56 



THE FLOWER GARDEN. 



handsome white blossoms tinged with pink from Decem- 

 ber to February, according to the weather. As the 

 flowers, when put forth, are apt to be damaged by sleet 

 and rain, they well deserve the occasional shelter of a 

 hand-light, or even a slanting piece of plank. The 

 foot of an east wall is a good situation, to avoid the 

 drenching south-west storms that pelt from time to 

 time in mild winters. Soil, a light fresh loam. Pro- 

 pagate by root-division, not too frequently. Seeds, 

 sown as soon as ripe, will produce slight varieties, more 

 or less tinged with pink, which will blossom in their 

 third year. 



Cyclamen. — A charming genus of humble, pretty, 

 sweet-scented spring flowers, whose ugly French and 

 English names, Pain de Pourceau and Sowbread, ought 

 to have been replaced by some more pleasing appellation, 

 even though the tubers may be rooted up by swme in 

 the woods of Italy and Switzerland. Although the 

 European species, Cyclamen JSuropceum y Coum, repan- 

 dum, and hedercefolium, may and will pass the winter in 

 a dry open border, with some slight protection of litter 

 or matting overhead, they are safest in pots in a cold 

 frame. The broad-leaved Cyclamen, C. viacropliyllum, 

 a native of Algeria, unlike the others, flowers in the 

 autumn. The most elegant of all, the Persian Cycla- 

 men, C JPersicum, must be grown in a pot, with the 

 tuber partially above-ground, in which, if large enough, it 

 may remain for several years, with an occasional renewal 

 of the upper portion of the soil. Old tubers will thus 

 produce large tufts of numerous pink or purple and 

 white flowers, so graceful in their shape that Hogarth 

 selected them as one of his illustrations of " The Line of 

 Beauty." All the Cyclamens are propagated from seeds^ 

 which must be sown immediately they are ripe, in shal- 

 low pans of light rich earth, and be grown under frames 

 with plenty of air and little heat the first few years. 

 The tubers, after flowering and maturing their leaves, 

 must be kept in a dry and airy place during their period 

 of annual rest, i. e. from July to December. 



