92 HOUSE PLANTS 



grows six inches to a foot high. If you buy 

 any of the tubers of these I '11 wager you will 

 look at them twice, and then begin to berate 

 the bulb merchant for selling you some old, 

 dried-up tubers, because they are very small, 

 peculiar-shaped things, which apparently 

 have no top or bottom. I must confess 

 I never know whether I have some of them 

 right side up or not. And because of the 

 ease with which a bulb merchant can deceive 

 a customer who is not acquainted with 

 these tubers, I am sorry to say that some 

 unscrupulous dealers have sold two or three 

 year old bulbs as fresh ones. Of course 

 they did not grow. The temptation to do 

 this is great because the sale for them in 

 this country is small; so buy from some 

 seedsman in whom you have confidence. 



The ranunculus has a fleshy root which 

 looks like a lot of dimunitive sweet potatoes, 

 one-half an inch long, joined together at 

 one end, the other end hanging free. The 

 plants grow six inches to a foot high, and 

 the flowers in the double varieties, which 

 are the only ones worth growing, are ball- 

 like, red or yellow, one to one and one- 

 half inches across. 



