HARDY CYCLAMEN. 



159 



Cyclamen. And I venture to suggest that not only should varieties 

 be raised from seed, but that distinct and repeated attempts should 

 be made to effect hybridisation between all varieties of persicum 

 as the pollen-bearer, and ibericum, Coum, and europceum as the 

 seed-bearing parents, and I am confident, if this were done 

 patiently and systematically, that we should soon have a hardy 

 race rivalling, and perhaps equalling, persicum. 



History. — There is not very much of interest to be said under 

 the head of History. The original habitat of the genus Cycla- 

 men was probably some place in the Eastern Mediterranean 

 region. It is found only, as far as we know at present, in the 

 North of Africa, but stretches away to Syria in the east and as far 

 as Belgium* and Mid-Germany in the north, producing different 

 species or varieties in Italy, Greece, Asia Minor, and the Mediter- 

 ranean islands. I have not been able to learn whether it occurs 

 wild in Spain and Portugal, though the name pyrenaicum, used 

 as a synonym for C. neapolitanum, seems to imply that it does. 

 The 4 'wild" British specimens are almost certainly escapes by 

 seed from gardens, which have naturalised themselves in woods. 

 Gerarde, in his " Herball," 1597, says, " It is reported that Cycla- 

 men or Sowbreade groweth on the mountains of Wales, the hills of 

 Lincolnshire, and in Somersetshire .... near a town called 

 Hardington " ; but, however it may have been in his time, the 

 only authentic "wild" habitat in England now is, I believe, a 

 certain wood in the Weald of Kent, whence I have myself pro- 

 cured seeds, but which, for fear of the ardour of collecting 

 botanists, I will leave unnamed. 



Properties. — Gerarde is certainly very interesting when he 

 turns to the medicinal properties and virtues of the Cyclamen. 

 " The roote of Sowbreade, dried into powder and taken inwardly, 

 in the quantity of a dram and a half, with meade and honied 

 water, purgeth downwarde tough and grosse flegme and other 

 sharpe humours. The same, taken in wine as aforesaid, is very 

 profitable against all poison and the bitings of venomous beasts, 

 and to be outwardly applied to the hurt places ; taken as afore- 

 said, cureth the jaundies and stoppings of the liver, taketh away 

 the yellow colour of the body, &c, &c. " ; and then he adds, 

 and I would ask your particular attention to this property of 



* " Sowbred groweth plentifully about Artois and Vermandois in France, 

 and in the Forest of Arden in Brabant." — Gerarde, Herball, 1597, p. 694. 



