Having been
established favorites for ages, most of them are familiar to us, and
poor indeed is that hardy plant border which does not contain a good
healthy tuft of what are termed Fair Maids of France, or Bachelor's
Buttons, the doubled flowered variety of _R. aconitifolius_. The small,
pure white rosette-like flowers produced so plentifully, and in such
a graceful manner, make it an extremely pretty, and, though common,
valuable plant, particularly useful in a cut state. It is one of the
kinds shown in the annexed engraving. Of double crowfoots there are
three others, the types of which are _R. bulbosus, acris_, and _repens_.
All these are very pretty, having bright yellow, compact, rosette-like
flowers, as perfect in form as that of some of the finest sorts of the
Asiatic or Persian ranunculus of the florists. Both the double _R.
acris_ and _repens_ are profuse flowerers, but _R. bulbosus_ is not so;
it, however, bears much larger flowers than either of the others, and
on this account is named _R. speciosus_. These four plants are
indispensable, yielding, as they do, flowers in such abundance and in
such long succession. In order to enable them to develop fully
they require good culture, a good, deep loamy soil, enriched with
well-decayed manure, and if the border be moist, so much the better,'for
these ranunculuses delight in a cool, moist soil.
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