170 
THE FLORIST’S JOURNAL. 
Having been an admirer and cultivator of this beautiful tribe 
of flowers for about thirty-five years, and a raiser of seedlings for 
fourteen years, I beg to state, for the information of your numerous 
readers, the results of my observation and experience. 
Many of the old sorts of Ranunculuses are nearly worn out with 
age ; and some of them, I believe, are quite extinct; others yet 
retain their places in our collections, and nobly sustain their 
character when they exhibit themselves amongst us. But we 
regret that they do not bloom frequently; sometimes not for 
several successive years. Two or three unfavourable seasons greatly 
reduce their numbers ; and in several instances certain sorts have 
entirely disappeared. This circumstance has disheartened many 
persons, and induced them to decline their culture ; but within 
the last twelve or fourteen years several eminent florists have 
commenced raising them from seed ; and they have obtained some 
hundreds of excellent show flowers, many of which surpass their 
far-famed predecessors in beauty ; and all of them in vigour, and 
the certainty of a general bloom. This season has been very pro¬ 
pitious to them in this neighbourhood ; there is scarcely one in a 
hundred but has bloomed, and most of them profusely. Each 
root has sent up, on an average, eight or ten blooms, and in 
many instances fifteen or sixteen, and their stems have been 
from fifteen to twenty inches high ; so that the beds have pro¬ 
duced great masses of bloom over their rich foliage, which has 
completely covered the ground. 
The seedlings have all the vigour of youth, and with this they 
are playful and sportive ; sometimes they come spotted, at another 
time edged,—sometimes with a great pericarp, and at other times 
perfectly double ; but they generally improve in three or four 
years, and become more steady in their habits, though now and 
then there is a renegade among them, which we are obliged to 
consign to perpetual banishment. But let not the inexperienced 
grower condemn any variety too hastily: those which produce 
pericarps or seed-vessels, commonly called eyes, are among the 
best show flowers ; but they must be exhibited a day or two 
before the bloom is completely expanded. Their showing the 
pericarp is an innocent trick of youth, but, as they advance in 
years, it will decrease, and at length entirely disappear. Such is 
the superiority of the seedlings in size and beauty, that persons 
who cultivate them are sure to excel those who grow only the old 
i 
varieties. 
