THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, October 11, 1859. 
17 
it is. They account for it by saying, that a pollen grain 
passes through tubes down to the seeds, but by what : 
force is-not given, whether it be b} r its own weight, or by 1 
some powerful attraction from below ; but gravitation 
and attraction are against a bullet going up straight into 
the air of its own accord, as the pollen grain or dust 
must needs do, to get up to the ovary of the Cyclamen. 
And so many of my dowers were dusted, but the box 
being full of kinds, there is no saying how the crossings 
went till the seedlings come to bloom. I had a good 
number of seed-pods one. way or another, and the boxes 
were watered till the seeds were ripe, and after the leaves 
were gone, which is an unusual way; but there are some 
bulbs which need to be watered after the fall of the leaf, 
if their seeds are not ripe then ; and it is still a practical 
question to be carefully proved by direct experiments, 
whether any one kind of bulb in existence, which does 
not cast its roots as well as its leaves, should be allowed 
to go thoroughly dry at the roots all the time it is at 
rest. At all. events, those great bulbs belonging to the 
Amaryllis, about which we hear from time to time, ought 
most certainly never to be left quite dry at the roots all 
the time they are at rest, or all the years they are in this 
world. My experience with them over many years 
prompted me to go on watering my box of Cyclamens 
till the last seed-pod was gathered in June, when all 
vestiges of the leaves were forgotten. I then gave them 
six weeks’ rest: but the box being well mulched with 
cocoa stuff, the soil, except, perhaps, at the sides, was 
never quite dry. 
Other Cyclamens were under different experiments in 
various ways and aspects, but those which did the best, 
from end to end, were along with my pet seedlings, which 
had to be watered by hand the whole summer to the 
very end of August, and very often six times a-week, 
the Cyclamens getting their full share all the time. They 
were up with fresh leaves by the beginning of August, 
having gone just two months out of the twelve without 
leaves ; the rains of September agreed with them so well, 
and they got so fat and chubby upon them, that their own 
father did not know them by the last Saturday in the 
month, and yet I consider him the best hand and head 
we have among Cyclamens. He insisted on it that my 
prize experiment-plant was the broad-leaved Africanum, 
till I showed him his own number-stick, with No. 9 
on it. But, if I live long enough, I shall be able to turn 
all my Cyclamens into Africanums by adopting Nature’s 
plan. 
Cyclamen Africanum is only a variety of an English 
native plant, which, in the north of Africa, about Algiers 
and from there on to Tunis, has acquired a double size to 
the leaf through the mildness of the winter, the extreme 
heat of the summer, and the deluges of periodical rains. 
Follow out the climate of Algiers ; let all the Cyclamens 
be in the free soil for three or four years; give them 
water most abundantly from May to October; and have 
a cold frame ready to put over them when the frost 
comes, but every mild day or hour throughout the winter 
let the glass be off entirely. Here they will net only get 
leaves double the size of the ordinary run, but sow them¬ 
selves, and come irp as thick as Mustard and Cress. 
Then you w T ill prove for yourself that which I have just 
proved this summer, and that is, that all the seeds of all 
spring C 3 T clamens will sprout and come up before the 
middle of September, or say come up with the growth of 
th® parent plants ; and in two years and six months the 
seedlings will flower if they are fairly dealt with. My 
seedlings, which are now strong and healthy, ought to be 
as forward by the end of next May as one-year-old plants 
from spring seedlings. 
But there is a move in bulb seeds which must be 
attended to with the seeds of Cyclamens, and that move 
is not to let them get quite ripe before they are sown. 
In 1849 or 1850 I had the most curious cross on record— 
Oyrtanthus obliquus crossed with the pollen of Vallotta 
purpurea ; and I sent one pod of seeds to Hr. Bindley to 
be managed by Mr. Gordon at Chiswick. They both 
thought I was daft, and they put it on record that I 
presented an unripe seed-pod of so and so ; but after a 
little chaffing for their limited knowledge of crossed seeds, 
they also put it on record, in a footnote in the “ Journal ” 
for 1850, page 136, “ the seeds have grown and have 
produced about a dozen young plants,” &c. That pod 
was certainly as green as a Cucumber ; and the pods of 
all Cyrtanthi must be gathered at that stage, else the 
seeds would take two or three years to vegetate. The 
seed-pod of Cyclamen is a true berry, according to the 
Doctor’s own definition ; and a berry has the seeds loosely 
imbedded in a pulp, as the Grape or the Currant. We 
have seen Hamburgh Grapes as red as a fox, and yet ripe 
enough for table, and the seeds as ripe as Mignonette; 
therefore it does not always follow that a berry must 
needs attain its natural ripe colour in order to have the 
seeds ripe also. And so it is with the berry of the Cycla¬ 
men. When you find the pulp is quite soft it is time to 
gather the berry. The pulp of my Cyclamen was in this 
condition just one month before the outside of the pod or 
berry was ripe for use, if it were eatable, therefore, a 
month may be gained, and should be thus gained, in 
sowing the seeds ; and more than twelve months are the 
gain of that early sowing. 
The exact way I did shall be shown to the deputation 
from the British Pomological Society, who are coming 
down this week to learn this “trick” about my black 
Grapes. But the substance of it is, that when the pulp 
of the pod yielded readily to the touch, the pods were 
gathered and squeezed so as to break them and make 
them flat as a pancake. Each pancake was thus sown 
with the seeds still in the pulp. One No. 32-pot was 
sown as if I had been sure of a hit—that is, sown thin 
enough to rear the seedlings without too much crowding, 
and the other 32-pot Had four times more seeds than it 
ought; so that, if the seeds did not vegetate till the 
spring I could then divide them into four pots of the 
same size. The soil was the common garden soil, moist 
enough naturally ; and with the moisture of the pulp there 
was no need to w ater, nor did the pots receive a drop 
of water or rain till the seedlings were “ up but they 
were managed as the large Cape Amaryllises should be on 
their arrival here. The pots were plunged in the open 
garden wffiere the soil is moist, and an empty pot was 
turned over each of them for two reasons—to keep off 
heavy rain, and prevent mice botanising among them. 
The ground round the pots w'as often watered, and the 
soil in the pots was betwmen wet and dry the whole time ; 
and now the pots are over the Verandah inside larger 
pots, and full in the sun, and nothing but frost will cause 
them to be housed all this next winter; and as soon as 
the frost is over out they go, and so on from frost to 
frost till there is no more of it. 
Here, then, is a grand encouragement to begin to grow 
Cyclamens, the very prettiest of all flowers, and more 
easy to raise from seeds than Geraniums or Potatoes. To 
seed them for sale the “ roots ” would pay better never 
to be in pots. A raised border three or four feet in front 
of a low wall is the best place for them, with a slight 
frame and glass to put over them in severe weather ; and 
they would sow themselves, and come up there as safe as 
the Bank of England. I have self-sow T n seedlings where 
I left pods in the open border at this moment, and they 
will do better than those I. have in pots. In good boxes 
they may remain ever so long ; and the simplest way to 
have them for the drawing-room is to leave them out 
under glass till the flower-buds appear; then to lift and 
pot them like Crocuses ; and when they are out of bloom 
out with them under the same glass till bedding-out time ; 
then turn them out of the pots, and keep them well 
watered the whole season: but annuals, or any flowers, 
may be grown with them and over them all the summer. 
D. Beaton. 
