26 1 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the disposal of our most successful trade growers. All the same, 

 some of them grow Cyclamen remarkably well, and so might 

 many more if only they went the right way to work. My advice 

 to gardeners generally is either to do them well, or else not to 

 attempt their cultivation at all. 



Sowing the Seed. — When the rage for Cyclamen first set 

 in — this following quickly upon the commencement of the 

 wonderful improvement effected by florists in the strains — 

 most of us erred in sowing the seed too late and too thickly. 

 February and March is too late to sow seed, though I have 

 succeeded well with plants resulting from sowing seed early in 

 January. Rather than have the seedlings starving in pans, or, 

 worse still, in small pots in positions not good for them (notably 

 dry shelves in a forcing house, owing to want of a better place), I 

 would prefer raising them in January. Of late years I have sown 

 the seed at least two months earlier, or in October, while noted 

 trade growers not infrequently sow some of their seed as early as 

 August or September, and the rest nearer mid-winter. In each 

 and every case new seed is to be preferred to old, as it germinates 

 more quickly and strongly. From first to last no check ougljt 

 to be given to the growth of the young plants. If once the roots 

 are badly broken or injured in any way, or if the tiny corms 

 harden prematurely, subsequent progress will inevitably prove 

 most unsatisfactory. Instead, therefore, of raising the plants 

 mustard-and-cress fashion as of old, the more modern plan of 

 sowing thinly, thereby obviating the necessity for pricking out, 

 is much the best. 



Fill well-drained pans with a mixture of equal parts of fresh 

 loam and good natural leaf soil, with silver sand added. Make 

 this firm and level, press the seed singly into it about It? in. 

 apart each way, and cover with a quarter of an inch or so of fine 

 soil. Arrange these pans on a slate-covered staging in a house 

 where the temperature will range from G0° to 70°, give a gentle 

 watering, cover with squares of glass, and darken this with 

 brown paper or moss. Good seed will germinate, if the soil is 

 kept uniformly moist, in five or six weeks. When this has taken 

 place, remove the shading, and gradually inure the seedlings to 

 the air and light, eventually raising them up near to the glass. 

 Keep them growing in the same temperature they were raised in, 

 but carefully screened from either cold currents of air or extra 



