THE RANUNCULUS. 
subject ; but everybody who has glass, from 
a greenhouse up to a stove, ought to grow a 
plant or two of the fig in pots, if they do no- 
thing else with it. 
TREATMENT OF THE FIG UNDER GLASS. 
The fig planted against the wall of a house 
requires the same soil as elsewhere, and the 
house, or rather the roof of it, will be all the 
better adapted for it if there be a vine trained 
along the rafters, so as to partially, though 
not wholly, shade the tree from the burning 
sun. The sorts may be chosen from those we 
have mentioned, the descriptions will decide 
which are best adapted for the pui-pose ; the 
planting, training, pruning, and general treat- 
ment must be founded on the rules already laid 
down ; the forcing should be begun gently 
in January, February, March, or April, and 
the heat gradually increased as the growth 
advances ; but if the vines on the roof be 
forced, there needs no difference on account 
of the fig, the border in which the fig is 
placed being under glass, and consequently 
deprived of the usual supply of rain which 
would be its portion out of doors, must be re- 
gularly supplied. If the fires are begun in 
January, the fruit will be ready to gather in 
June or July, according to the sort ; and this 
does not prevent a continuance of the growth 
and of the bearing ; but we cannot help con- 
sidering the culture of the] fig on walls 
under glass a loss of room, and not worth the 
trouble. We recommend, most particularly, 
pot culture under glass, because you can re- 
gulate the seasons, the crops, and the quantity, 
by taking them into heat sooner or later, and 
in more or ie^-s quantity ; all not in use may 
be standing out under a south wall, but con- 
stantly watered and looked to as well as if 
they were in the house. 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.^ 
The fig is perhaps understood as little as 
any fruit under culture in this country, and, 
in general, as little cared for; certainly three- 
fourths of the figs produced at the deserts of 
the rich, or the markets of great cities, are of 
very inferior flavour to those imported; they 
have, for the most part, a rankish, earthy, and 
unpleasant twang ; the best are but mawkish 
and insipid. This entirely arises from imper- 
fect ripening; and the same fruit, if well ripened, 
would be very different. They are as precarious 
as melons, and vary from insipidity to extreme 
richness; but the former so greatly predomi- 
nate in number over the latter, as to be the 
rule instead of the exception. At the various 
horticultural shows, wheie we are to presume 
the gardener produces his best, they are very 
often poor, though we have discovered here and 
there a few samples that remind one of what 
the fig must be in its own country and climate; 
but, inasmuch as we can produce the grape, 
the pine, and the orange, as fine as they can 
be in their own land, there is no obstacle to 
our producing the fig in equal luxuriance and 
quality for flavour and ripeness. To accom- 
plish this, pot culture is the safest, and the 
half dozen sorts we have recommended are the 
best ; vary tlie houses, the temperature, and 
the subjects which share the room in the 
houses how you like, you will soon find that 
the fig tree is as obedient as the vine, and will 
yield to proper treatment, at all seasons, plenty 
of good fruit, which may be produced, by a 
little trouble, at as many different periods as 
the grape, and in quite as great perfection. 
Our illustration is from Loudon's Arhoretum 
Britan. 
THE RANUNCULUS. 
We have often thought it a gi-eat pity that 
this most splendid flower should become com- 
paratively neglected ever since all the humble 
florists of Bethnal-green, Hackney-road, Mile- 
end, and other localities of the metropolis 
were deprived of their little gardens — for 
those were the classes who most indulged in 
the culture of the flower — and whose depri- 
vation of their gardens to make way for brick 
and mortar dwellings was a real loss to flori- 
culture. But it is very remarkable that a 
flower which is so superb in its perfection, 
and which pi-esents us with so many varieties 
that have nearly attained that state, should 
not gain ground among those gentlemen who 
take some pains with their villa gardens, and 
grow with care many of our florist flowers. It 
is true that many cultivators have, as they call 
it, tried to grow them, but find they degenerate 
with the management they have received. 
But some great point has been overlooked in, 
we had nearly said, ninety-nine gardens out 
of a hundred round London, and that one 
point is fatal to all the delicate florist flowers 
of which the auricula, the ranunculus, the dou- 
ble anemone, and some others we could men- 
tion are the most remarkable. That oversight 
is want of draining. Stagnant water is death ; 
it is to the ranunculus plague, pestilence, and 
famine. It is as possible to transmute lead 
into silver as it is to grow the ranunculus 
long together in undrained ground. By this 
we mean ground which has stagnant water in 
it. We do not deny that there are gravelly 
soils which carry off" the water and form a 
natural drainage, but there are also hundreds 
of gardens on gravelly soils which do not. 
There are those who smile at our endeavours 
to persuade them that the ranunculus, which 
is so greedy fur water, and requires so much, 
should fail in undrained ground, because it is 
undrained, and set up their judgment against 
ours ; but, with great submission to their 
