February 0. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
301 
I 
while all risks from steam and over-heating are avoided. 
In such a case, the plants should be housed by the 
middle or the beginning of October. It will be seen 
that this mode is equally applicable to those possessing 
only a window and a couple of hand-lights. 
The above modes have reference to sowing seeds as 
soon as ripe, by which extra earliness of blooming is 
secured, at the expense of extra aud continued attention. 
I have sown the seeds exactly the same way in a hotbed 
in spring, and have had plauts in bloom from three 
weeks aud onward later than those sown the previous 
August and September But, as a general rule, fewer 
plants bloom from spring-sowing during that season, 
but then, if kept in small pots during the winter, they 
will bloom early the following year, and the attention 
they will require in winter will be nothing in com¬ 
parison of the care demanded from those young things 
raised in August or September. When the seed is 
saved over the winter, it is best kept in an airy place. 
A good plan is to hang it up in a sitting-room, in muslin 
bags; it is much injured by confined damp. I have 
no doubt that many, like the correspondent with whose 
inquiry we commenced this paper, will prefer, for this 
season, at least, spring-sowing. Keeping this in view, 
let us glance— 
4. At the mode to be adopted where there is a frame, 
and a southern window. I should turn one light of this 
frame as quickly as possible into a hotbed, and when 
all was sweot and nice, I would pdace inside my pots of 
seed. If such a bed was designed for Cucumbers, a 
corner of it would be the very thing. If such a bed was 
designed for early Radishes, or Potatoes, it would be 
necessary to have a coiner, over which you could place 
the top of a hand-light, or large bell-glass or two, so 
that in giving air to other things you could keep your 
plants as close and shaded as you pleased. Proceed, as 
closely as possible, according to the directions given in 
the first case. Your plants will be all the better for 
any extra heat they can derive from the hotbed until 
the first weeks in Juue, then, if you have a light or two 
of a cold frame at liberty, or from which the early 
crop has been removed, it would be the very place 
for them for a month or six weeks, as you could 
encourage them there, with a close, moist atmosphere, 
such as you could not command in your window. 
As they grow freely, give them more air by degrees. 
Encourage only one stem, and never think of stopping 
a shoot. When once you see the flower, and are 
satisfied therewith, you may make your plant as bushy 
as you like next year. By the middle of July, your 
plants may have abundance of air in your frame, 
be placed in your window sill, or even in a sheltered 
place out-of-doors, Many will bloom ; and those which 
are too small to do so will be as easily kept over the 
winter in your window as any other small plant. 
5. Where there are no conveniences except a window, 
or a cool greenhouse—and yet, for saving the trouble of J 
wintering small plants, sowing in spring is resolved i 
upon. In this case, unless means such as those referred 
to above are used for accumulating heat, the end of 
March will be early enough to sow. The best position 
for the seed would be no great distance from the kitchen 
fire-place; and after the plants were fairly up, aud were 
set in the window, or greenhouse, with a large glass over 
them, tilted on one side as the temperature increased, 
they might be moved back to the chimney-piece at night, 
until the days and nights become warm. Even under 
such circumstances, where people were resolved to con¬ 
quer difficulties, I have seen numbers bloom in the 
autumn. Even with very moderate attention, and de¬ 
laying the sowing until the second week in April, nice 
shrubby plants were obtained, that stood the winter with 
but little trouble, and bloomed early the following sea¬ 
son. Where there are a deficiency of conveniences and 
a lack ot labour power, I would decidedly recommend 
spring-sowing. 
I wo things are essential to early blooming; first, 
small pots; and secondly, giving no enriching manures, 
either in the shape of top-dressing or rich waterings 
until the flower-buds show themselves. R. Fish. 
THE CYCLAMEN. 
(Continued from page 341 .) 
Ihe passion for new plants is so rife that good old 
ones, though ever so beautiful, have almost been driven 
, out of cultivation; but there has been such great disap- 
i pointment in many of the new plants sent out with high 
I sounding names, and glowing descriptions of their beauty, 
I that there is now a considerable reaction, and new plants 
i are looked upon with a great amount of jealous 
: fear that they either will not answer the character given 
j to them by the introducer, or are difficult to grow and 
bloom satisfactorily. To prove this, I need only refer to 
| two plants that caused quite a sensation at the time they 
were introduced—1 mean the once famous Plumbago 
j Larpentcs, and the no less be-praised Fuchsia spectabilis. 
I No two jilants ever introduced disappointed so much 
J Ike plant-loving cultivator; and in a very few years, I 
have no doubt, they will sink into utter oblivion. 
Not so with the subject of my present essay. They 
rarely disappoint the grower; though old in culture, 
they are as much esteemed as ever, and I trust they will 
bo more so still as the knowledge of their culture be¬ 
comes better understood. In my last paper, I described 
the method of propagating them, and 1 now proceed 
with the second part of the subject, namely,— 
Soil. —It is well known to skilful propagators, that unless 
a plant has a proper soil to grow in it will not thrive satis¬ 
factorily. Heaths willnotliveinloam. Geraniums will not 
thrive and flower well in heath-mould ; neither will New 
Holland plauts generally grow well in either separately, 
but mixed together, with a due admixture of sand, this 
larger class of plants thrive and bloom to-perfection. 
This having been found to be so by experience, the mix¬ 
ing of these soils has been practiced by all good cultivators, 
and the soils so mixed have very properly been termed a 
compost; and a mixed or compounded soil is suitable for 
the genus named Cyclamen. 
The compost I use, and which I have found to answer 
remarkably well, consists of two parts loam of a rather j 
light texture—such, for instance, as well-decomposed 
turf from an upland pasture would be after two years’ 1 
exposure in the compost yard—and one part heath- 
mould, brought from a moor where the common Heath 
grows. This should also belaid up a year previous to 
using, to mellow it; and, lastly, one part of leaf-mould well 
decomposed. To these add about one-eighth silver 
sand. Mix these all well together, breaking the turfy 
parts with the hand, and picking out all the large roots ; 
of the Heath, or any large stones there may be amongst 
them; but by no means sift it, for if it is made fine by 
sifting it soon becomes so close and compact that water j 
cannot penetrate it, or, if it does, it remains so long in 1 
it that the soil becomes sodden and sour, the fine roots 
die, aud the plants no longer thrive, but become sickly 
and perish. This soil, or more properly speaking, the l 
compost, should be mixed and prepared by being pro¬ 
perly dried (that is, neither too wet nor too dry) in due j 
time for the potting. 
Potting. —This necessary operation should he done 
once every year, and the time for it is just before tbey 
begin to grow. The season for rest extends from the 
middle of June to the middle of September, or there¬ 
abouts; therefore, the repotting time will be about the 
first of October. In potting, proportion the size of the 
