THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 149 



G. Massonii (syn. ochracea) is perhaps the freest grower in the 

 genus, and the fronds are very elegant, but not so distinctly golden 

 as either of the others. G. tartarea is a fine silver fern, and one of 

 the hardiest of the genus. The above are a good half-dozen to begin 

 ■with, and when their culture is thoroughly mastered, add JVothocldama 

 flava, which is a gem of the first water, but difficult to grow. It is 

 certainly the prettiest gold fern in existence. 



CULTURE OF CYCLAMEN" PERSIC LM. 



BY GEORGE EAIRBAIRN, 



Head Gardener to the Duke of Northumberland, Sion ITouse. 



HAVE no wish to decry the merits of anything else, 

 when I say that this is the most useful plant we have 

 for decorative purposes during the winter and spring ; 

 for it is equally at home in the conservatory or drawing- 

 room, and is one of the best window plants in existence. 

 The air of a sitting-room does it no harm, and it continues fresh and 

 beautiful for three months, with the simple attention of keeping 

 the roots properly supplied with moisture. More than this, it is 

 second to no other plant for furnishing cut fkwers for bouquets and 

 table decoration. There is, however, not much necessity for me to 

 enlarge upon the merits of the cyclamen, as these are now tolerably 

 well known, and I can occupy my time, and the space allotted to me 

 in these pages, more profitably by at once offering a few hints upon 

 its cultivation. We grow a large number here, and I have been 

 frequently requested by visitors and friends to give my method of 

 treatment, which I do now with pleasure, in the hope that it will 

 assist those who have hitherto failed in growing this beautiful flower 

 so well as they could wish, or its merits deserve. This much I can 

 say, that if my directions are strictly followed, there will certainly 

 be no risk of a failure. 



We must have good seed to begin with, and that, too, saved 

 from plants having the desirable characteristics of compact habit, 

 elegant, marbled foliage, and large broad-petalled flowers, set on 

 short stiff flower-stalks. With seed saved from plants of this 

 description, the bulk of the seedlings may be expected to be good, 

 though a few tnay not be first-rate. But if the seed is saved indis- 

 criminately from good and bad alike, very few good flowers must be 

 expected from the batch of seedlings. As two or three good spe- 

 cimens are sufficient to furnish seed for ordinary private collections, 

 seed-saving is not such a formidable affair, and the fertilization of a 

 few hundred flowers is the work of a very short space of time. I 

 am surprised that more care is not exercised in the selection of the 

 seed-bearing parents of other florist flowers as well as this, by people 

 who ought to know better, for there is just as much time, labour, 

 and space taken up in growing that which is an outrage to a true 



