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THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
Few plants are more easily cultivated than the different species of Cyclamen. 
Some will do well in the open border, with the protection of a frame, in very 
severe weather. For in-door gardening I know very few plants to equal it; 
and yet how rarely do we find it in the sitting-room window. Few plants will 
better repay any little labour that may be bestowed on them than the Cyclamens. 
Stourton. M. Saul. 
CULTURE OF THE SEA-KALE. 
This most useful of all winter vegetables, is in my humble opinion, so often 
badly grown, that I beg to give a few notes of my own way of growing it, as 
from the numerous inquiries I have had, I believe it will be of some interest to 
the amateur readers of the Flokist and Pomologist. 
To grow it successfully, the ground should be well trenched and well manured, 
particularly the bottom of the trench, as there is no opportunity of doing this 
after the ground is planted, and Sea-kale requires deep root-hold to keep it 
growing all through the summer, on which depends success or failure. If it 
makes a good summer growth, so as to well fill the top buds, then good heads 
may be expected in the winter. 
If a piece of ground be selected that has been trenched and thrown up into 
ridges last October or November, so much the better. March is the month I 
prefer for planting with seed or plants, but I prefer seed. After the ground 
is levelled down, draw a line each way 4 feet apart, so that the plants will be 
4 feet from row to row, and 4 feet in the row. Ten or twelve seeds should be 
put where the plants are intended to be. Great care must be taken as soon as 
the seed comes up, as the seedlings have several enemies. Slugs are very fond 
of the seed-leaf, and the Turnip fly will sometimes eat them. A good dusting 
of lime, early in the morning, when the dew is on the leaf, will protect them 
from both of these insects, and sometimes from birds, as they are very fond of the 
young leaf. 
I was once asked, when living in Berkshire, about sixteen years ago, by Martin 
Doyle (the Bev. W. Hickey), if I ever forced Sea-kale the first year. I told him 
not till the second year; but since I have been living here, I have forced it the 
first year, and cut very good heads. It may be done in case of emergency, but 
I would not recommend it; it is better to wait till the second year. As soon as 
the seedling plants get a good size, and the leaves as large as the palm of one’s 
hand, pull up all but the three largest, leaving them about 4 inches apart, and in 
a triangle, as near as possible, as they are the most easily covered over with the 
pots when they are covered for forcing. 
Another way of planting I have sometimes adopted, by cutting up the old 
roots into lengths of about 2 inches, all of which make good plants, but the 
crowns grow the strongest, and should be planted by themselves, and forced 
first the following season. In planting these sets, they may be put in with the 
dibber three in a triangle, and 4 feet apart, the same as the seed. 
A row of Lettuce or Onions may be grown between the rows the first year, 
but the second year the ground will be covered with the Kale. 
The ground must be kept clean with the hoe the first year, the end of which, 
when leaves are killed by the frost, they should be cleared off the ground, and 
a good dusting of lime given all over it, particularly on the crowns, as the slugs 
often lay the eggs as though they knew it was a good place for their young 
family. 
At the end of the second summer, about the end of September, cut the leaves 
off all the Kale that you want to ^cover, in the middle of November, for 
cutting at Christmas and through January. We covered ours this last autumn 
at the above time, and began cutting the first the week before Christmas, and 
hope to do so every week till the middle or the latter end of April. Before the 
pots are put on, the crowns are all covered over with dry coal-ashes and a 
layer put round the outside of the pot. This keeps out the rank steam and 
smell from the dung, when it is used, but I only use leaves of Oak and Beech; 
