45O GENERAL REVIEW. 



C. neapolitanum, and others, are hardy, and grow and bloom 

 well in sheltered positions on warm, dry soils. C. Atkinsii is 

 a garden hybrid obtained by Mr Atkins of Paniswick some 

 years ago. All the species and varieties are easily multiplied 

 by seeds, which should be sown as soon as ripe in light sandy 

 soil and placed on a gentle bottom-heat. If imported or one- 

 year-old seeds are used for propagating purposes, sow them in 

 a pan as early in October as possible, previously steeping them 

 in moderately hot water, as they are unusually hard and slow 

 in coming up. Put a pane of glass over the pan and place 

 it near the glass in some warm spot. Germination will take 

 place in about a fortnight, and the pane of glass must then be 

 removed from the pan to prevent damping off and drawing. 



" To have good plants of C. persicum" says Mr Little, " the 

 seed should be sown in a temperature of 50, and the young 

 plants should be pricked off into forty-eight-sized pots, placing 

 ten in each pot ; and when big enough, they should be potted 

 singly in small sixty-sized pots. When these are well filled 

 with roots, they should be potted into forty-eight-sized pots, 

 in which they will flower the following spring. After this shift 

 they should be placed in a cool, sunless house, and well 

 watered both at root and overhead. All stimulants, in the 

 way of manure or guano-water, should be avoided, and nothing 

 used except pure soft water, otherwise the flower-stalks become 

 drawn and weak, and the strength of the plant is expended in 

 the production of foliage." 



Dodecatheon (American Cowslip ; Shooting- star}. A small 

 genus of pretty little herbaceous plants from North America, 

 the leaves of which resemble those of Primula, while the re- 

 flexed segments of the flowers remind one of the same organs 

 in the Cyclamen. The flowers are generally rosy purple, and 

 are borne on umbellate trusses nearly a foot in height. Re- 

 presented in our gardens by D. integrifolium, introduced in 

 1829, and D. Meadia, a much older inhabitant of our gardens 

 and a more variable plant, introduced in f 744. Both species 

 have li'ght-purple flowers, but of the last-named there are three 

 or four distinct varieties as albiflorum (white), elegans (rosy), 

 giganteum (lilac), and lilacinum (rosy lilac). They are all 

 readily multiplied by dividing well-established roots in the 

 autumn, or by seeds, which not unfrequently ripen on warm 

 soils. The surest way of obtaining fertile seeds of good qual- 

 ity is to grow the plants in pots in a sunny frame where they 

 are more immediately under the eye of the cultivator. The 

 flowers should be thinned, only leaving five or six on a scape ; 

 and these should be carefully fertilised so as to insure a maxi- 



