RANUNCULUS. 177 



From the soft wing of vernal breezes shed, 

 Anemonies, Auriculas, enrich'd 

 With shining meal o'er all their velvet leaves ; 

 And full Ranunculus, of glowing red. 



Notwithstanding this is one of the most hardy of 

 the earden Ranunculuses, and makes the most bril- 

 liant appearance by its vivid scarlet colour, it is 

 almost lost in the country, or so little esteemed in 

 comparison with the Persian Ranunculus, that it 

 is seldom cultivated by the epicurean florist. We 

 have sometimes met with this variety in the cottage- 

 gardens which border the sandy commons of Sussex 

 and Surrey, where, meeting with a congenial soil, 

 it seems to linger like an expiring flame. 



The African Ranunculus differs from the Asiatic 

 by having few but larger leaves, which are of a 

 darker green than those of the latter kind. The 

 stem seldom produces more than one flower, and 

 never exceeds two ; but these are considerably 

 larger than those of Persia, and very double, and a 

 stem is frequently thrown up from the centre of 

 the flower, bearing a second corolla of a smaller 

 size. This is the flower which the French name 

 Rcnonculc Pivoine and R. Peone. There are several 

 varieties of this kind of Ranunculus, amongst which 

 is one of the colour of the Jonquil, which the 

 French call Scraphique tC Alger, and another of 

 the hue of the Golden Marigold, with a green 

 heart, which is named SouciDore, or Merveilleusc : 



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