OPERATIONS FOR FEBRUARY. 
23 
while the lip is whitish, mottled below with pink and yellow. It has blossomed for many months 
at Messrs. Loddiges', and flowers still continue to be produced. 
Maxilla'ria Skinne'ri. A plant is at present flowering at Messrs. Henderson's, Pine-apple 
Place, which was received from the Horticultural Society with the above name. It is, however, 
the same as was bloomed by Mr. Knight of Chelsea last year, and is either a larger and exceed- 
ingly rich-coloured variety of M. aromatica, with which it has several features in common, or it 
is a new and unnamed species. The true M. Skinneri has, we learn, flowered with J. Clowes, 
Esq., of Broughton Hall, near Manchester, and has whitish or blush-coloured blossoms, eight or 
nine inches in diameter, with a pink lip. The same species, in the collection of Messrs. Loddiges, 
has pseudo-bulbs not very different from those of M. Deppei, but more compressed at the sides, 
and not so plump-looking. 
Mormo v des atropurpu'rea. A curious plant, with a pseudo bulb like the old species of 
Myanthus, and from the side of which the flower-stem proceeds, bearing, apparently, from eight 
to twelve blossoms. A specimen is thus blooming with Messrs. Loddiges, and the flowers are of 
one uniform deep purple tint, and have a slightly-polished surface. 
Onci'dium ? In the orchidaceous house of Messrs. Loddiges, there is now a novel species 
of Oncidium in blossom, which, in the disposition of its flowers, their figure and colour, approxi- 
mates to O. Baueri, or altissimum. The pseudo-bulbs are, however, smaller and more depressed ; 
there is not that profusion of exposed roots so common in those species, and the leaves are pecu- 
liarly long, narrow, and flexible. In the latter feature, indeed, it is more like a very strong- 
growing species of grass. 
Pha'ius grandtfo'lius ; var. Messrs. Rollisson, of Tooting, flowered a superior variety of 
this admirable old plant in the spring of last year ; and Messrs. Loddiges, who obtained it from the 
former gentlemen, have a magnificent plant of it now displaying its inflorescence. The main 
difference between it and the species resides in the hues of the flowers ; P. grandifolius having 
dull, wine-coloured sepals and petals, and a purplish lip, and this variety having its sepals and 
petals of a yellowish-green ground, prettily mottled all over with bright brown, the lip being of an 
intense brownish purple. It is extremely handsome. 
Pri'mula sine'nsis ; var. Most persons are aware that the Chinese primrose sports into many 
varieties, some of which are greatly preferable to others. Messrs. Henderson, of Pine-apple 
Place, have now a race which is remarkably dwarf, and of a singularly healthy aspect. The leaf- 
stalks are not more than two inches in length ; the flower-stem from half an inch to an inch high, 
and sometimes imperceptible ; and the pedicels which support the individual flowers are about 
an inch or an inch and a half long. The blossoms are particularly large, of various hues, and 
finely fimbriated round the margin. Were they a trifle more elevated, — which could readily be 
effected by placing them in a somewhat warmer house,_they would be a very desirable variation. 
OPERATIONS FOR FEBRUARY. 
In no pursuit is procrastination more hurtful, or productive of more annoying consequences, 
than in gardening. The effect of deferring necessary operations, whether from carelessness or 
for convenience, is in all cases alike vexatious and irretrievable. In some instances, Nature will 
not wait for the assistance of man, when her great processes are to be effected, and such things as 
pruning may thus be left unperformed till it is really better to dispense with them altogether- 
In others, she will not be hurried beyond her capacity, and dissappointment may be occasioned 
when flowers are expected at a given period, by their not being propagated at a proper time. 
We therefore begin a new volume by pressing the cultivator to be always beforehand a few 
weeks or a month in thought of what he has to provide for ; and then, by making slight memoranda, 
he will be able to proceed happily and prosperously. 
Tender plants under protection now demand all the watchfulness which can be bestowed on 
them. Days or weeks of continuous covering, with, perhaps, the addition of artificial heat, or, in 
frames, the accumulation of more moisture than can be appropriated, will have caused them to 
make unhealthy attempts at growth, or have so filled them with fluids that they are in danger of 
perishing from mouldiness. To such, air must be freely given whenever it is warm and dry 
