176 
THE FLORIST. 
sand be used, as before pointed out, and, it may be added, if the bed 
be shaded, as much moisture will be secured to the plants (since the 
roots of the Ranunculus strike deep) as, under the conditions of 
the atmosphere, is suitable; and surely it is better to keep in the 
moisture than to apply it artificially. When the flowers are expand¬ 
ing, and the awning is erected, it is well to give the bed one rather 
plentiful watering, to enable the plants to support the great demand 
now made upon them. 
No management, however judicious, can fully compensate for an 
untoward and dry season; for the Ranunculus delights in natural 
moisture ; and if the flowers be not deficient in number, they will be 
so in size, colour, or vigour. I recommended sand as a top covering 
for the soil of the bed, it being always at hand, and answering well 
the purpose of keeping in its moisture; but old tanners’ bark, and 
especially, 1 would observe, moss, will prove excellent expedients. 
Moss, if compactly placed amongst the plants, would not only have 
a neat appearance, but would afford perhaps the most efficacious 
means of preserving the soil moist. Its value is fully attested in a 
recent number of the Gardeners’ Chronicle, wherein, also, the evils of 
watering in hot, droughty weather, and the benefits of top-dressing, 
are judiciously insisted upon, in entire accordance with my own views 
and experience. Indeed, the spreading and luxuriant foliage of the 
Ranunculus at once points out the utility of, and affords, a covering 
for the soil; and it was greatly on this account that 1 recommended 
that the udde distances between the rows should be abolished, and the 
roots set but about four inches apart. 
Hullj June 17. 
P.S. As many of the views in my last communication were sub¬ 
versive of the opinions and practice of others, and hence, possibly, 
looked upon with some disinclination or distrust, I beg to detail 
a fact corroborative of their soundness and efficiency. The beds of 
five extensive, and usually very successful, cultivators of*the Ranun¬ 
culus at this place have this year, with one partial exception, proved 
an absolute and total failure—such was the continued hot, droughty 
weather during the whole of the critical month of May ; whilst my 
own collection, treated as I have advocated, was one general mass of 
bloom; though, for the sake of severely testing one portion of my 
plan, no shading of the bed was resorted to ; and yet the soil, 
an inch from the surface, indicated an almost sufficient degree of 
moisture. ‘ It may further be added, that one amateur (the partial 
exception alluded to) who was induced to follow, yet but in part, my 
suggestions,—namely, by using (although but a little) fresh cow ma¬ 
nure in summer, and resorting to (though but to a thin) covering of 
sand, and refraining from watering,—had more and better flowers 
than all the remaining four cultivators conjointly. 
