THE CYCLAMEN. 
341 
TREATMENT OP THE MATURED PLANTS. 
There is some slight difference in the 
management of the young plants and of those 
which have reached maturity. Supposing 
the plants to have gone on favourably until 
they have reached the commencement of the 
third season, when they will have formed 
pretty strong tubers, you must now use for 
them the following compost : — one-fourth of 
maiden loam, one-fourth peat earth, one- 
fourth silver-sand, and one-fourth of well 
decomposed leaf soil or cow-dung ; these ingre- 
dients must be well incorporated preparatory 
to repotting the tubers, which is the next 
process. Turn them out of the pots, and if 
the roots are sound and healthy, repot them, 
or at least the strongest of them, into six-inch 
pots. In doing this, take away as much of the 
old soil as can be removed without injuring 
the roots. Prepare the pots, which should be 
new or clean washed, carefully ; use plenty 
of potsherds ; about one-fourth of the depth of 
the pots should be filled with this material ; 
then put a layer of the roughest fragments of 
the soil on the potsherds, and on this use the 
ordinary mass of soil, which should not be 
rubbed or silted very fine, but should contain 
rough turfy lumps of moderate size to keep it 
open. Set the bulbs in the pots so that one- 
third of their surface may be exposed at the 
top of the soil, and make the soil moderately 
firm, in the ordinary way. Water them until 
you are satisfied the soil is wetted through. 
Keep them close and shaded until the leaves 
acquire a firm appearance ; then inure them 
to the sun-rays by degrees, until they get 
well established so as to bear full exposure, 
when they may be turned out of the frame 
and placed in a northern aspect, in which 
they may grow and mature their foliage, and 
remain until they manifest symptoms of matu- 
rity in the autumn. While in this situation 
they must be sparingly watered, and subse- 
quently, if wintered in a frame, as before 
explained, the water must be entirely with- 
held. If this plan of keeping them is adopted, 
they must be placed in the frame in the same 
way .as before, and treated similarly. After 
this, the tubers may be considered to have 
reached a mature flowering state ; and indeed 
it is highly probable that blossoms will have 
already been produced, though, for the sake 
of strengthening the plants, it is as well to 
have these early blooms removed. 
TREATMENT FOR BLOOMING. 
After the plants are thus fully established, 
it is an easy matter to bloom them. It will 
be found that some of the bulbs start much 
earlier into growth than the others ; these 
should be repotted first, using the same kind 
of compost as before, and the same proportion 
of drainage materials likewise. Encourage 
these as much as possible by liberal treat- 
ment, keeping them rather warm and moist. 
In this way there will be a succession of 
flowering plants, from March or April, until 
June. It is a convenient plan to divide the 
plants into three batches, which can easily be 
done, by placing some of them in a shady 
situation, and shifting them at different in- 
tervals until all are done. The first batch of 
them, after they have done flowering, must 
be put in a shady place, and watered with 
caution, so that they may keep their leaves 
healthy and perfect ; these being rested, will 
be the first to start the next season, and the 
others will follow them in succession. 
TREATMENT OP SICKLY PLANTS. 
With proper care, the plants may be kept 
in health and vigour for many years, by fol- 
lowing up the routine here recommended ; 
but if any of them, in any of their dif- 
ferent stages, are seen to look rather sickly, 
the leaves withering, or turning yellow, it 
may be concluded that something has gone 
wrong. Turn the plant out of the pot, and 
probably it will be evident that it has had too 
much water, so that the soil is soddened or 
water-logged. Or, perhaps, it will be seen 
that it has been allowed to get too dry. In 
either case, one repotting, with ample drain- 
age and careful watering, will recover the 
plants. Or, if the damage has not been very 
great, those that have been watered too much 
may be set in a shady place until they get 
rather dry, and then carefully watered, until 
they return to health ; but they will not be 
likely to flower the same year ; or if they do, 
the blossoms will be poor and meagre. Those 
that have been allowed to get too dry, if the 
damage is not very great, can be easily 
brought round again to their natural fresh- 
ness, by cautious liberal waterings. 
There is among Cyclamens another source 
of disease wdiich is all but irremediable. In- 
stead of propagating young plants by seeds, 
division is sometimes practised, the tubers 
being cut asunder into as many pieces as the 
crown will admit of being separated into. 
These plants are scarcely ever sound and 
healthy, except under the most dexterous 
management, and are even then very uncer- 
tain. They go off from decay of the root ; 
and if an unskilful manager has one of these 
divided plants, and finds it becoming sickly, 
the best thing he can do is to throw it away, 
and purchase a seedling plant ; unless, in- 
deed, he may take advantage of the opportu- 
nity to learn a lesson in horticulture. The 
treatment is to remove the rotted portion, 
and dry the wound with caustic lime, and 
then to pot in well drained soil, and water 
with every care till health is re-established. 
