I received your favour and also the box containing the plants and shells quite safe. I am very much obliged by your attention and now return the box you sent with some plants for your garden – most of them would look well upon your rock [at the side of Ellen’s flower garden at Ballylickey] provided you have some good fresh earth to plant them in.
The two roses keep flowering for the most part of the season they may either be kept in pots of rich earth or planted out in your garden, they are hardy enough to stand our winters.
The Chrysanthemum is also pretty hardy and makes a beautiful appearance in November the general season of its flowering. It will last in flower till Christmas if the weather is not very severe – the stems should be cut over after flowering and if left in the open air a little litter put over the roots in winter if the frost is severe. Both it and the roses are readily propagated by cuttings.
The Cistus’s are a beautiful tribe of plants and are all pretty hardy. Saldonella is rather tender and should be kept in a pot till you have more than one plant, when you can try it out.
I doubt not that the whole will thrive well under your fostering hand. I shall always be glad when in my power to add any plant you may wish for to your collection.
I thank you for your kind to [sic] offer to send me more sea plants, & am glad you find such amusement in collecting and examining them; but am afraid I give you too much trouble in drying and preparing them. Conferva gelatinosa is rather scarce, nor have I specimen well preserved.
The Ophrys paludosa was the plant I found in a marshy place by the right hand side of the road after crossing Priests Leap about two miles distant from Ashgrove.
The Antirrhinum repens I found on the refuse of an old slate quarry about a mile below the town of Bandon by the river side. Should you not get it I can send you a plant the next time I am sending any thing for you. I am just on the eve of setting out for Scotland, and hope to return in about four weeks. Should you send any specimens to 8 Park St. they will be kept for me. I intended to have sent you some other kinds of roses, but my hurry going off to Scotland prevents me at present. I beg that you may be assured how much
I am
Madam
Your most obliged and obedient humble servant
J T Mackay
Cistus populifolius
helianthimum var. minor
libanotis
ladanifinus [now ladanifer, Gum Cistus or rock rose]
roscus
mutabilis
laxus
anglicus
Saxifraga oppositifolia
sarmentosa [also stolonifera]
Chrysanthemum indicum [parent of the cultivated ones]
Soldanella alpina [Alpine Snowbell or Blue Moonwort, native to the Alps and Pyrenees]
Phlox stolonifera [from the Appalachian mountains USA]
subulata [from east and central USA]
ovata [Mountain Phlox]
Artotis repens [now called Arctotheca prostrate, Creeping Bear’s Ear or Prostrate Cape Weed from the Cape Province of South Africa]
Rosa chinensis
semperflorens
Vetheimia (Veltheimia) sarmentosa
Chelone formosa from South America
N.B. The box is directed for you care of Mr R Mitchell, 20 Grand Parade, Cork.
Please cite as “EHT123,” in Ɛpsilon: Ellen Hutchins Collection accessed on