BOTANIC GARDENS – THIS TIME I USED A SONY 70-200mm F2.8 GM LENS
As well as being a tourist destination and an amenity for nearby residents, the gardens – offering free entry – serve as a centre for horticultural research and training, including the breeding of many prized orchids.
The soil at Glasnevin is strongly alkaline (in horticultural terms) and this restricts the cultivation of calcifuge plants such as rhododendrons to specially prepared areas. Nonetheless, the gardens display a range of outdoor “habitats” such as a rockery, herbaceous border, rose garden, bog garden and arboretum. A vegetable garden has also been established.
The National Herbarium is also housed at the National Botanic Gardens. The museum collection contains some 20,000 samples of plant products, including fruits, seeds, wood, fibres, plant extracts and artefacts, collected over the garden’s two-hundred-year history. The gardens contain noted and historically important collections of orchids. The newly restored Palm House houses many tropical and subtropical plants. In 2002, a new multistorey complex was built; it includes a cafe and a large lecture theatre. The gardens are also responsible for the arboretum at Kilmacurragh, County Wicklow, a centre noted for its conifers and calcifuges. This is located some 50 kilometres (31 miles) south of Dublin.
A gateway into Glasnevin Cemetery adjacent to the gardens was reopened in recent years closed at present because of Covid-19 restrictions].
THE HORIZONTAL SUNDIAL BY LYNCH AT THE BOTANIC GARDENS IN GLASNEVIN
There are two sundials in the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin. One in front of the Palm House is the more familiar horizontal dial. This one was made in the mid eighteenth century by Lynch of 26 Capel Street, Dublin. It is one of the few dials in Ireland with a time-scale graduated in single minutes. It also features the names of other cities from Bombay to Rio de Janeiro, indicating the moment of solar midday for them. On the right, the cities of Madrid, London, Paris, and Rotterdam can be seen adjacent to the gnomon.
Across the Tolka river, in the Rose Garden, is a modern, armillary type dial. The arrow points directly at the North Star – Polaris. As the sun crosses the sky it casts a shadow from the shaft of the arrow on the inside of the ring that represents the equatorial line of the earth, giving the hour of the day. The shadow cast by this equatorial band against the ring supporting the arrow indicates the progression between the solstice dates (midwinter and midsummer days) through the equinox (Spring and Autumn).
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