Plate 13. 



CYCLAMEN PERSICUM, vars. QUEEN OF CRIMSONS, 

 SNOWFLAKE, AND PURPUREUM. 



Amongst those who have taken a leading part in the improvement of the Cyclamen, a 

 foremost place must be given to Mr. Little, of Cambridge Villa, Twickenham, and we have 

 therefore figured three of his best varieties, which have all obtained first-class certificates 

 from the Floral Committee of the Koyal Horticultural Society. As he is so successful a 

 cultivator, we are enabled to give some notes on their culture, which he has been kind 

 enough to furnish : — 



" I sow the seed in September, in pots, in a light fibrous soil, with a little leaf-mould 

 and sharp sand. When fit to handle, prick out about ten or twelve in a 48 pot, in similar 

 soil ; when large enough, pot singly in 60-sized pots, and repot when these are full of roots. 

 The last potting prior to blooming use rather stiffer soil, with leaf-mould, sharp sand, and 

 some well decayed manure (be careful to examine this to get rid of grubs and worms), giving 

 plenty of drainage. While growing during the summer, the foliage must be kept perfectly 

 clean, and well syringed. When in bloom, do without fire heat as much as possible, giving 

 air on all occasions when free from frost and rain. I cannot too strongly insist on the abso- 

 lute necessity of keeping the plants in all their stages of growth and bloom free from red 

 spiders and green fly. Stop them at once, and do not leave off till all traces of them are 

 removed, for if allowed to gain head, the beauty of the bloom and foliage will be completely 

 spoilt, the bloom becoming crippled, and the foliage shrivelled and unhealthy." 



We have only to add that all the three varieties are of first-rate character, and that 

 Queen of Crimsons especially is a great advance in colour, and the expanded flowers remain 

 for a long time in perfection. 



Plate 14. 

 AZALEA MARVEL. 



Among the many beautiful flowering plants which tend to make greenhouses gay in 

 the spring months, a very prominent place must be given to the lovely tribe of Azaleas, so 

 profuse in their flowering, so varied and bright in their colouring, or pure in their snowy 

 whiteness ; and amongst them we must class as one of the most useful, if not brilliant, the 

 small Azalea amana, for, while deficient in the grander and more brilliant features of its 

 compeers, it is in truth one of the most beautiful things for early flowering that we possess. 

 Small in foliage as in the blooms also, one has the advantage of being dense and shrubby, 

 and the other of being produced in the greatest abundance. The latter are of a rich rosy 

 crimson colour, with a hose-in-hose corolla ; and both in the plant and when cut for bouquets, 

 the flowers are very persistent in consequence of their peculiarity of form. We owe it, as 

 we do many of our fine things, to Mr. Fortune, who met with it in a nursery at Shanghae. 



Azalea Marvel, which we now figure, is of the Amaena type ; it was exhibited by Mr. 

 William Bull, of King's Road, Chelsea, and received a first-class certificate from the Royal 

 Horticultural Society; it must have had considerable merit to receive this distinction. This 

 merit consists in its greater abundance of flowers, with the same dwarf and shrubby 

 habit ; so that for early blooming it may be considered a decided acquisition, although of 

 course not to be compared in brilliancy with those larger-flowered Azaleas which are so pro- 

 minent a feature at our Spring Exhibitions, and of which we have already given many 

 illustrations. 



