FLOWERS OF GARDEN AND GREENHOUSE 
sparingly the following spring. After their second blooming they will 
have attained to a fair size, and may be shifted to their permanent 
quarters. Frequent shifting, even unaccompanied by root-division, pre¬ 
judicially affects their freedom of flowering. 
Description Of The central group represents the type form of A. 
Plate 5 . Hepatica. B is the double form of the var. rubra. Fig. 1 
is a vertical section through the flower. At the left-hand side of A there 
is a flower from which the sepals and stamens have been shed, showing 
the maturing carpels. 
RANUNCULUS 
Natural Order Ranunculacejs. Genus Ranunculus 
Ranunculus (Latin, rana, a frog, from certain species affecting 
swampy places). Acrid herbs, annual or perennial. Leaves entire, lobed, 
or compound; the root leaves often differing from the stem leaves. 
Flowers in terminal panicles or solitary from the axils; white, yellow, 
or red. Sepals, three to five, falling off early. Petals usually five, some¬ 
times absent; with honey glands near base. Stamens numerous; carpels 
many, with short style, and one ovule. About one hundred and sixty 
species distributed throughout the temperate regions of the world. 
History. The present year is the tercentenary of the Anemone 
and the Ranunculus in English gardens; but the Ranunculus 
had been largely cultivated in the East during periods long anterior to 
the year 1596, when it was brought from Constantinople. Even at that 
early date two tolerably distinct races of Ranunculus asiaticus were 
known aa Old Turkey and Persian. Horticulturists have produced from 
some of the species a considerable number of varieties, many of which 
are hybrids between the Persian and some other species. 
Principal Species. Ranunculus ASIATICUS, the Garden Ranunculus, varies 
from 8 to 12 inches in height. Its root is a bunch of little 
claw-like tubers, joined to the stem by their upper and thicker ends; 
these increase in number with the age of the plant. It lacks the easy 
grace of the Garden Anemone, but has a neater, more stately, and more 
brilliant appearance. In cultivation there is a tendency for some or all 
of the stamens to have the course of development diverted, and the 
opening bud reveals them not as stamens but as petals. The whole of 
the floral organs may be thus developed, with the result that the flower 
is as double as a rose. At first the green sepals spread widely, but after¬ 
wards turn down towards the stem, and fall off. 
