Ellen Hutchins Arboretum

SL ELLEN · HUTCHINS ·ARBORETUM LVImpressions of Ardnagashel Estate painted by Matilda Bevan„The Ellen Hutchins Arboretum onthe coast of Bantry Bay in West Corkwas planted from 1800 onwards by ArthurHutchins. His sister Ellen Hutchins (1785-1815) is widely recognized as Ireland´sfirst woman botanist.The arboretum, coastal paths, woodlands,myrtle grove and champion trees comprisethe „lost desmesne“ of Ardnagashel.Originally part of a 300 acre estate, it isnow in separate ownerships with the arboretumand site of original house and gardensowned by „Rent an Irish Cottage“ andthe myrtle grove and coastal paths still inHutchins´s ownership.At Ardnagashel you will see:• The champion myrtle grove of Irelandand Britain• Three mature cork trees, probably thelargest in Ireland• An exceptional Cryptomeria japonica withten outstations• The biggest Podocarpus salignus inIreland and Britain• An exceptionally tall Magnolia campbelliissp. mollicomata, probably planted in thethirties of the last century• Rhododendrons more than 33 ft in hight(still to be identified, similar to R. sinogrande)• An overgrown Lomatia ferruginea ofabout 23 ft• An outstanding Abies concolor with candelabra-likebranches“ Ardnagashel is ideally situated for growing tender treesand shrubs. It is a place of rare and unusual beauty, a havenfor the horticulturist. It is part of our heritage and deserves tobe better known. It is one of the great gardens for which thecountry is noted.„John Bevan 7 author of ‘Ardnagashel – A Hidden Treasure’ 1984· 2

SL ELLEN · HUTCHINS ·ARBORETUM LVEllen Hutchins*(1785-1815),botanist, wasborn on 17 March 1785 at BallylikkeyHouse, Bantry Bay, Co.Cork, Ireland, the second youngestchild of two surviving daughters and four surviving sonsof the twenty-one children of Thomas Hutchins (1735-1787) JP. and Elinor (d.1814), only child and heir of ArthurHutchins of Thomastown and Cregane Castle, Limerick.While completing her education in Dublin shebegan to suffer from poor health and a familiy friend,Dr. Whiley Stokes, took her into his care for treatment.While recovering, she developed an interest in botaniy,having browsed in Stoke’s library and met the botanistJames Townsend Mackay. Stokes encouraged her pursuitas providing both outdoor exercise and indoor occupation.On returning home to Ballylickey, Hutchins becamea keen collector of algae, mosses, liverworts, and lichens,as well as establishing her own garden.By 1806 Hutchins’ skills had become so acute that shewas regularly sending specimens of algae to Mackay,who forwarded rare discoveries to Dawson Turner ofYarmouth, then working on seaweeds, and Lewis WestonDillwyn of Swansea, who studied freshwater algae. Whi-le respecting Hutchins’ stipulation that her nameshould not appear in print Mackay did reveal her roleas collector to Turner. This opened her lifelong correspondencewith the latter, who guided Hutchins throughclassificatory systems of cryptogamic plants and overcameher isolation by sending not only books but also namedspecimens to act as stepping stones towards increasingher knowledge. Hutchins’ exquisitely preservedspecimens, beautiful botanical drawings, and capacityto find plants deeply impressed Turner.Although Hutchins never published she was persuadedto allow her name to appear when her discoveries weredescribed in the later volumes of the English Botany(1790-1817) of James Sowerby and James EdwardSmith as well as in Dillwyn’s British Conservae (1802-9)and Turner’s Fuci (4 vols., 1808-19), which also incudedseven of her darwings. In 1809 Dillwyn and JosephWoods visited Ballylickey, finding Hutchins ‘a very sensible,pleasing, square made and tolerably good lookingwoman’ whom both considerd ‘almost the best Botanist,either Male or Female that we ever met with’(Dillwyn to Dawson Turner, 22 July 1809, TCC).Hutchins reputation among men of science appears formidableand even threatening. James Edward Smithclaimed that she could find almost anything andWilliam Jackson Hooker, overwhelmed by her contributionsto his monographs on liverworts, BritishJungermanniae (1816), told Turner in December 1811* Extract from Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, September 2004· 3

ELLEN · HUTCHINS ·ARBORETUMPhotograph of the Memorial placed in the Family Burial Ground atArdnagashel in 2002 and reproduced withNotes in the Journal of the Linnean Society in 2003that ‘Miss Hutchins’ discoveriesalone will form an Appendixas large as the work itself’.(RGB Kew, HookerMS1, fols. 134-6). A year laterhe confided to Robert Brownthat ‘Miss Hutchins is a mine,but I never intend to bore herlest she should be too prolific’(BL, Add. MSS 32439, fols.370-71). None the less, Hookeropended his monographwith Jungermannia hutchinsiae,a new species found by Hutchins, and acknowledgedher discovery of Bantry Bay habitats for almost halfthe species he described. Brown also honoured Hutchinsby naming a genus of alpine plants Hutchinsia in1812.Hutchins last years were disrupted by illness and familiytroubles. Her brother Thomas was paralysed and requiredmuch attention. From 1810 she also nursed herelderly mother, with whom she moved to Bandon, 30miles from Bantry Bay, in the summer of 1813, after hereldest brother Emanuel took possesion of BallylickeyHouse and drove them out. In Bandon, Hutchins becamedesperately ill and barely able to care for her mother,who dies in March 1814.By May that year Hutchins was back in Bantry Bay livingat Ardnagashel, the estate belonging to anotherbrother, Arthur. Although mercury treatment for a livercomplaint had reduced her to a ‘mere skeleton’, hercousin Thomas Taylor reported in a letter to DawsonTurner of 26 October 1814 that her physician believedshe would recover (corresp., Trinity College Cambridge).Taylor, however, thought this unlikely given herproximity to her eldest brother. Hutchins attributed hermental and physical suffering to family disputes and increasinglyreliedon Turner’s epistolaryfriendshipas a source ofpleasure in herunhappy life. Herillness worsenedand she died on 9February 1815,shortly before herthirtieth birthday.She was buried inchurch-Bantryyard.Hutchins bequeathed herherbarium to Turner but itsshipment was delayed when,following her death, fightingbroke out between her two ofher brothers, one of whom attemptedto seize BallylickeyHouse with forty armed men.Eventually Turner recievedHutchins’ specimens anddrawings and ensured theircontinued use by botanists.Although they never met,Turner expressed deep and abiding sorrow at Hutchins’death in the concluding volume of his Fuci (4. 1918,152). Bringing together their shared love of botany andpoetry, he lamented his loss and praised her qualitiesby quoting from James Hurdi’s 1794 poem: ‘Tears of Affection:a Poem Occasioned by the Death of a SisterTenderly Beloved’.ANNE SECORDSources D. Turner, letters to E. Hutchins, Royal Collection | E. Hutchins, letters toDawson Turner, Trinity Cam. | Burke, Gen. Ire. (1958) | H. W. Lett. ‘Censsus report onthe mosses of Ireland’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 32B (1913-16), 65-165,esp. 70-71 | memoir of Ellen Hutchins, Representative Church Body Library, Dublin, MS47 | W. H. Pearson, ‘Ellen Hutchins – a biographical sketch’, The Bryologist, 21 (1918),78-80 | M. C. Knowles, ‘The lichens of Ireland’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy,38B (1928-9), 179-434, esp. 182 | J. Bevan, ‘Miss Ellen Hutchins (1785-1815) andthe garden at Ardnagashel, Bantry, County Cork’, Moorea 3 (1984), 1-10 | G. J. Lyne,‘Lewis Dillwyn’s visit to Waterford, Cork and Tipperary in 1809’, Journal of the Cork Historicaland Archaeological Society, 2nd ser., 91 (1986), 85-104 | G. L. Lyne and M. E.Mitchell, ‘A scientific tour through Munster: the travels of Joseph Woods, architect and botanist,in 1809’, North Munster Antiquarian Journal, 27 (1985), 15-61, esp. 27 | Irishwoman artists: from the eighteenth century to the present day (1987) [exhibition catalogue,NG Ire. the Douglas Hyde Gallery, TCD, and the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of ModernArt, Dublin, July-Aug 1987] | D. Turner, Fuci, or Colored figures, 4 vols. (1808-19)| W. J. Hooker, British Jungermanniae: being a history and description, with colored figures,of each species of the genus, and microscopical ana´lyses of the parts (1816) | H.C. G. Chesney, ‘The young lady of the lichens‘, Stars, shells and bluebells: women scientistsand pioneers, ed. [M. Mulvihill and P. Deevy] (Dublin, 1997) 28-39 | Early observationson the flora of south-west Ireland: selected letters of Ellen Hutchins and DawsonTurner, 1807-1814, ed. M. E. Mitchell (1999)Archives NHM. herbarium |priv. coll. family MSS | RBGKew | RBG Kew, botanicaldrawings | Sheffield CityMuseum, botanical drawings| Trinity Cam, corresp.Dawson TurnerTwo of Ellen Hutchins’ botanical drawings from Kew (R.G.B.)· 4

SL ELLEN · HUTCHINS ·ARBORETUM LVArdnagashel lies on the North Eastern shore ofBantry Bay in West Cork. It is roughly half way betweenGlengarriff – to the North West – and Bantry –to the South East. Ardnagashel House is about a halfmile in from the main Glengarriff /Bantry road (N 71).It is sheltered from the strong winds by a hill and byWhiddy Island, and also by mature plantings of Fir andBeech along the shore. The microclimate here isdistinctive with an average of only ten days of frostdue to the influence of the Gulf Stream in the South-West area. The annual average rainfall over the last 30 years hasbeen 70 inches. Thus there have always been ideal conditions forgrowth of even very tender plants.Ellen Hutchins’ brother Arthur Hutchins (1770-1838) plantedthe arboretum at Ardnagashel; their other brother Emanuel(1769-1839) is mentioned in Wolf Tone’s journal during theattempted French invasion in 1796 as ‘a Dublin friend’.Their nephew Samuel Newburgh (1834-1915) was in Australiaas a mounted policeman escorting gold during the gold rush andbrought home no gold but 650 seeds of Australian plants.· 5

SL ELLEN · HUTCHINS ·ARBORETUM LVThe Hutchins’ family graveyardand its treesAt the west end of the arboretum is the ‘Killeen’ (family burialground), situated in the midst of an enchanting wood. It hassome of the largest and most beautiful myrtle trees of the estateand a striking Colorado white fir (Abies concolor).Samuel (1786-1882), one of Ellen’s brothers is buried here. Hehad taken over the property from his deceased brothers Arthur andEmanuel in 1839. He handed Ardnagashel down to his first sonEmanuel (1823-1880) who then passed it to his younger brotherSamuel Newburgh (1834-1915), the mounted policeman inAustralia. He is buried in the ‘Killeen’, as is his son Richard (1876-1915), the father of Richard N. Hutchins (b. 1915), who has recentlymoved back to live at Ardnagashel East.Champion TreeWillow leaf Podocarpus[PODOCARPUS SALIGNUS]The last significant tree at the end of the arboretum is the ChampionTree Podocarpus salignus, it is of special interest. According to AlanMitchell it is the biggest specimen in the British Isles. This was recordedin 1966, at that time it was 64 ft. high and 9 ft. 1 ins. in width.Its position is well shelterd due to woodland to its rear. Podocarpussalignus, according to W. J. Bean, is by far the most elegant anddistict of all the podocarps that can be grown in the British Isles. Thespecimen at Ardnagashel was rivalled only by a specimen at Buxtonin Devon, measuring 62 ft. by 3,5 ft. wide in 1966.· 6

ELLEN · HUTCHINS ·ARBORETUMThe Ellen Hutchins Arboretum and the surrounding area once was anestate of about 300 acres. Most of that was sold and split into private propertiesafter WW 2. In the remaining large park you can find not only six IrishChampion Trees but many species of extremely rare plants such as three CorkOaks [QUERCUS SUBER]. The oldest of these (photograph above) was possiblyplanted by Arthur Hutchins (1770-1838), brother of botanist Ellen Hutchins,around 1800. It is one of eight exceptional trees atArdnagashel recorded by TROBI in 1966.· 7

SL ELLEN · HUTCHINS ·ARBORETUM LVChampion TreeGrand Fir[ABIES GRANDIS]Some trees make people wonder how long it took to grow to thatsize...This tree needed sechs people to reach round itChampion TreeJapanese Red Cedar[CRYPTOMERIA JAPONICA]Champion TreeNootka cypress [CHAMAECYPARIS NOOTKATENSIS ‘PENDULA’]· 8

ELLEN · HUTCHINS ·ARBORETUMHuon Pine[DACRYDIUM CUPRESSINUM]Seeds and cuttings from Ardnagashel today can befound in many gardens throughout West Cork includingGarnish Island (established 1910). Mostrecently cuttings propagated by MichaelCollard of Future Forests, Kealkil, haveadded to gardens country wide.Pinus sylvestris[SCOTS PINE]Champion TreeDawn Redwood[METASEQUOIA GLYPTOSTROBOIDES]Coast Redwood[SEQUOIA SEMPERVIRENS]· 9

SL ELLEN · HUTCHINS ·ARBORETUM LVSome trees love the South West Cork climate very much and now spreadlike weeds... The Chilean Myrtle [LUMA APICULATA, SYN. MYRTUS APICU-LATA] was introduced to Ardnagashel Estate by one of the Hutchinsbrothers in 1880.“Native in the temperate forests of Chile and Argentina: introducedto Europe by William Lobb in 1844. In Cornwall and inthe milder parts of Ireland this beautiful tree has made itselfvery much at home, growing as happily as in its native countryand producing in many gardens innumerable self-sown seedlings.Specimens 30 to 47 ft high, 2 to 4.5 ft in girth have beenmeasured recently in Cornwall at Lanarth, Trengwainton, Trelowarren,and at Tresco Abbey in the Isles of Scilly; in NorthernIreland at Castlewellan and in Eire at Kilmacurragh, Co.Wicklow; Fota, Ardnagashel and Garinish Island, Co. Cork;Inishtioge, Co. Kilkenny.This myrtle is perhaps at its most beautiful when drawn up byneighbouring trees, for the bark is then better displayed thanon trees grown in the open, which, as at Trengwainton, usuallyhave shorter stems and bushier crowns. There is a fine groupclosely planted at Tresco Abbey.”Extract from „Trees andShrubs Hardy in theBritish Isles” byW J Bean 8th edition(1976) by Sir GeorgeTaylor, Director of theRoyal Botanic Gardens,Kew. Published by JohnMurray.· 10

SL ELLEN · HUTCHINS ·ARBORETUM LVThe extensive botanic collectionof the Hutchinsfamily for over a hundredyears wasextended by the new owners ColonelRonald and Mrs. Kaulback after 1947 whochanged the place into a fine hotel. Theyadded value to this spectacular place byplanting new trees and many shrubs likeexclusive rhododendron-cultivars andfragrant azaleas from his Himalayanexpeditions with the botanist FrankKingdon Ward, also frost tender pittosporums,magnolias and callistemons.Like the rare Lomatia ferruginosa,the spectacular Desfontanea spinosaand a magnificent specimen of Berberisdarwinii most of those shrubs are eithergone or dangerously overgrown by briars,ivy and ferns, so the beauty of this garden isdecaying with every year. Hopefully in the futurethere will be a commitment to preserve andmaintain this precious gem of Irish Heritage.The beautiful whitebracts around theflowers of theHandkerchief Tree [Davidiainvolucrata] attract not onlyinsects...Some plants are interesting due to rare appearance or fragrance: in late spring the extremely handsome Handkerchief Treeis full of funny big white flowers that look like thousands of little ghosts, hence its other name Ghost Tree. It is an endangeredspecies from West China and only came to England in 1901. Wait for the end of autumn when the heart-shaped leaves ofthe Japanese Katsura Tree turn yellow and orange. They will lead you from far away by their unusual fragrance which remindsone of caramel and gingerbread... On chilly winter days you can admire the fragile and well perfumed flowers of the Mimosaor Silver Wattle from Australia, which will grow only in the mildest areas of Ireland and England.Katsura Tree [CERCIDIPHYLLUM JAPONICUM] | Chilean Holly [DESFONTANEA SPINOSA] | Silver Wattle [ACACIA DEALBATA]· 11

ELLEN · HUTCHINS ·ARBORETUMThe Tree Register | (Possible) Irish Champions in Ardnagashel(list from 7th December 1999 referring to a visit by Alan Mitchell in 1966)Trees of Ardnagashel ArboretumUpdate of John Bevan’s 1981 surveymap plate tree named by John Bevan1 Fagus sylvatica2 Fagus sylvatica3 Fagus sylvatica4 Fagus sylvatica5 Fagus sylvatica6 Cupressus arizonica7 Cupressus macrocarpa8 Fagus sylvatica9 Fagus sylvatica10 Juglans regia11 Sequoia sempervirens12 Abies grandis13 0640 Pinus sylvestris14 Quercus suber15 Pinus armandii16 Cryptomeria japonica ‚Elegans’17 [Cryptomeria japonica ‚Elegans’]18 Chamaecyparis nootkatensis ‚Pendula’ Ch19 Abies grandis [corr. alba] Ch20 Cryptomeria japonica Ch21 Picea omorica22 Thujopsis dolobrata23 [Cedrus deodara]24 [Acacia pravissima]25 [Acacia dealbata] Ch26 Drymis winterii27 0669 Podocarpus salignus Ch28 Rhododendron cv.29 Myrtus apiculata30 [Robinia pseudoacacia], now Picea orientalis31 [Cedrus libani]32 0661 Cercidiphyllum japonicum33 0595 Quercus suber [almost dead] Ch34 Cordyline australisGenus Species Ht/m Dia/cmAbies alba 33 168[Acacia dealbata 14 27.5]Chamaecyparis nootkatensis ‚Pendula’ 13.5 58Cryptomeria japonica var. sinensis 17 138Myrtus luma 9 43Podocarpus salignus 19.5 88Quercus suber 7.5 79Metasequoia glyptostroboidesTROI35 Trachycarpus fortunei36 Cordyline australis37 Abies alba38 Abies alba39 Abies alba40 0628 Quercus suber41 0593 Aesculus hippocastanum42 Pinus sylvestris43 Pinus sylvestris44 Pinus sylvestris45 Pinus sylvestris46 0619 Magnolia campbellii ssp. mollicomata47 Platanus acericifolia48 Ulmus glabra?49 Abies grandis50 Fraxinus excelsior51 [Eucalyptus globulus], now Quercus suber52 [Eucalyptus bicostata]53 Abies alba54 Eucalyptus aggregata55 Fagus sylvatica56 Aesculus turbinata57 Acer platanoides ‚Schneidleri’58 Castanea sativa59 Fagus sylvatica60 Pinus sylvestris61 Pinus sylvestris62 Pinus sylvestris63 Pinus sylvestris64 Fagus sylvatica65 Fagus sylvatica66 Fagus sylvatica67 Fagus sylvatica68 Griselinia littoralis69 Ulmus procera· 12

SL ELLEN · HUTCHINS ·ARBORETUM LVRevisiting Ellen Hutchins’Plant List 200 years onBetween 1807 and 1811, 1200 plants around BantryBay were identified and listed (in Latin) by EllenHutchins (1785-1815) Ireland’s First Woman Botanist ofBallylickey House and Ardnagashel House, Bantry. Thelist was completed in January 1812, and edited in“Occasional Papers No 12” in 1999 by Professor M. E.Mitchell, Professor of Botany at Galway University, publishedby Dublin Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin.Suggested Project:How many of the 1200 plants listed by Ellen Hutchinsare still existing around Bantry Bay today?Darwin listed 150 plants in his garden at Downe House,Kent, and in the last few years botanists have revisitedthe list and discovered how many have survived andhow many newcomers there are.We would like to do the same with Ellen Hutchins’ list,two hundred years after she created it.We intend to ask for help from Glasnevin, ProfessorMitchell of Galway University, the Linnean Society (SirPeter Lesley), Kew (which holds one hundred of herwater coloured drawings), Wisley (RHS), Irish TreeSociety (Chairman Thomas Pakenham, who came toArdnagashel in June 2006), Tree Register of Britain andIreland (one Trustee is Thomas Pakenham), TouristBoard, the Heritage Office An Duchas and ClareHerdman, the Ranger at Glengarriff Woods.This Project will need a ProjectManager and a team of volunteers.Offers of help could include bed andbreakfast for the volunteers / botanists.Born atArdnagashel Housein 1915:Richard N. Hutchins,great-great-nephew of Ellenand Arthur Hutchins;living atHorseshoe StrandArdnagashel EastBantry, Co CorkTel. 027 50226© Copyright for this document:good news media | Eliane Zimmermann, MarkusBaeuchle & Richard HutchinsEditorial, artwork & all photos (except p. 3) byEliane Zimmermann & Markus Baeuchle, goodnews media, Ardaturrish Beg, Glengarriff, Co.Cork | Tel. 027 63609: e-mail:info@wanderlust.ieNo copying, reprint or reproductionwithout permission ofthe authors.SourcesSundial with creed atArdnagashel: „Reflect on thepast – Live in the future – Plantfor the future• Oxford Dictionary of NationalBiography, September 2004• ARDNAGASHEL – A Hidden Treasure byJohn F. Bevan, 1981Thanks toRichard Hutchins, Madeline HutchinsArethusa Greacen· 13