344 THE PLEASURE, OR [April. 
6. The Cherry and Rose; the name denotes their colours, which 
are on a white ground. 
Breeders, are self or plain coloured tulips, obtained by sowing 
the seed, which in time, by being planted in a proper compost of 
lime rubbish and poor soil, accidently, break out into stripes and 
variegations, by which new varieties are annually obtained. 
I have been the more particular in my account of that glorious 
flower, the Tulifia gesneriana, or garden tulip, as it is now in more 
general estimation, than any other flower whatever. 
Mr. Samuel Curtis, Florist, of Walworth near London, had 
sent me last autumn, upwards of two hundred varieties of the most 
elegant sorts of tulips, and at the same time, informed me, that it 
is very common for him to receive from fifty to eighty pounds 
sterling, for a single root, of a new variety. Such is the present 
rage for tulips in England. 
For the most suitable soil, and best method of planting, see the 
Flower-Garden for October. 
Ranunculuses. 
April showers, and frequent rains in May, are essentially neces- 
sary to the growth and vigour of Ranunculuses: if these fail, soft 
water must be administered in sufficient quantities between the 
rows, by means of a common watering pot, with a long tube or 
spout held low, so as not to wash the earth into holes: for it is bet- 
ter to avoid watering the plants themselves, as it might chill them 
too much, and stagnate their juices. The consequences of omit- 
ting to water when necessary, are these, viz. The plants will 
make little progress; the blossom buds of the strongest will be 
small, and the weaker plants will not bloom at all; the grass or 
foliage will put on a sickly yellowish appearance, from which it 
will not recover during the season; and lastly, the roots when taken 
up, will be small and lean. 
But such kinds of watering, however necessary, are by no means 
so salutary to these, or any other flowers or plants, as fine warm, 
natural showers; as they can neither be so equally dispensed, nor 
are the plants naturally disposed to receive them, when the atmo- 
sphere is dry; because their pores and fibres are contracted, and 
they are as it were, in the expectancy of dry weather. 
Since it is evident that artificial waterings are, in all respects, so 
much inferior to natural, it is, therefore, better to wait a day or two, 
in hopes of a change of weather, than to be too hasty in affording 
these succours, although the plants may appear to suffer for the 
moment, by the omission: for if such a change should fortunately 
take place, they will receive infinitely more benefit from it, than 
When both themselves and the soil are already satured or replen- 
ished with water, not so congenial to vegetation, as that ordained 
by nature for the purpose. For their further treatment see the 
Flonver-Garderi in May. 
