Part II. CYCLAMEN. i8i 



tinguished from Crocus vernus, which has the inside of the 

 throat hairy. Dean Herbert says this " hkes to have its corm 

 deep in the ground. If its seed is sown in a three-inch pot 

 plunged in a sand-bed, and left there, by the time the seed- 

 lings are two or three years old, the bulbs will be found crowded 

 , and flattened against the bottom of the pot ; and, if the hole in 

 the pot is large enough to allow their escape, some of them will 

 be found growing in the sand -under the pot." It, however, thrives 

 in any ordinary garden soil. 



In addition to the preceding, for the most part easily obtained 

 and very distinct, C. Boryanus, Imperati, medius, biflorus, and 

 several others, are mentioned in catalogues, and are for the most 

 part scarce, except the last, commonly known as the Scotch 

 Crocus. 



CYCLAMEN COTJIUL.— Round-leaved C. 



Tuber round, depressed, smooth, fibres issuing from one point 

 on under side only. Leaves of a plain dark green, cordate, 

 slightly indented ; these, with the flowers, 'generally spring from 

 a short stem rising from the centre of the tuber. Corolla short, 

 constricted at the mouth ; reddish purple, darker at the mouth, 

 where there is a white circle ; inside striped red. Flowers from 

 December to March, and is a native of the Greek Archipelago. 

 This, with the others of the same section — viz. vernum of Sweet 

 (coum, zonale), iberiatm, Atkinsii, and the numerous hybrids 

 from it — though perfectly hardy, and frequently in bloom in the 

 open ground before the Snowdrop, yet, to preserve the flowers 

 from the effects of unfavourable weather, will be the better for 

 slight protection, or a pit or frame devoted to them in which to 

 plant them out. I grow many in this way, and during the early 

 spring, from January to the middle of March, they are one sheet 

 of bloom. When so cultivated, it is best to take out the soil, say 

 One foot and a half to two feet deep, place a layer of rough stones 

 nine to twelve inches deep at the bottom, covering them with in- 

 verted turf to keep the soil from washing down and injuring the 

 drainage ; then fill up with soil composed of about one-third of 

 good free loam, one-third of well-decayed leaf-mould, and one- 

 third of thoroughly decomposed cow manure. Plant one inch and 

 a- half to two inches deep, and every year, soon after the leaves 

 die down, take off the surface as far as the top of the tubers, and 



