240 PRIMULACEyE. 



cate fragrance they possess, render them chaiTning. Their cul- 

 ture is simple enough when their nature and requirements are 

 understood and attended to. With the exception of C. persicum 

 and its hybrids and varieties, and perhaps also C. repandum, 

 the remaining species may be considered hardy alpine plants. 

 For the most part, the species inhabit high cold regions on the 

 great mountains of southern Europe, and their constitution is 

 consequently adapted to resist the greatest cold they will be 

 exposed to in our cHmate ; but when winter is gone, and we 

 are looking fonvard with expectation for the unfolding of their 

 beauties, along with the lengthening days of March and April, 

 the late frosts and battering rains so common in these months 

 bring disaster to Cyclamen flowers, as they do to the flowers of 

 many more important things. Something may be done to pro- 

 tect them, with hoods or extinguishers oifrigi domo, so made as 

 to be easily slipped over and fastened upon stakes permanently 

 fixed around the plants, in anticipation of inclement weather ; 

 but it is troublesome and unsatisfactory, inasmuch as we are 

 often taken at unawares by the sudden changes experienced in 

 the spring months. It is necessary, therefore, if we would fully 

 enjoy the beauty of the early-flowering Cyclamens, to provide 

 them W\t\i indoor accommodation of some sort. It is one of 

 the recommendations of these plants that they do not take up 

 much room in winter ; many may be stored in small space. A 

 cold frame in which the pots may be plunged in coal-ashes is 

 the most suitable place for them ; but in the absence of that, 

 they may be stored under the stage of a cool greenhouse, or in 

 a viner}^ or peach-house, in which, if not provided wdth heating 

 apparatus, the roots would require to be protected by some 

 means in severe weather. Hand-glasses and cloches are fit 

 enough also for wintering a few plants, and they may even be 

 successfully flowered in such ; but nothing could be better for the 

 cultivation of these and kindred plants all the year round than 

 those cheap ground vineries ; they are specially commendable 

 to amateurs for such purposes. 



The only successful means of propagating these plants is by 

 seeds. Division of the root-stock has been recommended, and 

 may be practised, but the result is bad ; solid corms, like those 

 of Cyclamen, w^hen divided, never produce vigorous healthy 

 plants. The seeds, if early ripened, may, in the southern parts 

 of the country, be sown at once thinly in shallow pans, and 

 placed on a spent hotbed, cold frame, or on the shelf of a 

 greenhouse near the glass, attending properly to watering, and, 

 after the plants appear, to shading from direct sunlight. In the 

 north, however, where the season is short and the ripening of 



