288 
YOU ARE RADIANT WITH 
CHARMS. 
ASIATIC RANUNCULUS. 
From the soft wing of vernal breezes shed, 
Anemones, auriculas, enriched 
With shining meal o’er all their velvet leaves ; 
And full ranunculus of glowing red. 
' THOMSON. 
The Asiatic ranunculus blooms amid our 
parterres in the earliest days of spring, 
spreading forth its varied lustrous flowers, 
which, shining with innumerable hues, are 
radiant with attractions. No other plant 
offers so rich a variety of colour to amateurs, 
“ from a black down to white, through all 
the shades of reds, yellows, browns, and 
indeed, excepting blue, every colour may be 
found in these gaily painted flowers.” 
Though this is one of the most hardy of 
the garden ranunculuses, and makes the 
most brilliant appearance by its vivid scarlet 
colour, it is almost lost in the country, or 
so little esteemed in comparison with the 
Persian ranunculus, that it is seldom culti¬ 
vated by the Epicurean florist. We have 
sometimes met with this variety in the cot¬ 
tage gardens, which border the sandy com¬ 
mons of Sussex and Surrey, where meeting 
with a congenial soil, it seems to linger like 
an expiring flame. 
