180 The Ranunculus. 



these in a dry state, consisting, as Nuttall observes of little tufts 

 of cylindric tubes, are commonly imported, as well as those of 

 the Anemone from, Holland, the great mart of the florist. It 

 grows naturally in Persia and other eastern countries. The 

 Turks cultivated it at Constantinople, for several ages before it 

 was generally known in other parts of Europe. In their lan- 

 guage, it is called Tarobolos Catamarlale, and their account of it 

 is, that a vizier, named Cara Mustapha, who delighted to con 

 template the beauties of nature in solitude, first observed, amongst 

 the herbage of the fields, this hitherto neglected flower, and wish- 

 ing to inspire the then reigning Sultan with a taste for plants 

 similar to his own, he decorated the gardens of the seraglio with 

 this new flower, which he soon found had attracted the notice 

 of his sovereign, upon which he caused it to be brought from all 

 parts of the East, where varieties could be found. But enclosed 

 within the inaccessible walls of the seraglio, these flowers re- 

 mained unseen by the rest of the world, until bribery, which 

 surmounts the loftiest towers, and breaks the strongest bolts, en- 

 tered the palace of the Sultan, and secured the roots of these 

 highly cherished plants, which soon flourished in every couri in 

 Europe. We are told that this fine flower was one of the fruits 

 of the Crusades, and that St. Louis first brought it into France. 

 It must soon have been lost in that country, for Gerard, in the 

 reign of Queen Elizabeth, tells us, that this kind of Ranunculus 

 " groweth naturally in and about Constantinople and Asia, on 

 the further side of the Bosphorus, from whence plants have been 

 brought at divers times, but have perished by reason of the long 

 journey and want of skill in the bringers, who suffered them to 

 lie in a box, that when received, they were as dry as ginger. 

 The other kind, he says, grows in Alleppo and Tripoli, and in 

 Syria, naturally, from whence plants were received, and which 

 flourish as if they were in their own country. 



The Dutch, who studied floriculture as an art connected with 

 commerce, soon turned the cultivation of the Ranunculus to a 

 profitable account ; and they still continue to export these roots 

 in great quantities to every part of Europe and America, although 

 the English are said to have raised a greater variety of them than 

 any other nation. Maddock, who had upwards of eight hundred 

 sorts, says there are more varieties of this than of any other 

 flower ; and he observes, that the seed in no instance ever pro- 



