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VI. On the Cultivation of the Rampion. By Mr. James 

 Dickson, F.L. S. Vice President. 



Read February 3, 1818. 



The Rampion has, of late years, been altogether neglected 

 in our gardens, though it is much cultivated by the French, 

 by whom it is called Raiponce, and it is very common in 

 their markets. It is the Campanula Rapunculus of Linnaeus 

 and of modern botanists, the Rapunculus esculentus of Ray, 

 and the Rapuntium parvum of Gerhard. It grows wild in 

 France, Germany, Switzerland, and the north of Italy ; and 

 has long been considered a native of England, being some- 

 times found, apparently wild, particularly in the neighbour- 

 hood of Croydon, in Surrey, where it was noticed by Hudson ; 

 it is, however, possible, that it may have only escaped from 

 the hands of the cultivator, for it must be observed, that 

 wherever it has been permitted to seed in a garden, it comes 

 up afterwards, for many years, in places very remote from 

 that where the parent plant grew, the seed being very light, 

 and accommodating itself readily to spots where it is not 

 disturbed. 



The plant is figured in English Botany, tab. 283 : it is a 

 biennial, with a long white spindle-shaped root ; the leaves 

 grow close to the ground, until it shoots up into flower, in 

 which state its panicle of blue flowers, about two feet high, 

 may fairly be considered ornamental. The root is the part 

 which is used : it is eaten raw, like a radish, having a very 



