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THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Fttorttaey 15, 1859. 
The second reason is this—if you count so many heads 
in the parish, who read The Cottage Gardenee, and 
who are fond of spring flowers, you will find that most of 
them, if not all, do know some one of the three naturals, 
or the three kinds of plants, which look as if they were 
but one kind; and, from knowing one of them, it will 
not be difficult for them to understand how like the other 
two are to it, and to one another. There is no way so 
easy for learning a new plant, or an old one either, as 
to compare it, in one’s mind, with any well-known plant 
which is like it. 
The third reason is, that the three kinds make three 
“ courses,” or successions of the same kind of bloom iu 
each spring, from the middle of February to the middle 
or end of May, without the loss of a single day. But 
what is the best way for managing the three kinds on the 
natural-order system, if you understand that, in exception 
to a natural order of plants,—-a system of management, or 
cultivation, being quite a different thing from a system of 
placing plants according to their relationship to one 
another? Two of our sorts, the Cyclamen and the 
American Cowslip, are indeed very closely related; but 
the Dog’s-tooth Violet is of a widely different nature, 
although the flowers look much the same with the others. 
The best way of arranging them, like the best way of 
all other things, depends on taste, for which there is no 
rule ; so no one can break a rule by saying his own way 
is best in anything. But no man knows yet the best way 
of growing these three kinds of spring flowers, so as to 
make the best of them, for giving the best effect with the 
least trouble. 
Last spring, I saw a boxful of the Dodecatheon, or 
American Cowslip, growing here in Surbiton, for the first 
time in my experience. The plants, or the “roots,” 
came from Edinburgh a few months before I saw them : 
and they were just beginning to open the flowers when I 
saw them first; and that was in a basket with a man who 
was then on his way to plant them, at a house near the 
bottom of the Crescent; the whole proceeding, from first 
to last, being under the guidance of a lady. The man’s 
name is Boss. Mr. Boss is a well-known gardener in 
Surbiton. I watched the progress of the plants in that 
box with very great interest. Nothing could have done 
better: but whether Mr. Boss or the lady attended to 
them I cannot say; for the one I seldom see, and the 
other I do not know. 
The practice at the Experimental of not planting the 
spring flowers and bulbs late in the autumn was not then 
published; and the plan of planting out many spring 
flowers, just as they are coming into bloom, is not much 
known—or, at least, it has not been much written about; 
so that this lady’s plan was not a leaf out of our book, 
nor yet following the herd, as the saying is. It was a 
distinct practice, which answered remarkably well. I 
mtended, at the time, this box should have been talked 
about. Since then, however, I have seen reasons and 
conclusions—no matter where—that a boxing system 
might be established all over the country; and that the 
boxes would, or might, some day or other, become as 
celebrated as Harry Moore’s boxes, in which he grew the 
Tom Thumbs seven years running, without a change of 
soil or plant. 
Yet, Harry Moore’s system must not be the rule with 
boxing spring flowers. The moment they are over, the 
boxes must be got clear of them, to take in the summer 
crop. When Mr. Atkins brought up his most lovely 
Cyclamen Atkinsii (thanks to “ M.” for the proper spell¬ 
ing), he had two large masses of them in shallow pan¬ 
kind of pots; and shallow boxes would have been just 
the thing for them. 
There are two out of my three natural looks of a plant, 
disposed of to the best satisfaction. They have been 
proved, in other hands, to do exceedingly well on the 
boxing system ; and all that I propose is, to make use of 
the third, with the two in one box, or each of them in 
two separate boxes. A box that would fit a window sill, 
outside, could be had brilliantly, and very sweetly fur¬ 
nished, and in bloom, from this time to the time of 
planting out, by filling down the centre with four or five 
kinds of the Dodecatheon, being all variations from one 
common kind; but the two kinds called eleyans and 
gigantea, are the more general favourites : but, say the 
favourite kind, or all the kinds in one box, planted rather 
closely in one or two rows in the centre. Then another 
row, on each side, of spring Cyclamens; and, round the 
edges, a thick row of the Dog’s-tooth Violet, the roots to 
be put in closely by the side of the box ; and they might 
remain there all the summer, as they are not easy to 
move while growing, being close to the sides. The roots, 
or tubers, would not be in the way of the next crop, and 
in the autumn they would turn out easily enough. They 
could be lifted out of the borders now, for box planting, 
and they can be removed, with perfect safety, till they 
are in full bloom,—all Crocuses the same. February is 
the best time in all the year to transplant every one of 
the spring Crocuses : and when there is a doubt about the 
colour, or a desire to arrange the colours, I would never 
think of stirring the old roots, till I saw the first bloom, 
to make sure of a hit. 
The reason that Crocuses force best when they are 
taken up just as the points are showing through the 
ground, is this — by that time the flower-bud is ripe 
enough “ to blow; ” but the cold keeps it down yet 
awhile after all is right; but take up the roots, give them 
any degree of heat at your command, and the degree will 
determine the time to get open the bloom. Now, if we 
begin with Crocuses, and Dog’s-tooth Violets, to lift 
them in February, for pots or boxes ; and, on the other 
hand, if we need not plant out a single Dutch bulb, or 
root, or tuber, from the reserve-ground,—where they 
were put in last September and October, till the self¬ 
same time in February, which is the practice at the 
Experimental, — see what an advantage it is over the 
hurry and scurry of planting for spring use late in the 
autumn. 
But, without having such fancies as boxing flowers, 
and coaxing gardeners to try all manner of boxing, we 
should never have found out one half of the moves and 
secrets of gardening in any other way, that I can think 
of. But the Cyclamens we cannot deal with that way ; 
we cannot lift them, or divide them successfully, or pro¬ 
pagate them profitably, but by raising them from seeds ; 
nor will they seed always, and under all circumstances ; 
but most of them—the spring ones more particularly— 
can be made to seed, if the plants are in good health, by 
attending to the flowers, when they are in their prime, 
and by dusting them with their own pollen. Tickle the 
anthers with a pin, and the dust, or pollen, will fly about, 
and some of it will reach the stigma, or female part. 
There is only one stigma to each flower; and, like the 
Polyanthuses, with or without the “pin-eye,” they are 
easily crossed or impregnated, when the stigma of a 
Cyclamen is exerted, or comes out beyond the anthers, 
which corresponds with the “ pin-eye ” of the Poly¬ 
anthus. That flower is dusted more easily by keeping 
the flower in its natural position, but when the stigma is 
shorter than the stamens, the flower must be turned up¬ 
side down, while the anthers are made to give off the 
pollen, else the chance of touching the stigma may be lost. 
Spring Cyclamens are yet not so common as to be 
grown out of pots ; but thousands of them are now on 
sale in the nurseries, and they may be bad in collections 
of many colours, from pure white to the deepest crimson ; 
and as they must be increased by seeds only, and have 
sported, we shall soon have the kinds as numerous as any 
of the florists’ flowers. 
Some one broke the rule of writing to one of the 
writers, instead of to the Editors, and says that Cyclamen 
repandum, and C. litorale, are two genuine species. 
Well, what if they are, they are not better or worse for 
