RANUNCULUS. 173 



RANUNCULUS. 



Natural Order Multisiliquce. Ranuncutacea, Juss. 

 A Genus of the Polyandria Polygynia Class 



Long worke it were 

 Here to account the endlesse progeny 

 Of all the Weeds that bud and blossom there ; 

 But so much as doth need must needs be counted here. 



SrENSER. 



The gaily-coloured Ranunculus, that gives such 

 splendour to our vernal parterres, is a species of 

 Crowfoot, that grows naturally in Persia, and other 

 eastern countries, from whence it has been brought 

 to beautify this island, for 



The land which warlike Britons now possess, 

 And therein have their mighty empire raysed, 



In antique times was salvage wilderness, 



Unpeopled, unmanured, unproved, unpraysed. 



Spexser. 



The Turks cultivated the Asiatic Ranunculus at 

 Constantinople for several ages before it was gene- 

 rally known in other parts of Europe. In their 

 language it is called Tarobolos Catamarlale, and 

 their account of it is, that a Vizier, named Cara 

 Mustapha, who delighted to contemplate the beau- 

 ties of nature in solitude, first observed, amongst 



