OPERATIONS FOR NOVEMBER. 
239 
round the base of the column, their unusual size, and highly grateful odour; 
which last is exhaled perpetually, and not merely distinguishable at a particular 
period. 
Saccolabium papillosum. An important mistake occurred in our last 
Number (p. 214) respecting a species of Saccolabium^ which we are here desirous 
of rectifying. S. guttatum was there described as a yellow species, whereas it is 
generally known to be of a cream colour, liberally blotched with pink ; and the 
plant then noticed should have been called S. papillosum, or, as we have since 
discovered, a superior variety of this species. 
OPERATIONS FOR NOVEMBER. 
Perhaps in no other month is the gardener required to exercise more vigilance in 
the superintendence of the plants committed to his charge. The almost proverbial 
dampness and dulness of the external atmosphere, combined with the fact that on 
the judicious management of exotics at this period, their maintenance in health 
through the winter to a very considerable degree rests, are quite sufficient to call 
forth a greater than usual amount of attention and care. 
Every experienced cultivator is aware that it is not in the actual months of 
winter that the greatest difficulty respecting the healthy preservation of plants is 
felt. Those periods at which the most striking changes in the atmosphere and 
temperature occur, — the rise and fall of the seasons, or the commencement and 
departure of winter, — are the chief tests of skill in the treatment of tender 
species. In favourable years, these transitions are generally effected by slow 
degrees ; but their influence on plants is nevertheless always somewhat sudden, 
and their demand upon the especial watchfulness of the culturist is never to be 
neglected with impunity. 
The time to which these observations are especially intended to apply, is precisely 
one of the seasons above instanced ; while the peculiarly unpropitious weather by 
which it has been preceded, will render its prejudicial effects doubly destructive, 
if these are not carefully warded oft" by an increased diligence in the application of 
preventive means ; or, what is of more consequence, the cautious remov^al of all 
causes which are likely to create the evil. It is a far stronger evidence of true 
wisdom, to avoid the operation of any pernicious condition, than to devise means 
for its removal after it has created a positive injury. And if plants have been 
treated during the summer according to our repeated recommendations, they 
now need no kind of stimulation, the only point for consideration being how 
they may best be kept in health, without allowing the too great advancement of 
any exciting agent. 
Concerning heat, no mistake can possibly arise, unless it be in the regulation 
