OPERATIONS FOR DECEMBER. 
268 
but very delicate and lovely white flowers, which have a trifling shade of pink, and a dash of 
yellow in the middle of the lip. The latter member is most beautifully curled, or frilled round 
the margin. 
Ca'ttleya supe'rba. It is impossible to describe the colour of the flowers which this truly 
superb plant bears. They excel in richness everything of the kind we have before seen. The 
sepals and petals are of a lively purplish-crimson, and the lip is of the same hue, but very much 
deeper, and with a shade of blood colour in it. They are as large as those of C. Harrisonii, or C. 
Skinneri, and the lip throws back the sides instead of folding them together over the column. 
Its extremity is nearly square or truncated. The pseudo-bulbs are about nine inches high, and 
particularly stout. Messrs. Loddiges have had it in bloom twice this autumn. 
Colu'mnea sple'ndens. Received by Messrs. Rollisson from Paris, and probably a South 
American or Mexican plant. It has the epiphytal character of C. Schiediana, with thick, oblong 
and shining foliage, and solitary blossoms. The peduncles are singularly long, which causes the 
flowers to hang down in a graceful manner. The colour of the blossoms is a reddish crimson, 
and the species seems altogether a desirable one. 
Curcu'ma — ? In Messrs. Loddiges' stove we noticed last month a kind of Curcuma, with very 
much of the aspect of C. Roscoeana, but having nearly white blossoms, or rather bracts. 
Although C. Roscoeana varies exceedingly in colour, this is evidently not the original species. 
It may possibly, however, be a variety. The bracts, as we have said, are almost white, being 
slightly tinted with pink, and having a deeper stain of pink in the middle and towards the points. 
They continue in beauty as long as those of the species above alluded to. 
Franct'scea villoma. A new species of Franciscea, received from the Continent by Messrs. 
Loddiges, and flowering in one of their stoves. It is not unlike F. Hopeana, but has smaller 
downy leaves and deep purple blossoms. The latter are perceptibly fragrant. When it comes 
to be well cultivated, it will doubtless be as interesting as its very pleasing ally, 
Gesne ra magni'fica. One of the larger species of the genus, with immense leaves, and a 
woody stem eighteen inches in height. It produces a close spike of comparatively small red 
flowers from the summit, and certainly does not appear to answer to its name. Messrs. Rollisson, 
of Tooting, have lately bloomed it in a greenhouse. 
Gesne'ra Mu'rkit, This is a much handsomer plant, having large and very showy flowers, 
which are, however, like those of G. Cooperi, faucialis, and some others. The blossoms take a 
half pendent direction, and in this respect it differs from its congeners. It is a highly ornamental 
species, and worth cultivating. We have observed it at Messrs. Henderson's, Pine-apple Place, 
and in excellent condition at Mrs. Lawrence's, Ealing Park. 
OPERATIONS FOR DECEMBER. 
Deciduous trees being, at this time, completely denuded, and this being the season at which 
alterations are commonly effected or devised, it will be advisable for the gardener to go carefully 
over his pleasure-grounds, and mark those places where evergreens are most needed. There are 
few gardens which are well furnished in this respect ; and there is nothing that makes a spot look 
so miserable in winter as a deficiency of evergreens. Every good cultivator should always have a 
stock of laurels and common evergreen shrubs in reserve, to be applied in remedying defects, as 
occasion may arise. No season can be better than the present for examining an estate with a view 
to planting them ; because the trees have so recently been clothed with their leafy honours, that 
peculiar barrenness of verdure is more distinctly perceptible than it would be at any other period. 
Nor is it yet too late even to plant what may be wanting ; nor should the investigation be 
restricted to shrubs, but be extended to trees, whose effect may possibly not be fully felt for many 
years. It is a very narrow mind that refrains from planting what cannot be immediately or speedily 
enjoyed. 
