A friend, who has just been making a little tour in Ireland, tells me of a remarkable specimen of this grand old orchid - a good variety, also, now bearing thirty-nine fully-expanded flowers, in one of the hothouses at Straffan. It is a veritable specimen, well grown, perfect in shape, every leaf perfect, and a great contrast to the "made-up" specimens we now and then see at exhibitions. In the same collection Disa grandiflora superba and D. Barrelli are growing like weeds in one corner of a house filled with herbaceous Calocelarias. The door stands open quite near to them night and day, but dryness is counteracted by copious syringings. In a a few weeks' time they will be well worth seeing, the flower-spikes being both many and vigorous. Oncidium macranthum var. hastiferum is also blooming in the Straffan collection, its flowers nearly four inches across. The purple lip in shape reminds one of a fox's head, and contrasts well with the broad, golden petals. - The Garden.