CALLIANTHEMUM. 
to whet the appetite—are there not also C. lepidota, C. Pritchardii, 
C. nudicaulis, with many another; to say nothing of the larger and 
stouter species after the decorative habit of C. plantaginea ? 
Calla Aethiopica, the famous Arum Lily of the Cape, is per- 
fectly hardy in rich soil at the bottom of some 18 inches to 2 feet of 
water. If its blossoms lose a little in size, they gain incalculably in 
effect, from thus being seen in lavish profusion out of doors from 
August onwards. C. palustris is a tiny species, not by any means akin 
to the last in splendid elegance and purity—a little ramper for mud- 
flats and submerged edges of the bog, with small fat heart-shaped 
leaves along the runners, and small flowers of a greening white. 
Callianthemum, with one exception, brings us back into our own 
Aips. For this is the race of Ranunculads with fat and ferny foliage, 
which so long has been included in Ranunculus itself. They are plants 
of the middle alpine regions, in moist places or in alpine turf ; and in 
cultivation enjoy any good and open soil with sufficiency of well- 
drained moisture in flowering time—that is, from spring into the early 
days of summer. In due course of time they can be divided, if any 
one be sacrilegious enough to spoil an old-established tuft ; but are 
best collected straight from their hills, or raised from seed, if such can 
be got, which is rare ; or raised, which is rarer still. 
C. anemonoeides (Ranunculus anemonoeides) is confined entirely to 
the Eastern A!ps of upper and lower Austria, where it is found usually 
among damp rocks in the zone of the pine-woods, at about 3000 feet 
at the most, but usually lower. It is a beautiful thing of easy culture 
and increase ; in early spring, before the leaves, and almost stemless, 
appear a number of very large flowers of pearly or pinky white, like 
many-rayed single Chrysanthemums. Then the stems elongate, and 
the long leaves, finely divided into fattish lobes, fattish in texture, 
and of a soft grey-green, begin to develop into ample low-lying masses, 
as the fruiting stems shoot out or up. 
C. cashmirianum is the representative of Callianthemum in the 
former cradle of the race. For the family is of enormous antiquity, 
and, like the Perfect Law, has had its cradle in the mountains of Asia ; 
and, like the Perfect Law again, has died from the centre of its dis- 
tribution, and is now found scattered over the world, in patches remote 
from each other, each species occupying some range quite locally, and 
removed by hundreds or thousands of miles from the nearest realm of 
its next relation. C. cashmirianum, then, still dwells at upper elevations 
in the damp places of Sikkim, a cousin to the last, with the same blue- 
grey foliage, with the lobules fat and almost rounded. 
C. coriandrifolium is Callianthemum rutaefolium or Ranunculus 
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