214 THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



doors in a slieltcrcd and somewhat shady place, and give water moderately, 

 keeping them almost dry for three or four weeks, yet not so dry as to 

 hasten the decay of the leaves. We have used them in groups for 

 the margins of beds for the sake of their richly-tinted and elegantly- 

 formed leaves, during the early part of the summer, and very effective 

 they have proved themselves as a relief to masses of rich colour. 

 Gather the seed when ripe, and as soon as the leaves begin to decay give 

 no more water. When the leaves have entirely withered, store away in a 

 dry place the pots containing the bulbs, and so let them remain in the 

 pots until required again for potting. Sometimes there is a little tendency 

 in the bulbs to form new leaves, and continue growing very late in the 

 season. This is usually the result of having too much water, as may 

 happen in a wet season through the plants being always out in the rain. 

 We cure this by a very simple method ; we place the plants on the top 

 shelf of a greenhouse, and there keep them tolerably dry, and so secure 

 perfect ripening of the bulbs. 



Seedling Cyclamens. — As with most other plants there are two ways 

 of raising stock, namely, by seeds and cuttings. But we cannot devote a 

 paragraph to the propagation by cuttings, because the method is too diffi- 

 cult for the majority of amateurs to attempt, and too precarious to be 

 likely ever to pay the expertest of practitioners. Nevertheless, we must 

 ever keep in mind that division of the corm or bulb is a possible method 

 of propagating, because should there ever be discovered a means of making 

 that method more certain, the varieties could be more certainly perpetuated, 

 and it might be possible to distribute those few varieties with variegated 

 leaves which are, and have long been, in the sole possession of some half 

 dozen cultivators. The sowing of seeds is the only method available for 

 ordinary ptirposes, and to raise plants in tliis way is a very simple affair. 

 Some time in February till some large pans with peat and peatdust, press 

 it firm and water with boiling water, and put aside to drain. The next 

 day strew over the surface about an inch depth of the dust of peat and 

 silver-sand mixed together, equal quantities of each. Sow the seed thinly 

 on this surface, and cover with the same mixture of peat and sand, about 

 a quarter of an inch deep. Place these pans in a frame and shut them 

 close. Look at them occasionally, and if they get drj' moisten them by 

 gently dipping in a vessel of Avater, which will not displace the seed, 

 whereas the use of a watering pot might wash it out. In the course of 

 time the seedlings will appear, and will grow mightily if kept freely aired 

 and moderately moist. About the middle of May place them all, except 

 the seedlings of Persicum, out of doors in a shady place, and all the 

 attention they will require will be to keep them free from weeds, and to 

 give water occasionally. By the next October they will have formed 

 nice little bulbs. Do not shift them, but let them remain in the pans, in 

 frame or greenhouse, till March or April, when they will be a year old. 

 Take them out carefully, and pot separately in thumb- pots, using the 

 same soil as recommended before for potting, and filling in next the bulbs 

 with the sandy mixture advised for covering the seed. Place these pots 

 on a gentle dung-heat, and give the roots afresh start, and as soon as the 

 pots are full of roots, shift to 60-sized ; keep them in the frames, give 

 air and water moderately, and in the course of June prepare them for 

 resting by withholding water, and when the leaves are dead store away in 

 the pots as before described. In the October following repot them, and they 



