On the Culture of Cyclamen Persicum. 387 



is frequently found as dry as possible. It then undergoes the 

 same treatment as in the preceding year, after a renovation by 

 moisture, heat, &c. Nature having performed its office, it is 

 again assigned to the drying system. 



Being extremely partial to this fine-scented bulb, I turned 

 my attention to its propagation and culture, and with that 

 success which astonished every one who saw it. At one tiny* 

 I had some hundreds of pots, and so uncommonly luxuriant 

 was their growth, that an eminent botanist, one of your cor- 

 respondents, once asked me what plants they were. 



As this plant blossoms early I would advise assisting it with 

 a little heat. Select a few pots, and place them in the stove 

 in the beginning of February ; they will soon show their blos- 

 som ; remove them, by degrees, into their old' quarter, the 

 green-house, and select only those plants that are scented, 

 some being much more so than others ; 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 green-house to about the beginning of May ; and, in re- 

 moving 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, and cover the same over with 

 about two inches of sifted loam, leaf mould, or rotten dung, 

 with a mixture of sandy peat. Plant the bulbs six inches 

 apart from each other, and let them be kept covered, either 

 with hand-glasses, which at that season can be spared, or with 

 hot-bed sashes, to protect them from the cold and probably 

 frosty nights, and, in the daytime, admit what air is required, 

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

 summer, when you apprehend no danger from the frosty 

 nights, &c. the glass may be taken away, as the plants will 

 i-equire no farther care than sufficiently watering them, if 

 the season proves a dry one, and as often as occasion may 

 require. 



At the time you remove the green-house plants into the 

 house let the cyclamen be taken up carefully and potted, one 

 bulb in a small pot. Fit the pot to the size of the plant, and 

 be careful not to place a small plant in a large pot. The pot 

 No. 60. for small ones, and the No. 48. for the larger, will be 

 sufficient; and, if a fine growing summer succeed, 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. The 

 soil I made use of was loam, leaf mould, and dung, with some 



