upon which and by 
which he has acted as a 
florist throughout his 
career. He accounted 
for the success he had 
achieved in the fact that 
he had " honoured flori¬ 
culture — that he had 
rendered to Flora respect, 
as well as worship." He 
has with life-long fidelity 
and constancy respected 
his vocation, with the 
result that it has caused 
him to be respected ; and 
the measure of respect 
increases in volume as 
he draws nearer to¬ 
wards the termination 
of his work. Can any 
better evidence of this 
fact be afforded than 
the throng of admirers 
and visitors which gathers 
in the Stanley Road on 
the occasion of the 
annual festival of the 
Oxford Carnation and 
Picotee Union ? The cir¬ 
cumstances which some 
years ago terminated 
Mr. Dodwell's connec¬ 
tion with the London 
Carnation Society,though 
regretted at the time, 
proved to be of great 
good, for out of them 
arose the prosperous 
Oxford Carnation and 
Picotee Union,and later in 
point of time another equally successful organization 
—the Midland Carnation and Picotee Society—and 
both of these have acted and re-acted upon the 
southern society, and made it stronger and more 
successful. Had a paper from the pen of Mr. E. S. 
Dodwell appeared in the recently-issued “ Carnation 
Manual" of the National Carnation and Picotee 
Society, little else could be desired in relation to this 
work. 
Astheauthorof " The Carnation," Mr. Dodwell has 
furnished to the devotees of the flower a work of the 
highest importance. It deals with the Carnation 
from a somewhat unique point of view, and yet the 
novice can find in it simple cultural details suited to 
his requirements. A recent edition of this work is 
valuable as setting forth the development of the 
popular modern yellow ground, increasing our 
knowledge, and adding zest to the interest it has 
already so largely inspired. 
It has been said by a modern writer that the new 
commandment that evolution gives to the world, 
is that every individuality is a trust for the benefit 
of all. It is a talent, not given to be folded in a 
napkin and buried in one’s personality, but to be re¬ 
stored with usury to the race from which it came. 
We think in regard to his valuable work in con¬ 
nection with the Carnation, Mr. Dodwell has ex¬ 
emplified the truth conveyed in the quotation just 
given. All that he has accomplished is the property 
of the present generation of florists. The world of 
floriculture is richer for his life and work, and when 
both ceases there will be the suspension of forces 
which have gladdened the earth with knowledge, 
friendship and beauty. 
-- 
THE ARD-CAIRN NURSERIES. 
A correspondent of a Dublin daily paper remarks 
that flower growing as a profitable Irish industry 
has not hitherto received the attention it deserves. 
Of late, however, the subject has attracted notice in 
the south of Ireland, and the recent visit of Lady 
Aberdeen has done much towards bringing public 
attention to bear upon it. Still, nine out of every 
ten people are ignorant of the importance of the 
industry, and are totally unaware of its profitable 
character. " Our climate in the south may have its 
drawbacks from the tourists’ point of view ; but it 
is unexcelled for flower culture in the open air, and 
rivals even Scilly itself in this respect. In a recent 
interview with Mr. Dorien-Smith, ‘ the King of 
Scilly,’ published in the Pall Mall Gazette, that 
gentleman admitted that flowers could be grown 
equally well in Ireland as in the Scilly Isles. That 
also is the opinion of Mr. Baylor Hartland, the 
well-known seed merchant, of Patrick Street, Cork, 
who has formed his opinion from experience. 
" About three years ago Mr. Hartland established 
a nursery at Ard-Cairn, near the village of Ballin- 
temple, midway between Cork and Blackrock. His 
object was to see whether our suitable climate could 
be turned to good account in producing flowers for 
the London and other 
markets. The soil is a 
pure yellow loam resting 
on limestone, and the ex¬ 
periment has turned out 
more successfully than 
even Mr. Hartland,who is 
an enthusiast, anticipated. 
In the course of three 
years he has established 
the fact beyond yea or 
nay that flower culture 
can be made a very pro¬ 
fitable industry in the 
south of Ireland. His 
experience, therefore, may 
be considered of interest 
to the public, and with 
the view to obtaining them 
for publication I visited 
Ard-Cairn to-day, Mar.27. 
“Ard-Cairn is very 
prettily situated, with a 
slightly northern aspect, 
overlooking the valley of 
the Lee. The gardens 
cover an area of ten acres, 
and eight of these are 
under Daffodils and Nar¬ 
cissus, the flowers which 
have made the fortune of 
Scilly. Owing to the late¬ 
ness of the season the 
blooms are nearly all gone, 
the earlier sorts, such as 
Ard Righ, Princeps, Gol¬ 
den Plover, and Countess 
of Annesley, having been 
shipped to the markets of 
England and Scotland. 
The flowers already sent 
away from these gardens 
weighed more than two 
tons, and they were dis¬ 
posed of at a very fair 
price. The later varie¬ 
ties are now in full 
bloom, and the beds of 
Horsfieldi, the first Daffo¬ 
dil Mr. Hartland fancied 
some fifteen years ago, 
form a very pretty pros¬ 
pect indeed. In the eight 
acres there are about two 
million bulbs, and as the 
market at present stands 
these are value for about 
£5> 00 °- 
"Of the climate Mr. 
Hartland speaks enthusi¬ 
astically. For the culti¬ 
vation of Daffodils and Narcisscus it is the finest in 
the world, he says. After the climate, the next 
question of importance is the market and the 
facility for transit. Mr. Hartland is quite satisfied 
on these points. He can send all his flowers, packed 
in flat baskets, by the mid-day mail from Cork via 
Dublin and Holyhead, and they are on sale at 
Covent Garden and other centres at nine o'clock on 
the following morning. He speaks highly 'of the 
facilities offered by the Great Southern and Western 
Railway, both in the way of cheap rates and rapid 
transit. Mr. Hartland finds that, as a rule, he can 
beat the Scilly Islanders in the matter of quick 
transit to London. From Cork the time is only 
eighteen hours, while from the Scilly Islands it is 
sometimes two days. 
" It is not by the profitable sale of blooms alone 
