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Commercial Gardening 



or comb, with teeth on both sides of the midrib. They lend themselves 

 readily to the designs mentioned. The illustration (fig. 276) gives a 

 good idea of C. circinalis, the " Sago Palm" of Ceylon, where the thick 



upright stem attains a height of 

 20 ft., surmounted by a rosette 

 of leaves. Sago is obtained from 

 the pith in the fleshy stems. C. 

 revoluta, from China, is the 

 hardiest species known. C. 

 siamensis is an elegant species 

 from Siam and Cochin China, 

 having plume-like fronds 4 ft. 

 in length. Growers interested 

 in Cycads will find a fine collec- 

 tion in the Palm House at Kew. 

 Cyclamen latifolium. This 

 is much better known in gar- 

 dens as C. persicum, or the Per- 

 sian Cyclamen. It has been in 

 cultivation for nearly two hun- 

 dred years, and in that time vast 

 improvements have been made 

 by selection and cross-fertiliza- 

 tion. The Persian Cyclamen, as 

 we will still call it, is universally 

 popular, and great displays of it 

 are made every winter and spring 

 at exhibitions by firms who make a speciality of producing seed of the 

 finest strains. 



As a market plant large numbers are grown every year, as the prices 

 ranging from 9s. to 18s. per dozen for well-grown plants still make it a fairly 

 remunerative crop. These prices, however, are somewhat lower than used 

 to be realized some years ago. Although a perennial plant, and capable 

 of flowering annually for many years in succession, market growers prefer 

 to raise their plants from seed every year. Indeed there is no other course 

 open to them, as they are anxious to dispose of all they grow each year. 



The seeds are generally sown in July and August, and, as they germinate 

 somewhat irregularly, it is possible to have plants flowering in succession 

 the following year from one and the same sowing. Some growers sow the 

 seed in October and early November, and make another sowing in January 

 or February, in this way making quite sure of a successional crop. 



Pots or shallow pans are used, and care is taken to drain them well 

 with plenty of clean broken crocks at the bottom. The compost used is a 

 mixture of rich turfy loam and well-rotted leaf mould in about equal pro- 

 portions, to which a liberal supply of coarse silver sand is added to secure 

 porosity and ventilation. The pots or pans are filled up to within f in. 



Fig. 276. Cycas circinalis 



