98 
CULTURE OF CYCLAMENS. 
Fagopyrum cymosum was introduced into a glass flask securely closed, and connected with, a 
caoutchouc hag containing 200 cubic centimetres of carbonic acid. After six hours exposure to the 
sun-light only 75 centimetres of gas remained, the rest had been absorbed by the plant. At the same 
time another branch of the same plant, of equal size, was introduced into a closed flask provided with 
a quantity of solution of baryta, to absorb any carbonic acid given off, and at the end of the six hours 
the baryta had absorbed eleven centimetres of carbonic acid. Other experiments showed that this 
carbonic acid is given off in greatest abundance by germinating seeds, next in proportion by buds, 
and least by the leaves; and that the amount of carbonic acid is given off most abundantly, weight 
and surface being equal, from organs which contain the greatest quantity of the nitrogenous cell- 
contents. 
This last fact is of great interest since it seems to connect this process of evolution of carbonic acid 
most closely with the respiration of animals, for it is well-known that the nitrogenous or proteinous 
cell-contents, the protoplasm of Mohl, or endochrome of some authors, is the real living part of the 
cell, the cell-wall composed of cellulose being rather a kind of shell or case. For we see that all the 
phenomena of development depend upon it, and moreover, what is still more striking, it is this matter 
that exhibits all those phenomena of locomotion which have been observed in plants, namely, the 
circulation of the cell-sap, as it is called, in Vodlisneria , Char a, the hairs of Tradescantia, &c., and in 
the zoospores, or moving reproductive bodies of the Algse, which are composed entirely of nitrogenous 
matter when moving freely in the water, and only acquire a cellulose coat afterwards. 
From these and similar considerations M. Garreau proposes to restrict the name of respiration to 
that process in which carbon is consumed, and carbonic acid given off, as in animals, and to place the 
other process, in which carbon is fixed and oxygen given off, among the nutritive processes. This 
would indeed appear to be the most philosophical way of arranging these phenomena of vegetation, 
but at the same time we are still so imperfectly acquainted with the import of these processes, and 
the details of their operation, that it would perhaps be wise to leave our terminology untouched until 
the analogies and differences of the nutritive operations in plants and animals have been more com¬ 
pletely elucidated. 
The experiments of M. Garreau are published in the “Annales des Sciences naturelles” for 1851, 
in Vol. XV., No. 1, and Vol. XVI., No. 5.— Arthur Henfrey, F.R.S., F.L.S., &c. 
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CULTFKE OF CYCLAMENS. 
T HE Cyclamen is a genus of plants which unfortunately may be placed among the neglected ones, 
for, though in some places it may receive proper care, such instances form the exception rather 
than the rule. Mr. Atkins, the fortunate raiser of the beautiful variety described at page 89, has 
devoted more attention to Cyclamens than perhaps any other man in this country, and, at the present 
time, possesses one of the finest collections in Europe, which he manages with singular success. We 
regret we cannot give Mr. Atkins’s system of culture, as that gentleman has some experiments in 
progress which he cannot make known until they are completed. Among Metropolitan growers Mr 
Myatt, senior, of the Manor Farm, Deptford, is certainly one of the most successful, having on several 
occasions had plants with two hundred expanded flowers at the same time, and every winter and 
spring he has a small house filled with this beautiful plant, the flowers of which find ready sale to the 
bouquet-makers in Covent Garden Market. 
The Cyclamens, for the most part, are Alpine plants, and in their native state are found growing 
upon the debris of rocks and vegetable accumulations. Where they grow spontaneously, large patches 
of ground may be found covered with them tubers, which only require to be taken up at the proper 
time, that is, when the growth is completed, to be immediately fit for potting. 
In this country Cyclamens are best treated as cold frame plants, as to grow them to perfection 
they require considerable shade in the growing season. They are increased sometimes by division of 
