834 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



Part III. 



several days, without requiring to be changed, and will make a tolerable appearance. About a week or 

 ten clays after full bloom, when the petals of many begin to drop off, the awning should be taken down, 

 together with the frame, boards, &c. that surround the bed ; and the mats and hoops may be replaced as 

 before, to throw off excess of rain, as the case may require : and as the leaves or petals of any fall, the 

 seed-vessel of such should be immediately broken off close to the stem ; for if suffered to remain on the 

 plant, it will procrastinate the period of its maturity, and weaken the root considerably. The bed may 

 remain in this state about a fortnight longer, by which time the grass, or foliage, will become of a yellow, 

 ish-brown, and two or three inches of the top of the stem will wither, dry up, and become purplish : this 

 denotes the critical period to take up the roots, because if done earlier, they will be weak and spongy, 

 and if deferred later, their juices will become gross ; this will be manifest at the succeeding bloom, by too 

 great a redundance of colorific matter in the petals, and the flowers being what is generally termed foul." 



6953. Taking up the roots. Dig them up carefully, and place them under cover, in a dry, airy, shaded 

 situation. Here they may remain untouched till August or September following. " Then it is proper to 

 take off their loose skins, fibres, and such offsets as are easily separated; observing not to leave the roots 

 too bare, because the action of the air upon such would have a tendency to weaken and injure them, by 

 drying up part of their juices ; the'last brown skin, which is so intimately connected with the root, should 

 remain on it till the time of planting." 



6254. Diseases. The tulip is hardier, and less liable to disease and injury from weather, than most sorts 

 of flowers ; it is sometimes attacked by grubs and wire-worms at the root early in spring, and then the 

 best mode is to remove the plant and a portion of the soil, replacing the former from the reserve or 

 offset-buds. . 



65255. Forcing the tulip in pots or water-glasses. The early dwarf sorts are well adapted for this purpose, 

 especially the Due Van Tholl. They may be treated as in forcing the hyacinth. 



Subsect. 3. Ranunculus. — Ranunculus Asiaticus, L. {Mill. Ic. 2. t. 216.) Poly. 

 Polyg. L. and Ranunculacece, J. Renoncule, Fr. ; Ranunkel, Ger. ; and Ranun- 

 colo, Ital. (Jig. 593.) 



6256. The ranunculus from a fasciculus of small tubers sends up several bipartite 

 leaves, and an erect branched stem with a terminating flower variously colored. It is a 

 native of the Levant, and was cultivated by Gevrard in 1596. Though rather a tender 

 plant, innumerable and highly beautiful double-flowered varieties have been raised from 

 seed, chiefly by the English florists, from the middle to the latter end of last century. 



6257. Varieties. Only double ranunculuses are held in esteem : of these, Parkinson, 

 in 1629, enumerates eight; and Ray, in 1665, twenty sorts. Justice, in 1764, divides 

 ranunculuses into Turkey and Persian ; of the former he enumerates eighteen sorts, and 

 of the latter a hundred. What he calls the Turkey ranunculus is only a variety or sub- 

 species with a very dark flower, which Miller also considered as a species, and named it 

 R. sangtdneus. Maddock, in 1792, had upwards of eight hundred sorts. Mason's 

 catalogue for 1820 contains about four hundred names. " There are more varieties of 

 ranunculuses," Maddock observes, " than of any other flower;" but as their names are 

 arbitrary, it would be of little use to enumerate them here. A variety will last from 

 twenty to twenty-five years. 



6258. Criterion of a fine double ranunculus, (fig. 593. a) " The stem should be 

 strong, straight, and from eight to twelve inches 

 high, supporting a large well formed blossom, or 

 corolla, at least two inches in diameter, consisting 

 of numerous petals, the largest at the outside, and 

 gradually diminishing in size as they approach the 

 centre of the flower, which should be well filled 

 up with them. The blossom should be of a hemi- 

 spherical form ; its component petals should be 

 imbricated in such a manner as neither to be too 

 close and compact, nor too widely separated ; but 

 have rather more of a perpendicular than horizon- 

 tal direction, to display their colors with better 

 effect. The petals should be broad, and have per- 

 fectly entire well rounded edges : their colors 

 should be dark, clear, rich, or brilliant, either con- 

 sisting of one color throughout, or be otherwise 

 variously diversified, on an ash, white, sulphur, or 

 fire colored ground, or regularly striped, spotted, 

 or mottled in an elegant manner." # 



6259. Propagation. By seed, for new varieties, and by offset-tubers, or dividing the 

 tubers for continuing approved sorts. 



6260. By seed. The seed of the ranunculus, Maddock observes, in no instance ever produces two 

 flowers alike, or the same as the original. It should be saved from such semi-double flowers as have tall 

 strong stems, a considerable number of large well formed petals, and rich good colors, chiefly preferring 

 the darker, but not to the exclusion of the lighter colored, 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 mav then be cut off, and spread abroad upon paper in the seed-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 pre- 

 served in a warm dry place " » , __ ' 



6261 January is the proper time to sow the seed ; and in order to prepare it, it must be separated trom 

 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 a sheet of paper or tea-tray, &c. and placed before a moderate fire, till 

 it is rust warm, and no more ; the seed will then easily scrape off, by means of a penknife ; but great 

 care must be taken to avoid scraping it off in lumps, or suffering any pieces of the stalk, dried petals ol 



