HARDY CYCLAMEN. 



163 



As hardy as Coum, and of close, compact growth. 

 There is a beautiful white variety called Atkinsi after its 

 raiser, the late Mr. Atkins, of Painswick, Gloucestershire. 



III. — C. PEBSICUM. 



(Has borne the specific names of indicum, pyrolc&foUum, and 



latifolium.) 



Blooms (naturally) in March and April ; white in the type, 

 with a bright red-purple blotch at the base, but very variable 

 under cultivation. 



Scent, none in the type, but a form is found in Palestine 

 which is very fragrant. 



Leaves, contemp. with flowers ; rather oval in shape ; the 

 edge slightly toothed ; distinctly marked with white above. 



Tuber, emits roots from all parts of its under-surface. 



Habitat, Greece, the Greek islands, and the whole of Syria. 



The flower is the largest (in cultivation by far the largest) of 

 all the species of Cyclamen ; it has also one distinguishing 

 peculiarity that, whereas in all the others the seed-pod as soon 

 as formed begins to wind itself up corkscrew-wise in the length 

 of its flower- stalk until it assumes a spiral tightly curled up 

 close to the parent tuber, in persicum the flower-stalk generally 

 throws itself down flat upon the surface of the ground. 



This well-known greenhouse plant eannot rightly be 

 accounted hardy, although the late Hon. and Rev. J. T. 

 Boscawen, writing to Mr. Jennings in 1878, says : "I have had 

 C. persicum in the open air for five years or longer — some 

 under slight shade, others exposed on a north bank. When in 

 a north aspect they are evergreen, but do not blossom so well. 

 The frost does not seem to injure them, though there has been 

 skating within a few yards of where they are growing. They 

 stood ten degrees of frost last week." This testimony may well 

 encourage those who live in the warmer and more sheltered 

 corners of our county to try persicum outdoors, but I fear it is 

 hopeless for the mass of us. Specimens which have been sent 

 to me, collected on the hills of Nablus, the old Samaria, and 

 which I take to be persicum, have invariably succumbed, even to 

 a mild winter. 



