Among early summer flowers in open borders few are prettier than the
double-flowered kinds of ranunculus of the herbaceous type. 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. Treated liberally in
this way, these double buttercups are indeed fine plants.--_W. G., in
The Garden_.
[Illustration: DOUBLE BUTTERCUPS.]
* * * * *