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all the elements which conduce to their successful culture, water 
is the most essential ; the waterpot, therefore, must be frequently 
in request. 
In planting them out it is well to keep the ball of soil a little 
below the ordinary ground level, in order that moisture, when 
administered, may lodge permanently about their stems ; for 
they produce innumerable surface fibres, which, as the season 
advances, may be nursed with a top dressing of manure. 
Before closing our remarks on the Lobelia, it is well to observe, 
that they form no mean objects in the summer decoration of the 
conservatory. Such need never be “hardened off,” as pre- 
viously, but may be inserted in large pots, on the “one shift” 
system, betimes in the season. A liberal drainage must be 
given, and the plants placed much below the surface of the pot 
rim. As they advance in growth, they may thus receive a top 
dressing, and, of course, liberal supplies of water. 
314 Cyclamen. Here we have an interesting family, to the cul- 
ture of which the means of the amateur, whose establishment is 
somewhat limited, are peculiarly adapted. Some of its species, 
moreover, are perfectly hardy, and therefore do not form legiti- 
mate subjects for our present papers ; which, of course, are 
in the main, intended to explain the use of the protectors we 
have recommended, or the ordinary frame, as the case may lie. 
The Cyclamens are, for the most part, early spring flowerers ; 
indeed, nearly all, with the exception of Europaeum, which is 
one amongst the most interesting of autumnal flowers that we 
know; although somewhat difficult to procure true, hederajfo- 
liurn being sometimes substituted for it, by ignorant or inter- 
ested dealers. Both Cyclamen Europa}um and hederrefolium, 
are British or indigenous plants, and called weeds, simply be- 
cause they are British, a distinction which we cannot admit. 
An exotic, or foreign plant, is as truly a weed when it becomes 
injurious to a crop, as a native one ; and, on the other hand, a 
useful British plant, under cultivation, cannot, with propriety, 
be termed a weed. 
We will now elucidate the culture of the tender kinds of 
Cyclamen, and in doing so, we may as well take Persicum as 
the type ; for whoever can grow this in perfection, need not 
doubt of success with the rest. Being all natives of the south 
of Europe, they of course require from the hand of the careful 
309. AUCTARIUJI. 
