OPERATIONS FOR APRIL. 
71 
NEW OR INTERESTING PLANTS LATELY IN FLOWER AT THE PRINCIPAL 
SUBURBAN NURSERIES. 
Brachyse'ma hy'brida. Between B. latifolia and B. undulata a beautiful hybrid has been 
raised, and is blooming in the nursery of Mr, Low, Clapton, and Messrs. Henderson, Pine-apple 
Place. It shares the character of both the parent species, and is of a graceful habit, with a 
mixture of cream and dark blood colours in its flowers. As an early ornament of the green- 
house, it will be a very serviceable and interesting plant. 
Cinera'ria sple'ndida. A hybrid bearing this name has been originated by Mr. Green, 
gardener to Sir Edmund Antrobus, Bart,, Cheam, and we have seen it flowering at Messrs. 
Young's, Epsom. It partakes in some measure of the habit of C. Waterhouseana^ but is less 
diffuse, and has large blossoms of a deep purplish crimson hue. It is a very splendid variety, and 
well deserves its title. 
CiNERA^RiA, hybrid. Messrs. Henderson, of Pine- apple Place, have also several new hybrids^ 
among which is one called the King of Prussia, which has flowers of the richest purplish crimson 
we have ever met with. The blossoms are rather small, but numerous, and the habit of the 
plant is very compact. 
Dendro^bium Cambridgea^num. This exceedingly handsome species is now blossoming with 
Messrs. Loddiges. It grows on a svispended log of wood, and the flowers appear on the young 
leafy stems. They are large, of a superb orange hue, and having a lip, the centre of which is a 
fine dark velvety brown. The association of the bright green foliage and the showy blossoms on 
the same stem, which is by no means common in Dendrobia, has a very delightful eff'ect. 
Epa'cris Cra'egii. Obtained by Messrs. Henderson, Pine-apple Place, from Mr. Cunningham 
of Edinburgh, and evidently a hybrid. It is much like E. microphylla or E. cercejlora, and has a 
neat habit, with very lively little white flowers, round the centre of which the dark stamens are 
ranged, and greatly increase its beauty. 
E^RiA panicula'ta. The stems of this interesting plant grow nearly eighteen inches high, and 
require supporting. They are clothed with narrow sheathing leaves, and the panicles of flowers 
issue from their summit, depending in five or six long branches. The sepals are greenish yellow, 
and the petals and lip are spotted with purple. Although the flowers are small, their pretty 
markings and the mode of their production atone for a deficiency in size, and render the species 
rather desirable. It is in bloom at Messrs. Loddiges'. 
OPERATIONS FOR APRIL. 
April is almost proverbial for its constant alternations of sunshine and showers ; and as the 
course of nature is, in a general way, that best adapted to the wants of the vegetable kingdom, it 
might be assumed, from this circumstance alone, that exotic plants require to be in some degree 
similarly treated. Such an assumption, being in accordance with the dictates of experience, is 
pressed upon the cultivator with double force. 
The two main points to be regarded in the management of all plants in houses at the present 
season are the allowance to them of additional supplies of water, and the trifling increase of the 
temperature of the air in which they are grown, as the season advances. The augmented adminis- 
tration of water will be necessary, in consequence of the greater demand made upon the plant by 
the young developments, and the extra evaporation that will result from the exposure of a tender, 
succulent, and growing surface. Nor should these supplies of fluid be confined to watering at the 
roots. Syringing is, at this period, a most important operation, where plants are really in a state 
of advancement ; as it frees the leaves of all impurities, admits of their performing fully that 
copious perspiration which is so essential to the proper solidification of the young wood, and 
ministers very materially and appropriately to their invigoration and sustenance. 
