March 1, 1883. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
179 
the Trinity College Botanic Garden.®, Dublin, writes as follows :— 
“ The true large-flowered variety of Zygopetalum Mackayi has 
flowers 44 inches in diameter across the lower sepals. The lip is 
2£ inches to 2| inches across, the pseudo-bulbs very large, the 
leaves 18 inches to 2 feet 6 inches in length. The spike is 2 feet 
6 inches long, and bears about eight flowers. It was originally 
introduced to the Trinity College Botanic Gardens, Dublin, about 
1825, and was named after Dr. Townshend Mackay, the founder 
and first director of that garden. It is the finest of all the varie¬ 
ties under the name, and no doubt the Drumlanrig plants are true. 
The woodcut, fig. 51, represents a plant of the Dublin variety, 
and will convey a good idea how much superior it is to the forms 
commonly seen under the above name. 
CHRYSANTHEMUMS from NOVEMBER to FEBRUARY. 
In compliance with your wish I send you a few lines as to the 
method of culture I adopted during the past season, by which 
Chrysanthemum flowers were produced from the last week in 
November to the first week in February, when some flowers sent to 
Fig. cl.— ZrGorETALUM Mackayi, Dublin variety. 
you were noticed in the Journal of Horticulture as being remark¬ 
ably bright and fresh. I see also in the same number of the 
Journal a notice of a bloom sent by Mr. R. P. Brotherston, which is 
the first the plant has produced, to we are in a fair way to having 
Chrysanthemum flowers all ihe year round. I grow about fifty 
varieties, comprising some of all the sections, and including some of 
the earliest as well as the latest sorts, and all receive the same 
general treatment. 
At the end of last March I put in the strongest cuttings I could 
get in 4-inch pots, about six in each pot. and placed them rna frame 
on a slight hotbed, and as soon as growth commenced 1 pinched out 
the tops, removing the pots to a cold frame as soon as the side 
shoots appeared, gradually inuring them to the air. Before the 
roots in the cutting pots had become matted together the plants 
were potted singly in 4-inch pots, and kept close for a few days, and as 
soon as the pots were filled with roots the plants were shifted into 
6-inch pot®, each plant having three or four shoots, which were then 
pegged down and stopped at the rim of the pots. By the eDd of 
June the plants had from eight to ten shoots each, and they were 
then shifted into 8 inch and 11-inch pots, the former for the small- 
growing sorts and the latter for the larger kinds, but not stopping 
the sb. ots. The soil employed was good loam, horse dr ppings, 
leaf soil, and sand, four parts of the former to one part each of the 
three latter, using rather more leaf soil in the earlier stages. As 
