342 
THE CYCLAMEN. 
CULTURE AS A WINDOW TLANT. 
There is scarcely any class of plants better 
adapted for a window, than the Cyclamens. 
Of small size, neat habit, and easy manage- 
ment, and bearing beautiful blossoms in pro- 
fusion, which, in properly selected varieties, 
are deliciously fragrant, there seems to be no 
quality wanting to render them just what 
window plants should be. 
The odoriferous varieties of Cyclamen per- 
sicum are those which should be chosen for 
domestic culture ; and the process of cultiva- 
tion is nearly the same in this case as in the 
greenhouse. They require an airy situation, 
and a carefully limited supply of water ; that 
is to say, they are by no means what may be 
called thirsty plants, although, on the other 
hand, the soil must not be suffered to become 
very dry. The plants do not suffer from ex- 
posure to the sun. As the plants may be 
liable to sustain some rough treatment, espe- 
cially as to watering, it is, in this case, very 
important to pay attention to the manner of 
potting the tubers ; they must not be entirely 
buried in the soil, as is the case in planting 
many bulbous roots, but should be left about 
half exposed, the lower half only being placed 
in the soil. That soil should consist of loam, 
peat, and leaf mould, in about equal propor- 
tions, to which compost enough silver sand 
should be added to prevent anything like ad- 
hesion amongst its particles. The pots must 
be very carefully drained, with a layer of 
potsherds, charcoal, or some such material, 
occupying about one-fourth of the depth of 
the pot : which latter ought to be large enough 
to allow an inch of clear space all round the 
tuber, between it and the pot. 
Young plants may be raised as well in the 
window as in the greenhouse, and by pre- 
cisely the same process. The tubers are not 
to be suffered to dry off completely, as some 
recommend, but should be kept plump through- 
out their existence ; although at that period 
when they are not in active growth, they 
ought to be kept much drier than when 
making their growth. The best plan is, as 
soon as the leaves have decayed, to plunge the 
pot containing the tubers in the open ground, 
in some convenient place, so that the pot may 
be an inch below the surface of the ground ; 
this will keep the tuber from being subjected, 
during its resting time, to the alternations of 
drought and moisture, to which it is exposed 
when kept in the ordinary way, and in which 
case occasional watering becomes necessary. 
Under this treatment, an uniform degree of 
moisture about the tuber is more nearly re- 
alised, and it thus may be, as it should be, so 
regulated that the amount of moisture present 
may neither be too great nor too small. In 
this state the tubers may remain during the 
summer. Towards the approach of autumn, 
say by the middle of September, the young 
leaves ought to make their appearance. When 
this is the case, the pot should be brought up 
to the level of the ground, in which situation 
it may remain, with carefully regulated water- 
ings, as long as the character of the season 
will admit ; it must, however, neither be 
touched by frosts, nor saturated by heavy 
rains. Henceforward, the pots must be placed 
in the window, subject to the provision of 
exposure to light, and to as much air as cir- 
cumstances will admit. 
Plants of Cyclamen persicum so managed 
will come into bloom at the ordinary blooming 
season, which will vary, say from February 
to May, according to the characteristic pecu- 
liarities of individual plants. But they may 
be had in bloom earlier, if they are required, 
and this result is obtained by the application 
of some extra heat, which Cyclamens bear 
very well. 
FORCING. 
To have Cyclamens in flower before the 
ordinary season, they require some prepara- 
tion, the chief feature of which is to promote 
free growth during the latter part of the sum- 
mer. With Cyclamens, as well as all other 
plants or flowers intended to be produced in 
any given state, at a particular and somewhat 
unnatural season, it is of the utmost import- 
ance that the plants should be managed as it 
were in a kind of cycle. In other words, the 
plants which are excited first in one season, 
should be first excited in each succeeding 
season, and those which follow, precisely in 
the same relative order year after year. The 
reason for this is, that plants naturally adapt 
themselves to circumstances. A plant which 
is for the first time excited early, so treated 
as to make a healthy growth, and brought in 
strength and vigour to a state of early rest, 
will the following year be in some measure 
prepared for early excitement by the treat- 
ment it has undergone ; it will have become 
in a certain degree natural to it, to make its 
growth earlier than usual. From this step, 
therefore, another may be taken, and the 
plant, without sustaining any injury from the 
stimulus, may be had somewhat earlier than 
before. In this way, year after year some 
advance in earliness may be made, provided 
the entire treatment throughout the season is 
consistent therewith ; and not only so, but 
year after year the plant will have more 
strongly acquired the habit of early growth, 
and thus, in each succeeding season, may be 
brought into bloom at a given and corre- 
sponding period, with a less amount of 
forcing. 
This must not, however, be misunderstood. 
I It is not intended that Cyclamens, or other 
