ON THE RANUNCULUS. 
Ill 
excessive moisture during the winter months; so that it appears 
safer to plant in the spring, for though they may not bloom so 
early by a week or ten days, yet that they grow as strong and bloom 
as well any person may prove, by planting a quantity in the 
autumn and another in the spring. Speaking from my own ex¬ 
perience, I greatly prefer the latter end of February to any other 
time ; for both the earth and atmosphere are then more conducive 
to vegetation, the first being mellowed by the winter’s frost, and 
the second rendered more genial by the increasing strength of 
the sun’s rays. The roots vegetate almost immediately, which 
consequently preserves them from the dangers attendant upon a 
long exposure to the inclemencies of the winter season. 
For planting in the spring, the ground should be dug in October, 
breaking it very fine, and laying in a stratum of fresh cow-dung, 
about three or four inches thick; this should be laid level all 
over the bed, about six inches from the surface. The situation 
should be some warm spot on any free soil. A hazel loam is 
perhaps the best, though it makes little difference what the soil is ; 
only observe never to plant Ranunculi twice on the same ground. 
If it is desired to have them in the same place, the earth must be 
taken out to the depth of one foot and a half, and the hollow filled 
up with any rich friable earth: leave the beds exposed to the weather 
all winter. The reason for digging the beds in October is, that 
Ranunculi do better on a firm bottom than on a loose one ; 
indeed it is a practice with the growers in Holland to beat the 
bottom of the beds with a wooden beater; but this is not neces¬ 
sary here, our soil being so much stiffer than that in Holland. 
The ground being thus prepared, choose a fine day about the 
end of February to plant in, and having selected the roots and 
marked out the bed, which should be three feet six inches in 
width, and of any desired length, with a path at least one foot six 
inches wide, commence by removing the entire surface of the bed 
to the depth of an inch and a half; then rake it very smooth and 
level, draw lines across the bed with a straight lath six inches 
apart, and a centre one with the garden line; this will greatly 
facilitate planting ; keep the roots four inches asunder in the rows ; 
place the roots firm without pushing them into the earth ; and as 
soon as one sort is planted, enter the name and number of roots 
planted in a book ruled thus— 
