400 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
i which the genus was founded by Mr. Don. It is figured 
j in Sweet’s British Flower Oarden. It begins to grow 
i late in May, and flowers for two months in the autumn, 
and goes to rest before midwinter. It is increased by 
dividing the roots like an Alstromeria, but the more 
I they are allowed to bundle together the safer they are ; 
I all of them are, evidently, from a poor diw soil, where 
I the few showers that fall to their lot, during the whole 
j circle of their existence, aftect them but in a very small 
I degree, and their low, tender herbage seems rather to he 
j nourished by the fogs and heavy dews wliich are peculiar 
to the sea-side plains in the north of Chili. Bulbs, and 
other plants, natives of a similar climate in South Africa, 
and in some parts of Mexico, and in other places that 
are refreshed with periodical rains, send their roots 
far and deep into the soil in quest of moisture; while 
those on the lower plains in the south of Peru and the 
north of Chili, where rain, if it ever falls at all, seldom 
penetrates beyond an inch or two, root near the surface. 
Hence the reason why bulbs from this quarter fail with 
ns when we encourage their roots to penetrate deep into 
our loose borders, away from the influence of the sun, 
which is more natural for them; and hence, too, my 
reason for recommending an opposite course for them. 
I would allow a free course for their roots on all sides, 
hut I would prevent them from going down beyond two or 
three inches, according to the size of the bulb, by placing 
a close surface of soft porous bricks or sandstone under 
them, which I would keep constantly moist while the 
bulbs were in growth; and this can best be effected in a 
pit; and, when the bulbs were at rest, I would keep the 
glass constantly over them to increase the tera]ierature 
and dryness about them. If the artificial bottom were 
placed on damp clay, all the better, as the great heat in 
the pit during the dry season would not dry up suddenly 
the moisture from the bricks; or, if it did in part, there 
would be a constant supply of moisture from the damp 
elay below; and we know that some of the large bulbs 
from the Cape enjoy a damp bottom to their roots all 
the time they are at rest. For that purpose, many good 
cultivators place their pots of these dry bulbs in saucers 
of sand, which they keep constantly damp. 
CcjUIINGIA TKIMACULATA, and TENELI.A. — Both of 
these are very dwarf plants flowering in the autumn. 
The flowers of trimaculata are the darkest blue of the 
three, and the flower-spike or stem branches a little 
like that of a little Anthericum, a genus to which they 
are nearly related, so much so, that Persoon, a good 
bulb authority, mistook a little yellow-flowering plant 
from Mexico {Eoheandia ternijiora), with the very 
aspect of Anthericum, for a Conanthera. The three 
species require exactly the same kind of treatment, such 
as is indicated under the first species. 
Cyanella.— -This is a small tribe of very old-fashioned 
plants, chiefly from the Cape, and are about as hardy as 
I xias, and much about as large as the middle-sized species 
of Lxia, or say from ten to fifteen inches high, but they 
are not true bulbs, although they are lilyworts. They 
belong to a large section of the order, once called after 
the Asphodels, but now, more generally, after i\\eAnthe- 
ricums. There is hardly a plant in this section with a 
true bulb. Yet all of them exhibit the aspect of real 
bulbous plants, and as such they are set down in most 
of our books. 
Cyanella alba, with white flowers; odoeatissima, 
with rosy flowers; and oechidiformis with light blue 
flowers, are the best species for shows, and also for¬ 
giving diversity of colours peculiar to the genus. They 
require opposite treatment to the Ixias, as they rest all 
the winter, begin to gi-ow late iir the spring, and flower 
at the end of sumurer. With a little care and manage¬ 
ment at first planting, and by keeping together all the 
half-hardy bulbs that grow and bloom in summer, and 
go dry in winter, the whole lot of them may be grown 
February 24. { 
and flowered in any part of this country, and with 
much less trouble than in keeping common Scarlet 
Geraniums : all that is necessary, is to keep the rain : 
from this border from the end of October to the middle 
of March, so that it is as dry as powder by that time, 
then the merest protection in very frosty weather will ' 
keep it safe, and by the end of March the border should 
be forked with a gentle hand, a few inches deep, and 
three or four good heavy waterings from some open 
pond, so that every particle from top to bottom should 
be thoroughly wetted, like the ball in a pot. A bulb- 
border should be arranged and fllled-in just as you would 
a large pot—perfect drainage at the bottom, rough peat, 
and turfy loam, pieces of porous stone, lots of bones 
broken to a few inches in length, but not crushed. As 
much of charcoal in pieces not bigger than a dove’s egg, 
all mixed together till you come within six inches of ' 
the top, then smother peat and loam, or whatever your , 
bulbs like best. ' 
Cyclamens. —The cultivation of these has been given 
repeatedly in The Cottage Gaeueneh, and the means 
of improving them have also been fully detailed, if I i 
recollect rightly. Like the Tigridia, their improvement 1 
is going on very slow indeed, but still on a sure basis, i 
and I do not know that I can add any more to them now. | 
Cyclobothra. —This genus of small flowering-bulbs ! 
stands in the same relationship to the elegant Calo- > 
chortus, as Oollania does to Alstromeria. They have 
nodding or drooping flowers, hanging down from the 
top of scapes, from eight to fifteen inches high; some i 
of them, as alha and gmlchella, were once included ; 
among the Culoehorts. The genus was founded by Don, j 
not by Sweet, as is supposed. Sweet only figured some ' 
of the earlier introduced species in his British Flower j 
Oarden. The same directions which were given for ! 
Galochorts are applicable to this genus also ; but there 
is no difficulty in flowering any of the Oyclohothras, nor 
in keeping them, and most of them seed so freely, that 
they could be increased to any extent. All bulbs which 
droop like these should be planted where they could be 
seen above the eye, if that could always he done; peat- 
borders, or very light sandy soil suits them, best. 
Cyclobothra alba. —The nearest plant of any of our 
common bulbs, to compare to this family, is the little 
yellow Florentine Tulip which we force with other 
spring bulbs. The flowers of this alia are about the 
same size as those of this Tulip, and the plant alto¬ 
gether is about the same height and size. 
Cyclobothra barbata. —This, the Fritillaria harhata 
of Kunth, is a very pretty yellow-flowering bulb from 
Mexico, requiring greenhouse culture in a pot. But as 
it goes to rest early in the winter, and is not very de¬ 
licate nor difficult to keep, it will do very well in a border 
of mixed summer-growing bulbs. It ilowers from the 
end of summer, for two months, and a strong-established 
bulb, in a light, deep border, will throw up a strong scape 
two feet high. The flowers are much bearded or hairy 
in the inside—a feature not uncommon to all of them, 
and to the Caloehorts also. 
Cyclobothra elegans. —A very dwarf species with 
white flowers, quite hardy, and succeeds best in peat— 
say a peat border. It is one of Douglas’s Galochorts, ! 
and is missed in our Dictionary; and there is one called 
lutea iti the Dictionary, which I do not know, unless it be 
Cyclobothra monophylla. —A very dwarf plant with 
small yellow-bearded flowers. This kind was discovered 
by Mr. Hartweg, on the Sacramento Mountains, in 
California. It is quite hardy, and not difficult to keep. 
Cyclobothra pulchella. — This is also a yellow¬ 
flowering bulb, with greenish sepals, and there is a de¬ 
licate fringe on the bright yellow petals. It is a very 
pretty flower; the plant rises a foot or more, and is one 
of the easiest of them to keep, and to increase, as it 
seeds abundantly in the autumn. 
