42 THE FLORIST. 



Procure some quicklime from the works as fresh as practicable 

 after being drawn from the kiln, and place pieces of it on plates, 

 saucers, pans, tiles, slates, or in garden pots, in different parts of 

 the pits, &c. among the plants in pots, until it becomes slacked 

 by absorbing the clamp, then remove it ; and, when necessary, use 

 another supply. This year I had some plants in a hotbed-frame 

 that were damping off; I was induced to try the effect of fresh quick- 

 lime to check the evil, and the result was favourable. 



I was led to this application from having for several years used 

 successfully quicklime to dry up the floors and fittings of premises 

 liable to be flooded, by placing lime on the floors, near the walls, and 

 in lockers, and other fittings, that were saturated by water. 



For the first trials with delicate tender plants, caution will be 

 necessary not to use too much lime. 



I am confident that this plan will be found very beneficial in 

 many cases, and prove a simple, useful, economic one, for the lime 

 will not be injured for many other purposes. 



Clonmel. J. G. 



CULTURE OF THE RANUNCULUS. 



Having seen several letters on the cultivation of the Ranunculus in 

 The Florist, I am induced to give you the fruits of about twenty- 

 seven years' amateur practice in the growth of that beautiful pet- 

 flower; and in doing this, I have no desire to be considered as 

 opposing the views of any one : my only object is, faithfully to detail 

 my own experience. 



I began, as a matter of course, by the purchase of all the best 

 sorts I could meet with in my own immediate vicinity, and by open- 

 ing a correspondence with distant growers, so that at the end of the 

 first seven years I possessed a collection of all the best varieties ; 

 and here you must allow me to say, that, after seven years' ardent 

 perseverance, I was nearly giving up their growth as a hopeless 

 pursuit ; but it so happened, just about twenty years ago, that Mr. 

 Tyso, sen., of Wallingford, who also was a competitor with me in 

 the growth of the Ranunculus, introduced to my notice a bed of 

 seedlings of the most luxuriant growth and bloom, but all single, 

 not even a semidouble, I think, amongst them, yet quite remarkable 

 for their brilliancy of colour, and fine marking on the top side of the 

 petal. We both entertained hopes that, with such varieties to breed 

 from, we might, by energy and perseverance, raise a stock of superior 

 flowers, that would soon put all our old favourites out of cultivation ; 

 and now twenty years have elapsed, and our expectations have been 

 realised. Instead of that degenerate race which once occupied my 

 best attention, and almost as constantly disappointed my most che- 

 rished hopes, I have now entirely a new race, and I am annually 



