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ASIATIC: RANUNCULUS. 
From the soft wing of vernal breezes shed, 
Anemones, auriculas, enriched 
With shining meai 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 attrac- 
tions. 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 com- 
parison with the Persian ranunculus, that it is 
seldom cultivated by the epicurean florist. We 
have sometimes met with this variety in the 
cottage 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. 



