584 THE PLEASURE, OR [Dec. 
Care of .Auriculas and Carnations. 
Your choice auriculas and carnations must now be defended from 
heavy rains, frost, and snowj but large portions of air must be 
admitted to them at every favourable opportunity, otherwise the 
auriculas will start to flower at an untimely season, and the carna- 
tions will draw, become weakly, and be good for nothing. Neither 
of them are very tender, and consequently should not be kept too 
closely shut up. 
Polyanthuses and Double Primroses. 
The fine polyanthuses and double primroses require exactly the 
same treatment as the auriculas and carnations, which need not be 
repeated J the common polyanthuses and primroses will succeed 
very well in the open borders, but will be the better of a slight 
covering of straw during the continuance of severe frost. 
Sowing Anemone and Ranunculus Seeds. 
The double varieties of the Anemone hortensis, or broad-leaved 
garden anemone, and Anemone coronaria, or narrow-leaved, as 
well as of the Ranunculus persica, or Persian ranunculus, being 
generally extremely beautiful, are peculiarly deserving of attention; 
as all those delightful flowers, displaying such a diversity of shades 
and colours, are only seminal varieties, and as the number of them 
may be annually increased, and superior varieties obtained, no good 
florist will neglect to sow seeds of each sort every year. 
The seeds of either kind should be procured from semi-double 
flowers, for the full double seldom bear any, and those produced 
by the single rarely give double flowers. Care should be taken to 
save the seeds from flowers possessed of good properties, that is, 
such as have tall strong stems, a considerable number of well- 
formed petals of rich, good and brilliant colours. 
The seed of the ranunculus should remain on the plant till it has 
lost its verdure and becomes brown and dry, it may then be cut off 
and spread upon paper in a dry room exposed to the air; when 
perfectly dry it should be put into a paper bag and kept free from 
all dampness till the time of sowing, otherwise it would be in 
danger of contracting a mouldiness that would infallibly destroy it. 
The anemone seed must be gathered from time to time as it opens; 
for being very downy and light, it will otherwise be blown away 
by the first breezes of wind, or fall to the ground and be lost. 
It would be found very difiicult to sow anemone seed in a regular 
manner: it is united with, and enveloped in a downy substance, 
that, upon being put together in quantity, adheres in such a manner 
as to render it necessary to rub it between the hands for a consi- 
derable time in dry sand previous to sowing; otherwise the young 
plants would rise in clusters, and not have space enough to form 
their roots. 
