432 



THE GARDENER'S ASSISTANT. 



C. vernus. — Spring Blue or Purple Crocus, of all 



colours except yellow. Very hardy and showy. Europe. 



C. versicolor. — Parti-coloured Crocus, one of the oldest 



Fig. 534.— Crocus speciosus 



of garden plants, and most variable, yielding all sorts of 



lilac, purple, and striped forms from seed. Maritime Alps. 



C. zonatus (fig. 535). — Like pulchcllus, but with a dis- 



r- '# 



Fig. 535.— Crocus zonatus. 



tinctly marked yellow ring near base of cup and with a 

 smaller stigmata. September. Asia Minor. 



Best Dutch or Garden So?'ts. 



Yellow.— Giant Golden (selected), Common Yellow, 

 Cloth of Gold. 



White, — Caroline Chisholm, Grootvorst, Jeanne d'Arc, 

 Josephine, Mont Blanc, Mammoth, Queen Victoria, Snow 

 Queen, La Noblesse, Peine Blanche, Grand Vainqueur, 

 Diamond. 



Variegated. — Albion, Comptesse de Marny, Ida Pfeif- 



"fer, Amazone, Van Speyk, Lady Stanhope, La Majesteuse, 

 Sir Walter Scott, Madame Nina Margot. 



Blue or Purple. — Argus, Baron von Brunow, David 

 Rizzio, Grand Vedette, Non-plus-ultra, Prince Albert, 

 Rembrandt, Purpurea grandiflora. 



[F. W. B.] 



Cyclamen (Cyclamen latifolium). — Although 

 popularly known as the Persian Cyclamen, this 

 race of garden plants has been bred from C. 

 latifolium, a native of Greece and Syria. It 

 was introduced into cultivation through Ghent 

 about 150 years ago, by means of a small, 

 white-flowered form with a purple base. Varie- 

 ties were known in gardens a century ago, but 

 the development of the large-flowered, rich- 

 coloured varieties has taken place within the 

 past forty years. 



There is no plant of moderate size that, 

 when well managed, contributes so much to a 

 floral display through the winter and early 

 spring, as the Cyclamen. It comes true 

 from seed in innumerable shades of colour, 

 varying from the purest white to crimson 

 and purple. The seeds should be sown in 

 November in an ordinary seed-pan in a mix- 

 ture of fine loam, leaf-mould, and a little 

 sand, slightly covering the seeds, and placing 

 them in a temperature of 60°, in a light posi- 

 tion to prevent the seedlings from being 

 drawn. When large enough to handle, pot 

 them singly into thumb-pots, and in the spring 

 repot into 60-sized pots, shading during bright 

 weather. By midsummer they will have filled 

 their pots with roots, and should at once be 

 moved into 5-inch pots. In potting do not more 

 than half-cover the corms with soil. Place the 

 plants in a low house or pit, and shade them 

 in bright weather. Give plenty of air, and 

 attend to them with water regularly, syringing 

 overhead in the afternoons; this will help to 

 keep down thrips, red spider, and green -fly, 

 which must be kept under or the leaves will be 

 crippled and destroyed. The long, low, narrow 

 span-roofed structures, with a sunk path down 

 the centre, and a bed of earth covered with ashes 

 on each side, raised well up to the light, that 

 are so much used by market -gardeners, grow 

 this and many other plants well. In winter give 

 plenty of air, and keep the temperature from 

 45° to 50°. They will flower beautifully from 

 November to the end of February, or even longer 

 if not allowed to seed. Some of the finest dis- 

 plays of Cyclamen have been made early in 

 November by Messrs. Sutton & Sons, who sow 

 during the first week in November, and have 

 their plants in full flower and fit for exhibition 



