ON RAISING RANUNCULUSES FROM SEED. B09 



a brief outline, some of your readers, who, ma}' wish to establish 

 a society of this description, I doubt not will be enabled to fill 

 it up. 



ARTICLE VII. 

 ON RAISING RANUNCULUSS' FROM SEED, 



BV II. C. S. 



Should you think the following worthy a place in your Florits' 

 Magazine, I should feel obliged by your inserting it in an early 

 number. 



Ranunculus Seed is to be procured from semi-double flowers ; 

 care should therefore be taken to save it from such as are pos- 

 sessed of good properties, viz, such as have full strong stems, a 

 considerable number of large well-formed petals, and rich good 

 colours, chiefly preferring the darker, but not to the exclusion of 

 the lighter coloured when their properties answer the foregoing 

 description. The seed should remain on the plant till it has lost 

 its verdure, and becomes brown and dry, it may then be cut off, 

 and be spread upon paper, in a dry room, exposed to the sun, that 

 every degree of humidity may be exhaled from it, in which state 

 it should be put into a bag, and preserved in a dry warm room till 

 the time of sowing, otherwise it will be in danger of contracting 

 a dampness, which will soon produce a mouldness,that will infalli- 

 bly destroy it. January is the proper time to sow the seed, and 

 in order to prepare it, it must be separated from the stalks to 

 which it is connected, in the following manner, viz : in the first 

 place it should be taken out of the bag and spread thin upon 

 paper, tea tray, &c. and placed before a moderate fire, till it is 

 just warm, and no more ; tb • seed will then easily scrape off, by 

 ■leant of a penknife, but gr#at care must be taken to avoid 

 scraping it off in lumps, or suffering any pieces of the stalk, dried 

 is of the flower, or other extraneous matter to be mixed with 

 it. which would create a mouldness when sown,, of very destruc- 

 tive consequence ; when the seed is scraped in a proper manner 

 it will have the appearance of clean coarse bran, with a little 

 brown or purple speck in the cent re of each cuticle, which is the 

 kernel. 



When the seed is ilms prepared, it should be sown on a shallow 

 frame provided with glasses, similar to those made use of for 



