1G8 



THE RANUNCULUS. 



in all three respects is often requisite,, to renovate, 

 as it were, their crescive faculties, and to ensure 

 their return to their pristine health and condition. 

 Should it be found inconvenient to prepare a bed of 

 fresh soil, and you are under the necessity of plant- 

 ing them in the common garden mould, in this 

 case, if the mould be light and porous, it will then 

 be requisite that you put a stratum of loamy soil six 

 inches deep, to set the roots in. This will help to 

 retain a greater degree of moisture, and serve also 

 to protect them from the searching rays of the sun ; 

 for they ought never to be planted deeper in the 

 ground than an inch and a half; if set deeper, they 

 exhaust their strength in forming a fresh root exactly 

 at that depth, and of course neither flower well, nor 

 yield any good increase. 



The readiest and most certain mode of planting 

 is by drawing drills along the bed, exactly two 

 inches in depth, and then scattering a little coarse 

 sea or river sand along them : in these set the roots, 

 with the claws downwards, and press them gently 

 into the sand. If the breadth of your bed be four 



