PROPAGATION AND CULTURE OF RANUNCULI. 
171 
Method of raising Seedlings. —Procure some good seed; 
sow it in spring or autumn, about February or October, in boxes 
or pots filled to the brim with fine light loamy mould. Press 
the surface level with a board; sow the seeds thickly, and water 
with a small rose-pot, to make them lie flat. Sprinkle with fine 
dry mould just sufficient to cover the seed ; water again, and place 
the boxes in the shade. The seed will come up in a month. 
Protect from heavy rains and slugs ; keep the surface moist by 
frequent waterings from a finely-pierced rose-pot. Take the roots 
up in July, when the grass is withered ; preserve them in bags or 
boxes in dry sand. Plant them in the succeeding February six 
inches apart every way ; for though the seedling roots be small 
the first year, yet they require more room than the old varieties. 
In June they will bloom profusely; select and mark the best by 
tallies, and preserve each root separate in order to test their qua¬ 
lities ; then treat them as you do the old sorts. Or to save a 
year (which is an important portion of a man’s life,) procure some 
good seedlings ; these will flower the next season, producing semi¬ 
double, and some few double flowers. Some of the best seedlings 
will send up a pericarp, but they seldom produce anthers. This 
circumstance suggests the propriety of impregnation ; therefore, 
when the plants are in bloom, take a large camel’s-hair pencil 
brush, and apply it to the anthers of the semi-doubles, to collect 
the pollen or farina from them; then apply it to the pericarps of 
those that have good properties which are nearly double. This 
operation will fertilize the seed vessels, so that they will produce 
seed of a superior kind. By this method we have raised many 
thousands of seedlings, from which we have selected more than 
one hundred and fifty new varieties of the first quality. Most of 
them are distributed throughout the kingdom ; and among many 
other testimonies to their superiority, I will select one from Dr. 
Horner, of Hull, who says, in a letter, dated September 12, 1840 : 
—“ I have no hesitation in pronouncing your seedlings to be in¬ 
finitely superior to any thing I have seen, new or old; and not 
the least of their valuable properties is, their certainty of a full 
and vigorous bloom.” 
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Soil. —Much has been written on this subject; but I have 
proved, by long experience, that a sandy, hazelly loam, collected 
with the turf from a field or common, mixed with about one-third 
