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CULTIVATION AND ANALYSIS OF PLANTS. 
disappear the place may be sown with annuals. For the house they may be planted in 
pans of sand or in any of the pretty designs manufactured for them out of terra cotta or 
pottery ware, and set away until they show growth. They can be put in the ground any- 
where, with their accompanying pots, but should be covered up with ashes to protect 
them from rats and mice, as well as from the frost; or they may be stored indoors ina 
dark cellar or closet, being protected in the same way. About midwinter they can be 
removed at intervals, to insure a succession of flowering, into the house or conservatory, 
where they are intended to bloom. They must always be kept at low temperature until 
near the blooming period, for too great heat lengthens and weakens the stem. They also 
bloom in water, in small glasses adapted to them, made on the same principle as Hyacinth 
glasses. Bulbs should be set in the fall. They can be raised from seeds, blooming in 
three years, that being the average for most kinds of bulbs. All Crocus bulbs should be 
set about the last of October, or early in November. 
CYCLAMEN. 
yet ERHAPS there are but few plants for fall, winter and spring culti- 
vation that will afford more pleasure to the industrious and watchful 
amateur than this attractive little plant. It never grows more than 
six or eight inches high, but it has beautiful mottled leaves, and the 
flowers, which are borne on single stems, have a velvety center 
encircled by rays of a purplish red; and in some varieties lilac and 
white, while in a few they approach a maroon. These ray-like petals turn 
: down, as in the Dodecatheon Meadia or Shooting Star, sometimes called the 
Prairie Pointer. The bulbs should be obtained as early as possible in the 
autumn, so that they can be planted at intervals to promote an orderly succession 
in their periods of blooming; or, they may be planted all at once, but treated 
with different degrees of heat, water, and other attentions, to hasten or retard their 
development. The plumper ones should be preferred; but if shriveled ones only can be 
had, they may be freshened by being enveloped in damp moss or cotton batting for one 
or more days. They delight in a good, rich soil, in which they are planted so as to 
leave about one-fourth of an inch of their substance above the surface. The soil should 
receive a little water, and the pot be put away in a sheltered place with a northern aspect, 
or under a tree, until they begin to grow, giving a little moisture as required. When the 
leaves begin to start, the plants can be brought forward to the light and given all the air 
possible every day, with water when necessary, care being taken that they do not decay 
through being too abundantly supplied. After their blooming season is over, the watering 
should be gradually reduced as the foliage withers, and finally almost discontinued. They 
are then put away in a shady, airy situation, free from rain, yet where the soil will not at 
any time become actually dry; but if there is any danger of such a.contingency, a little 
water around the bulb might be given, as it must on no account be allowed to decline from 
its plump condition. In the fall they should have the soil shaken from them, and be placed 
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