On raising Seedling Ranuncultises. 565 



should be divided as soon as ever the herbage turns yellow, 

 and planted immediately wherever a want of their enlivening 

 influence may have been felt in the spring preceding. The 

 seeds, which are numerously produced, and usually ripe by 

 the 12th of May, should be gathered as soon as ripe, and 

 sown as soon as gathered. The seedlings will, in the first 

 year, have only cotyledonal leaves ; in the second, peltiform 

 ones ; in the third, the same, and a few roots will blossom ; in 

 the fourth year all will be floriferous. The blossoms of the 

 Eranthis are slightly fragrant. 



That most accurate botanist, the late R. A. Salisbury, Esq., 

 who was the first to dissociate this plant from the //elleborus, 

 tells us [Lijui. Trans,, vol.viii. p. 303.) that Eranthis is from 

 erau, to love, and antlios, a flower, and that he means thereby 

 to express the loveliness of such a flower at such a season. 

 His words are, " Ploribus tempestate inclementi amabiUbus." 

 I mention this to supplant a spurious etymon exhibited in the 

 Conductor's Hortus Britc'mnicus. 



Art. V. On raising Seedling Ranunculuses. 

 By the Rev. Joseph Tyso. 



Sir, 



The paper which I sent you last year on the propagation 

 of ranunculuses, which was inserted in Vol. VI. p. 548., has 

 excited considerable interest among florists, as the numerous 

 letters I have received since amply testify. The article has 

 been copied into Sweet's Florists Guide, accompanied by a 

 figure of one of my seedlings. See plate 170. of that very 

 useful and well executed work, one deserving the support of 

 every florist. 



Mr. James Reid of Bousefield has (Vol. VII. p. 121.) made 

 a respectful reference to my plan, as given in Vol. VI. p. 548., 

 saying, " If the system there pointed out were to be generally 

 followed, a most splendid addition might confidently be ex- 

 pected ere long to the present stock, there being no limits to 

 its varieties." But he adds, " Mr. Tyso does not, however, 

 follow up the system to the perfection of which it is capable." 

 This remark is very just, as it relates to my former commu- 

 nication, all improvements being progressive. But I anl aiming 

 at perfection, and flatter myself, in this particular, that I am 

 not far from the mark ; and, with your permission, I will now 

 communicate what I consider the ne j^lus ultra of the system. 



It consists in having some of the best show flowers of each 

 class which produce a pericarpium or seed vessel, namely, 



o o 3 



