Gardening Notes

Hutt News, Volume 3, Issue 30, 18 December 1930, Page 3

Gardening Notes

A TOUR IN ALPINE IRELAND.

A visitor to Ireland who is keenly interested in. the fascinating hobby of Stock G-ardening ""has written a graphic description of the flora of the Emerald Isle. Situated in the extreme "west.of the British Isles, overlooking a rugged coast: bounded on one side by Lough Corrib, '^•' that famous Irish inland sea, and on the other by the vast Atlantic, is the territory of mountain and water. Such varying conditions of altitude and complexity of situation for plant life presents itself as an ideal spot for V varied flora, and. with these sunny prospects in view, I set out to climb the Galway Mountains. Ihe most surprising thing to record ." th^h^^t ii ta ? wjixeh boggy ljtfnd ranged in the*se mountains. TrulyiTtfreif land is a/bogrbegotten country. After , two hours' upward inarch, the voice of tlw wateT was still to be heard as we marched along. Then suddenly we entered into a barren district of stone, which had fallen from the mountain-tops and formed long, sloping maraines, which consisted of such huge boulders that no soil rested on them, and consequently no plant life was obseTved. , Jivst above this, our climbing began in earnest. From ledge to ledge we scaled for some little time, and finally! came on to a tableland, which was clothed with St. Dabeoe 's Heath, Menziesia Polifolia, and Erica Tetalix. j Leaving this highland moor, we proseeded upward in company with a prostrate form of Juniperus Communis, which clung with affectionate embrace to those sombrerocks and slopes and scarcely ever attained a height of more than three inches, though many yards wide. It had an eaten appearance, caused, I suppose, by the wild goats, who subjected it to a continual pro■cess of clipping, It has bluish-black fruits, which in Holland form an important article of commerce, and is said to impart a peculiar flavour in the national liquors. Then for some distance the mountain is practically barTon, haying large bare faces of rocks sloping upward before one," presenting rather a difficult ascent. Here and there came bright little patches of Armeria Maritima, growing fVy in. wedd, 00, its leaves forming rosettes resembling that of an Androsace, throw ing out spikes of flower of surprising size, yet dwarf compared with the vitality of the plant. Also Arenaria Citiata, the Fringed Sandwort, was seen, but only at rare intervals. Climbing on, we came across colonies of Atxneria Maritima, in such surprising forms of growth and shades of colour, and particularly one stands out which

is deep crimson in flower, with a much corymbose formation of only about a half an inch away from tie stem, which, at first sight, probably sug gests starvation throughout the moun-tain-top of Soldier's Bent, one of the mountain-tops of the twelve Galway Pins. \ Thus far we had arrived by lunch time. Sitting on the very apex of this mountain, looking to right-hand over County Mayo, in all its 'hills and dales, and to the left along the undulated coast of ClaTe, with its washing, roaring waves, and in surveying the inland landscape, you would notice a number of small pools which increase in size as they approach the mountain district, like. straggling clouds which mark the approach of a breaking storm. *»d running up initajad axe numeral** fjords, which altopetfcex save the axvoearance of a conauest between land and water. Away in the skyline it is hard to distin 'guishasfche, ljlack of the land from the d&rk clouds in the sky or the lake water from the light horizon in the distance, and it is a question of not knowing where land ceases and sky begins. An atmosphere of weird solemnity in that sombre outlook rules supreme, and then began one of those sea mists which present one of charms, or Otherwise, of the beautiful open-air life. . Still we plodded on down deep slopes, scaling greater precipices, noting nothing of more interest than Erica Vulgaris in abundance. We had done four of the Pins before anything attracted our attention, when a few straggling pieces of SaxifTaga Oppositifolia gave evidence to Alpin^T Flora. The Scarlet Pimpernel was glorious in the afternoon; and studded the grave rocks like rubies in tie glitter of the setting sun. A little farther away were huge patches of London Pride, Saxifraga TTmbro'sa, forming dense carpets of green, and growing in many cases with the aforementioned Menziesia. One of the most notable pieces of vegetation was the usually insignificant sphagnum moss, for it was here growing in the dale, taking upon itself such marvellous hues of green where moisture favoured it, and where the struggle was keener it blended into brown and red of such bright colours that in the distance it was difficult to be persuaded that it was moss. • • After surveying the possibilities of this valley for some time we again ascended to another point, and here we found growing Saxifraga Serratifolia. It was just throwing its floweT buds, and there are patches of it which will look very pretty when its floTal spendouTs are at their height. I think this is only found at considerable elevations, and then only at a 'few places in Ireland, such as on the bare summit of Curantuhol, the highest mountain in Kerry, also on Croagh Pa-

trick, Co., Mayo. Then wandering on over the various habitats of plant life, Eriocaulon Septangulare made its appearance. The plant was not in. flower, but w>hen it is, it has compact scaly heads, which present a woolly appearance, and are thrown up on stems of a considerable height. Its leaves are striped and grassy-like. B. Lloyd Praeger speaks "■ of it in the following terms: "A little plant with grassy, submerged leaves, and a button-like head of greyish flowers, this little hydropyte constitutes a very great puzzle. It proves to be a pipewort, a North American species unknown on the continent of Europe, and it ranges up and down the west coast of Ireland, and re-appears sparingly in the west isles of Scotland. Elsewhere, it is confined exclusively to the Northern U.S.A. and Canada." r quote the above merely to emphasise one of the peculiarities of the Western Hibernian flora, showing as it- does some connection, between this and other lands. ..... . . ,_. ~ | • From here we must leave the floTa of Connemara, as time did not permit me to exnaust its other pleasures. Leaving Recess early in the morning and motoring to Gralway, from there by the coast route of Clare, we passed through a maze of Alpine beauty. Just out of Galway we encountered Centiana growing on a hill projecting out into the sea but its importance here . fades. into insignificance when seen in the Ballyvaughan district. We surveyed the country in that day's travel, and retraced our footsteps the following morning, gathering up the gems "en route." For fully thirty miles we were accompanied by Duyas 'Octepala, just a garland of snowwhite splendoux. Sucii luxuriance of foliage, with its deep-sea green, with' none of those burnt, struggling appearances it presents in cultivation, the mountain Avens stands as an isolated beauty, and raises the admiration of the horticulturist to unlimited bounds, to say nothing of what a botanist would discover on closer inspection. It is the predominating plant over this aTea of mountain region, yet growing with and about it are Geranium. Sanguineum and Orchis Maseula, which is one of tie most beautiful associations of plants that I have ever seen in Nature. There you have the dazzling brilliancy of the Geranium, the subdued purples «£- the Orchis, and the Dryas carpeting below them, which, is a sight worthy of reproducing, and, after all, to imitate 'is the severest form of flattery; and this is one of the instances where Nature 1 teaches us, for a plant growing in Nature is never wrongly placed. Below the rocky slopes on which the Dryas is growing is Saxifraga Sternbergii, and here and. there a straggling piece of Gentiana Verna. On the foreshore facing t&is situation is another field for sutdy. iWe find Arenaria Verna growing in every small crevice in the rocks, sending up its wee star-like flowers from dense tufts of green, grassy-like leaves. Down in between the huge stones. which have become worn by the action of water in ages, will be found-grow-ing the Maidenhair Fern, Adiantuon Ca-pillus.-Veneris, so luxuriating that it would do credit to a stove greenhouse. Also a few plants of Neotinea Intacta a little plant which is interesting chiefly because it is one. of those plants which do not re-occur elsewhere in the British Isles, and points again to our having once belonged to the mainland of Europe. It seems cuxiola to find tender plants, such as the last two mentioned, growing in association with the i hardy Alpine plants in one habitat. [ / There was also growing Helianthejtanim Vernale, a most delightful rock rose of deep yellow tone, but this plant is by no means common, its coarser brother predominating, viz., H. Vulgaxe. I also saw two plants of H. Vulgare To'•jnentoscTiu which have thick, fleshy leaves densely covered with greyish hairs. The Sea Pink, Arnieria Maritima, was her© abounding in such quantity that it .presented a wave of colour, and was consideraibly stronger and of altogether different character to that seen in Connemara. . leaving this most glorious Alpine scene, we toured on to Ballyvaughan. Here we encountered literally acres of Gentiana Verna. Words almost fail me to describe, those shining stars of bine, stretching up the hillside and meeting the familiar Dryas Octopetala.