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LIV. On the Cultivation of the Ranunculus and Anemone. 

 In a Letter to the Secretary. By the Rev. William Wil- 

 liamson, C. M. H. S. 



Head November 21st, 1820. 



Dear Sir, 



I find great pleasure in complying with your request, that 

 I would send you an account of the method which I have 

 practised for some years of cultivating the Ranunculus and 

 Anemone ; and hope that some of the observations may prove 

 useful to those Members of the Society who may be desir- 

 ous of growing these beautiful productions of nature. I may 

 premise that the culture of these two sorts of flowers is so 

 much the same, that it seemed superfluous to make them the 

 subject of different papers ; it is, however, necessary to state 

 that the following observations are strictly applicable to the 

 Ranunculus only, though the general detail may be consi- 

 dered as equally suitable to both. 



In order to grow these flowers both numerously and of a 

 large size, florists usually employ a very rich soil; but in 

 making the soil so very rich, it is in general rendered so 

 light as wholly to destroy the effect intended to be pro- 

 duced. I am acquainted with several persons who are in the 

 constant habit of cultivating these plants, and they all agree 

 that they cannot with certainty exhibit a fine bloom from 

 the same roots during successive years ; the cause of which, 

 I conceive, may be thus explained. In perennial fibrous 



