184 THE GARDENER. [April 



to hybridise tlie Cyclamen is as early in March as possible, but it may 

 be done as late as April, although I consider the later it is done after 

 the first week in March, the less chance you have of obtaining the 

 wished-for result, as all flowering-plants are more or less hybridised 

 by insects and other sources in the spring and summer months. When 

 the sun shines is the best time to cross your Cyclamen, and it should 

 be done in the following manner : Having selected a plant as male, 

 %vith good-shaped flowers, take hold of the stalk between the left 

 finger and thumb, just below the flower, and with the right thumb flip 

 the side of bloom, and you will find the pollen lodged on the left 

 thumb nail. Then apply this pollen to the blooms of a plant that has 

 good habit and stiff variegated foliage, which should in all cases be 

 indispensable in the female. In performing this some care is required, 

 as the female organs are extremely delicate, and will not admit of any 

 rough usage. The pollea should be gently applied to the stigma, and 

 it will be found that at least a small portion has adhered, which is all 

 that is required. I do not think it advisable to cross Persicum with 

 a R rubrum, or with any other colour, except for variety ; but endeav- 

 our to keep them distinct, and improve each kind separately. How- 

 ever, if you have a rubrum, for instance, with a bloom of good shape 

 and colour, but nothing else to recommend it, make this the male, 

 and cross it with another rubrum possessing good dwarf foliage, and 

 the result, in most instances, will be improved habit combined with a 

 first-rate bloom. Persicums should be crossed in the same way, but 

 endeavour, if possible, always to have these scented. If you wish P. 

 delicatum, you have only to cross a Persicum with P. album, and Per- 

 sicum with P. roseum, to produce another distinct variety. Not more 

 than six flowers, on even a large plant, should be allowed to seed; for 

 if a greater number be retained the seed will be small, and the plants 

 obtained from it, in all probability, be wanting in that vigour which 

 is at all times an important item in the raising of seedlings. After 

 fertilising the six best blooms, all others should be at once removed, 

 and the plants put in a rather shady part of the greenhouse, but still 

 having as much light as possible ; and no place can better suit them 

 than a shelf protected from hot sun by wood-work, about 1 foot or 18 

 inches from the glass. The seeds are ripe in about ten weeks, are sown 

 at once, and put in an old Cucumber or Melon frame, with a tempera- 

 ture of about 65° or thereabouts. In six weeks the first leaf will be 

 seen pushing itself through the soil ; and when these are an inch in 

 length they may be transplanted into a pan, still retained in the pit, 

 and carefully shaded from hot sun icith thin canvass, as a glaring sun 

 I consider at all times highly detrimental to them, but especially so 

 when the plants are young. 



