Cyclamen Persicum and its varieties can be raised from seed with the greatest ease by sowing them early. Latter part of January or February I think is about the best time to sow. Purchase a packet or two of seed from a reliable seedsman, of a good strain, and you will have all sorts of different shades of color, from a pure white to the deepest red, and spotted. The soil I use for seedlings is good loam, mixed with a fair share of sharp sand. Sow in a seed pan, well drained, and cover about a quarter of an inch deep; water them and stand them in a gentle heat. Where they stand must be clear from slugs. The best way to guard against these is to take a seed pan of a larger size, make it water tight, fill it with water, invert a flower pot in the center, the bottom just above the water, and stand your seed pan on it; then perhaps you will have good seed and not bad. It often happens that the small leaf which appears at night has disappeared in the morning - not damped off, but devoured by slugs. As soon as the seedlings are large enough to handle, pot them in small pots, and cover them about half an inch deep. Water them as often as they need it, and shift into a larger pot when required. A four-inch pot is large enough to bloom them in.

If they are well taken care of they will bloom in about ten to fifteen months. If large strong conns are desired for future blooming, pinch off the seed pods as soon as the flower drops. After they have done blooming, water them more sparingly till they go to rest naturally, and then stow them away in some cool and airy place free from sun and rain, until the time comes to re-pot and start them again. I pot all I have the latter end of August or the beginning of September. Shake all the earth from them, and pot according to the size of the corm. A five-inch pot is large enough for the largest corm, so long as there is room enough to pass your finger between corm and pot. Old corms I do not care to cover, especially where the crown is the shape of a hollow crowned parsnip. Stand them on a board outside in the shade till they begin to grow, or till there is danger of frost, and then remove them to a shelf in the greenhouse, near the glass where they will get plenty of air. As soon as they begin to show their flowers give them some liquid manure, every other watering, and then you will have more flowers than leaves. If they are wanted to bloom earlier than January, place them in stronger heat, but 450 at night and 500 by day is hot enough till they show their flower buds.

The above is my treatment, but it may not suit every one. The secret I believe, if there is any, is the drying off and the rest they receive. If any manure is used, use it sparingly, and make up for the deficiency with manure water. Where they are grown by the thousand, and a house is devoted to them, they are very easily grown. There has been much improvement, both in size and number of flowers, made in late years by hybridizers. A plant a few years ago with two or three dozen blooms upon it was considered good, now they are commonly seen with a hundred. Gard. to J. McCreery, Esq., Inwood-on-the-Hudson, N. Y. [Read before the N. Y. Horticultural Society].