CYCLAMEN ATKINSII AND CYCLAMEN IBERICUM. 
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CYCLAMEN ATKINSII AND CYCLAMEN IBERICUM. 
f F there be a group of plants, of limited extent, and possessing every quality which should, and 
indeed, does, render them favourite objects of cultivation, and which therefore ought to be well 
known, and easily recognized, but which more than any other, have their nomenclature involved in 
difficulty and confusion, it is that of the Cyclamens. So it ever has been, and so it remains: for the most 
recent resume of the species is not less free from the prevailing mysticism than the descriptions which 
have preceded it. This has no doubt arisen from their having been examined in a dried state, in which 
many of their pecularities are lost sight of; and the only hope which remains of the question being 
satisfactorily settled is, that some cultivator may collect all the forms that are known, and submit them 
for examination, while fresh, to some competent authority. 
Something of this kind, we are glad to know, is being attempted by Mr. Atkins of Painswick, to 
whom we are indebted for the accompanying illustrations of C. Atkinsii, and the forms, represented at 
a and b, in our figure, of C. ibericum. Mr. Atkins has for some years paid considerable attention to 
the family, and now possesses a very extensive collection of them, which he is annually extending by 
means of hybridization. The origin of C. Atkinsii is thus explained to us:—* 
“ After many ineffectual attempts,” writes Mr. Atkins, to produce a good cross between C. coum or C. vernum, 
and C. persicum , combining the neat habit of the two former, with the colour aud larger petals of the latter, having 
at the same time the foliage dark , yet relieved with a lighter band, or marbled, I at length succeeded in raising 
the hybrid now figured, from seeds produced by a variety of C. coum , impregnated with C. persicum , and this, I 
have every reason to believe, I shall be able to perpetuate, and thus introduce a new and most interesting feature 
into this beautiful family of plants. Amongst the seedlings, it was found that every plant deviating in the mark¬ 
ing of the foliage from the seed-bearing parent, produced white or blush flowers, whilst those retaining its plain 
dark leaf, have invariably bloomed with different shades of the colour of that species.” 
CYCLAMEN ATKINSII AS EXHIBITED BY' MR. ATKINS. 
This account of its origin perfectly explains its appearance, it being, in fact, exactly intermediate 
between its parents as to size and form, and to some extent even in colour. The specimen which our 
vignette represents was exhibited last March, before the Horticultural Society, with about seventy fully 
expanded flowers, and bears full evidence of the success of Mr. Atkins’ mode of culture, which, we 
* C. Atkinsii (hyb ; <£, persicum 9 coum).—Leaves ovate obtuse, cordate attbe base with overlapping lobes, subcrenate, zoned 
with pale green, dull purple beneath ; calyx teeth lance-shaped acute ; tube of the corolla globose, mouth scarcely angular, petals 
broadly obovate acute ; stamens included, style equalling the tube.—M. 
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