92 



HOUSE PLANTS 



grows six inches to a foot high. If \'ou buv 

 any of the tubers of these I '11 vrager vou will 

 look at them twice, and then begin to berate 

 the bulb merchant tor selling vou some old, 

 dried-up tubers, because the\" are verv small, 

 peculiar-shaped things, which apparently 

 have no top or bottom. I must confess 

 I never know whether I have some of them 

 right side up or not. And because of the 

 ease with which a bulb merchant can deceive 

 a customer who is not acquainted with 

 these tubers. I am sorr\- to sav that some 

 unscrupulous dealers have sold two or three 

 }'ear old bulbs as fresh ones. Of course 

 thev did not grow. The temptation to do 

 this is great because the sale for them in 

 this countrv is small: so buv from some 

 seedsman in whom vou have conhdence. 



The ranunculus has a fleshv root which 

 looks like a lot of dimunitive sv-eet potatoes, 

 one-half an inch long, joined together at 

 one end. the other end hanging free. The 

 plants grow six inches to a toot high, and 

 the flowers in the double varieties, which 

 are the onh' ones worth grovring. are ball- 

 like, red or \'ellov.-. one to one and one- 

 half inches across. 



