CALENDAR, FOR FEBRUARY.-FLOWER GARDEN. 71 
Stanhopea aurea, golden Stanhopea. — The sepals and petals 
are yellow and spotted; the lip is of the most intense golden 
colour, with two dark spots, which is almost lost in the flood of 
yellow that surrounds them. The flowers are almost the size of 
Stanhopea msignis, and the form of St. venusta; the leaves are 
long and broad ; the flower spike is about two feet long, and has 
about fourteen to sixteen flowers upon it, and has a most agree¬ 
able smell : it is one of the most beautiful of the genus. 
P. N. Don. 
THE WEATHER EOR FEBRUARY. 
The month set in with the same intense but steady frost which prevailed 
in the latter part of January. The atmosphere was uncommonly tranquil for 
the season, and showed that nature was still in a state of winter repose, and 
that there was little reciprocal action between the earth and the sky. The 
temperature was low, considering that there was no wind to occasion surface 
cold,—being often 25 deg. or 24; in the streets of London at mid-day, and 
sometimes under 20 deg. during the night. There was, however, much less 
daily variation of temperature than there usually is in February, even though 
the weather is severe, if it is not steady. The surface of the ground was 
completely sealed up, and impenetrable to heat or to cold, either from above 
or from below. This had the happiest effect upon such roots and flowers and 
plants as were in the ground; for the soil immediately under the frozen sur¬ 
face was not so saturated with humidity as that spiculse of ice could feel their 
way downward, and hurt either the fibres or the root of the most delicate 
plant. Thus the heat which radiated from the interior of the earth being 
arrested by the frozen surface, and not meeting with any action to absorb, it 
accumulated, diffused itself through the soil in which the roots were situated, 
and kept these in a more wholesome state than if the weather had been open, 
and the temperature of the surface and the air immediately over it considera¬ 
bly above the freezing point. 
This, with the snow which preceded, has tended to remove the injury which 
the soaking rains of autumn of 1839, and winter of 1839-40, had done to the 
general state of the ground, and thus produced all the beneficial effects 
which we have again and again said would result from such a winter, and 
restore nature to a wholesome tone. 
About the 16th the frost gave way with very little fall of rain or other 
disturbance, and the temperature speedily rose to near or about 50 deg. This 
sudden elevation of temperature occasioned no disturbance, however ; for as 
soon as the external frozen crust gave way, the atmosphere met with warm 
ground, and the two worked pleasantly together. In consequence of this, the 
flowering and other plants which are just beginning to make their appearance 
above the soil, look more healthy and vigorous than in the majority of years, 
or in any year when the weather is variable. If they meet with no check, 
