CYCLAMEN COUM. 
ROUND-LEAVED CYCLAMEN. 
Class. Order. 
PENTANDRIA. MONOGYNIA, 
Natural Order. 
PRIM OLACE./E. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Cultivated 
S. Europe. 
2 inches. 
Feb. Mar. 
Perennial. 
in 1596. 
No. 229. 
The word Cyclamen is deduced from the Greek 
kuklos, signifying a circle; which has generally 
been said to allude to the roundness of its leaves or 
its roots; but it would appear much more likely to 
have been intended as an allusion to the circular 
coiling of its peduncles, or fruit stalks. These would 
readily attract notice, but the former possess no pecu- 
liarity. Coum, an old botanical term, perhaps from 
the island of Cos, in the Archipelago. 
The English name Sowbread; and a similar one 
in other European languages, originated where the 
Cyclamen is indigenous, from its being sought after 
and eaten by swine. 
They are all beautiful little flowers, and are best 
adapted to pot culture; for their diminutive stature 
and unobtrusive habits are ill suited to the society of 
subjects in the general flower border; amongst which 
many raise their heads so high as to overshadow and 
perpetually injure all beneath them; whilst others, 
though even low er than our modest Cyclamen, spread 
forth, with vigilance, in their obscurity, and avari- 
ciously possess themselves of the legitimate habita- 
tions of their more valuable neighbours; they unite 
58 
