80 
JOUENAL OF THE EOYAL HOETICULTITEAL SOCIETY. 
reverse. No markings. Tubers round, compressed, smooth, roots 
descending from the centre of the underside. 
It is very hardy, and flowers freely in the open air. There is 
but very little variation in this species, which can be easily recog¬ 
nised, for no other Cyclam.en has its small plain round leaf or short 
little flower. 
II.— C. ibericum. 
A very near relation to the foregoing—so near indeed that but 
for the difference in the leaf it might easily be mistaken. I have 
a white variety of C. Courn in which the plant is unquestionably 
Coum, but the flower is just as certainly C. Athinsi, a white 
variety of ibericum to which I shall recur. 
Leaves cordate, they are seldom round, always marbled with 
lighter colour on the upper surface. The tuber is similar in habit 
to C. Coum, but the whole plant, corm, [leaves, and flowers, is 
bolder in habit. 
Mr. Atkins, of Painswick, a gentleman who has spent many 
years of his long life in horticultural pursuits, raised a very beauti¬ 
ful variety of this species with pure white flowers, which some 
have said to be a hybrid between C. Coum and C. persicum. This 
is not impossible, though there is a strong belief that the plant 
known as Cyclamen Athinsi is no more than a white seedling of 
ibericum; the flowers are certainly finer in form than either C. 
Coum or ibericum —a feature which doubtless gives weight to the 
opinion that it is a hybrid ; but when it is remembered how great 
has been the improvement effected in C. persicum during the last 
few years, through careful selection and cultivation, it need 
scarcely be a matter of surprise that the other species respond to 
like care and develope into much finer forms than any we 
have yet seen, of which, with due deference, I believe C. Athinsi 
to be an example, and not less an encouragement to cultivators to 
direct their attention to these useful and hardy plants. I give 
both opinions on this subject, and though I incline to the latter, I 
desire to give the former due prominence. In some catalogues there 
are named varieties of C. Aihinsi —as, for example, rubrum , roseum , 
&c.—but it is certain that the founder of the variety will not admit 
them to be C. Athinsi at all. Mr. Tyerman says that a very inte¬ 
resting series of Iberian specimens of C. ibericum have lately 
been added to .the Eoyal Herbarium at Kew, which quite confirm 
the identity and variableness of this plant. 
