16 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, October 11, 1859. 
hold a grand exhibition of Hyacinths and other spring 
flowers ” at their own house at home, to open on the 12th 
of March. I said at the time there was more in these 
shows than might appear on the surface : and I make no 
doubt but the Messrs. Milne, Arnott, & Co., of the A aux- 
hall Nursery, will also “resolve” on something worth 
looking at in their way; and that the host of new Ca¬ 
mellias, of which the invoice came in when I was cross¬ 
questioning the original propagator of the tribe, as one 
might call him, will be seen on the front stage of that 
long show-house, with the comfortable-looking and very 
tidy cocoa-fibre matting along the whole passage again, 
as last spring, and a splendid new specimen of the double 
white Camellia planted out in the bed across the path. 
That specimen became too big for the conservatory at the 
Experimental Garden; and I advised the owner to part 
with it to this firm in exchange for a lot of small plants 
of the very newest and very best of tbe old ones, which 
happened not to be in tbe Experimental at tbe time. 
Well, what should I do but order the gardener, Mr. 
Peats, to plant out all these young Camellias in the 
border across the end of the house. He did so, or I did 
it for him, and they did remarkably well; and what did 
he do, but, “out of bis own head,” take up a dozen of 
them last week, and had them potted after Mr. Erring- 
ton’s model for his show next spring. 
Then the Messrs. Eraser, of Lea Bridge Nursery, will 
he all but certain to follow suit and give a grand Azalea 
exhibition at the proper time ; bat they could muster up 
a Chiswick Show any April or May. 
The Cyclamens, and the head of my broomhandle 
“bulbs aud roots,” will be the spring flower show at the 
Wellington Hoad Nursery ; and more particularly the 
Cyclamens and the dwarf early Tulips, single and double, 
and of all forms, and of all colours and mixed colours. 
I must learn what tilings will be the principal spring 
exhibition at the Clapton Nursery, at Pine Apple 
Place, at the Exotic, under the Messrs. Veitch, at the 
Lees’ and Salter’s at Hammersmith, and at all tbe 
rest of tlie metropolitans, before I can sweep them up 
in my basket. 
What I was going to say was about Cyclamens first; 
but the first must come second, as, since writing the 
above, the post brought the welcome news that Cyclamen 
vernum is not quite lost. But there is not a gardener out 
of ten thousand who has ever seen it; and perhaps there 
are not ten nurserymen in Europe who would know it if 
they were to see it. Finally : I failed to hunt up a “ root” 
of it in the whole trade ; and my belief is, that there has 
not been a root of it on sale in Britain since about tbe 
passing of the Emancipation Act in the spring of 1829,, 
when I saw it with the father of the Messrs. Eraser at 
Lea Bridge Nursery. The plant I saw there last spring 
is not the published vernum. I do not believe it possible 
for any one to keep vernum from blooming in the dead of 
winter. It bloomed last November with the kindhearted 
man who has promised to send it me “at once.” Mr. 
Gordon is the only author who really knew Cyclamen 
vernum since Sweet’s time : he is a sound practical 
botanist—much more so than his master was. At all 
events, if vernum come safe to me I shall undertake to 
sweep off the dust of all these years, and say which is 
which to a certainty. 
So far for cross sweeping. Now for the beginning of the 
course, and going back to Samuel Gilbert and his father- 
in-law two hundred years ago. He said “ sow the seed 
of spring Cyclamens as soon as it is ripe, and it will come 
up next spring.” Samuel was wrong there for once, and 
every author who wrote about the spring Cyclamens from 
seed, down from Samuel’s time till this summer last 
past, was just as wrong as he. Not, of course, exempting 
your humble servant, who followed the rest and jumped 
over the straw, because the first of the flock did the same, 
aud from not knowing better. But I had my suspicions 
for years respecting this point in the management of the 
Cyclamen. There is nothing in the nature of such corms 
or tubers which differs from the nature of real bulbs ; 
and it is so unnatural for tbe seeds of all bulbs not to 
vegetate at the season it is natural for the parent bulb to 
begin its annual growth, that I venture to assert that 
there is not an instance on record to the contrary, except 
that of the spring Cyclamens by Mr. Samuel Gilbert, 
and by all who have followed him for the last two hun¬ 
dred years. Then, to prove if this instance were really 
true, or merely taken on hearsay, I instituted a series of 
simple experiments, as soon as I had sufficient materials 
to give me the result of trials under three or four different 
managements. 
Last spring I wrote about boxing Cyclamens, and the 
American Cowslips, and Dogs-tootli Violets, for window- 
cells and balcony recesses. I then bad boxed nine or 
ten kinds of Cyclamens for tbe said experiment. They 
did remarkably well set outside the window and taken 
inside at night, wffien it was likely to be a frost; but in 
the face of all my practice, I could not get them to do just 
as they ought in-doors after they came into bloom ; every 
room was too hot for them. The “ roots ” were in large 
60-pots and in small 48’s, and the box was a chance one, 
hut as near their power of filling it and feeding them¬ 
selves as I could judge. The length will be no guide to 
others; but tbe iengtli of my box happened to be two 
feet, the breadth ten inches, and the depth ten inches, 
which I think just the proportions for them on Harry 
Moore’s plan of not disturbing them again for tbe next 
seven years. In a breadth of ten inches one cannot put 
in two rows of them, as their leaves would hurt each 
other. The way to do it, is to put the first root in the 
very centre of the one end, and two inches from the 
wood ; then four inches behind that put in two roots 
opposite, and only two inches from the sides, then a single 
root in the centre, again and again a match pair. After 
one sees the kinds, there is no difficulty of pairing or con¬ 
trasting the colours. My centre kind is Persicum ruhrum, 
the magnum bonum of tbe family ; but any one that is 
equally strong would do in the centre equally well, or 
tbe Persicum breed might, and should, occupy the centre. 
Or, again, suppose you would prefer having three full 
rows, which, in truth, is the right way, the Persicum 
must take along the centre, the AtJcinsii breed on one 
side, and those which run more after Coum on the other 
side. Both breeds being more dwarf than tbe breed of 
Persicum. 
Well, as I was going to say, my box bloomed very 
nicely, and the kinds -were tbe most distinct; but 1 could 
no more resist tbe ruling passion for crossing than I could 
fly, and tbe way to cross Cyclamens, when thus grown 
together, is well worth knowing, as I shall show presently. 
Tbe mother bangs down in each flower, and ends in a 
point sharp as needles, and the stamens hang down over 
her; the anthers ripen in succession, and do not discharge 
the pollen all at once, as many other flowers do ; there¬ 
fore, there are many chances for crossing, and for fer¬ 
tilising this flower; in the morning, at noon, night, and 
next day, and the second and third days, if the weather 
is dull and cold. The anthers being taken from the flowers 
which are selected for mothers, all that is necessary to do 
is to draw the two flowers close together, and tie them to 
one stick—that is, the footstalks of the two flowers, 
leaving the flowers quite free; then having the pollen 
flower to windward, jerk it with the middle finger spring¬ 
ing backwards from the thumb, and at every jerk, or 
every first jerk, you will see a puff, as from tbe Artillery 
plant. That puff is tbe pollen, which, being to windward, 
and close upon tbe sliarp point, passes all over it, and 
round about it, and tbe most mysterious thing iu the 
science of botany then takes place in a way which has 
hitherto baffled all scientific investigations to know bow. 
The way science has settled the impregnation of the seeds 
is an utter fallacy and a phantom, and this Cyclamen is not 
a bad subject to refute the doctrine, and show how baseless 
