Ib2 ON THE CULTURE OF THE CYCLAMEN PERSICUM. 



This beautiful bulb appears to have been introduced about the 

 year 1731, from the island of Cyprus; and though it has been a 

 century in our possession, yet the general culture certainly cannot 

 be successfully understood, as we seldom find it in any thing like 

 perfection, being generally a weak plant both in leaf and flower, with 

 seldom more than twenty blossoms at a time on the bulb. The method 

 generally practised with this handsome bulb is to suffer it to blossom 

 in the greenhouse ; and the latter end of the summer and autumn 

 mouths it is usually put away in some dry place, and frequently the 

 pots turned on one side in a dry state, and not suffered to vegetate 

 till the following spring, when the bulb is frequently found as dry as 

 possible : it then undergoes the same treatment as in the preceding year. 

 After a renovation by moisture, heat, and nature having performed 

 its office, it is again assigned to the drying system. As this plant 

 blossoms early, I should advise assisting it with a little heat. Select 

 a few 'pots and place them in the hot-house in the beginning of 

 February, they will soon show their blossoms ; remove them by de- 

 grees into their old quarters, the greenhouse, they will soon form 

 their seed-vessels if assisted with plenty of air; and when you 

 find the seed sufficiently ripe, sow it immediately in pans, the plants 

 will appear in the autumn ; let them remain in the greenhouse till 

 about the beginning of May. In removing the plants from the pans, 

 you will find they have formed bulbs about the size of a pea, and 

 some as large as a hazel-nut. Prepare a bed for their reception by 

 digging and raking the soil to a fine mould ; cover the same over 

 with about two inches of sandy peat, plant the bulbs six inches apart, 

 cover them over with a frame, and in the day-time admit what air is 

 required according to the state of the weather. About the middle of 

 summer, when you apprehend all danger of frost is over, the frame 

 may be taken away, as the plants will require no further care than 

 sufficiently watering them. About October, take them up and pot 

 them in the following compost : — Two parts loam, two parts leaf 

 mould, one part rotten dung that has lain two years. Add to it one 

 part of sand, mixing them well together before using it, and if a fine 

 srrowine summer succeeds, some of the bulbs will be two inches in 

 diameter, and produce as much blossom as a plant two years old by 

 the drying system. 



