A VARIETY of bachelor's buttons is to be found in Queen Flora's wardrobe, but all alike are adapted to make gallants look gay. The common scabious (Scabiosa succisa) is a blue bachelor's button; and the white campion (Lychnis dioica) offers us both white and rose-coloured buttons, so constructed that they can be fitted into a small button-hole, and will remain there without requiring to be sewn on. But the flower before us is the real Simon Pure, and carries gold enough to gild all the rest.

There are three British species of buttercup, so nearly alike that a young botanist may be pardoned for not soon perceiving the characters that distinguish them. The earliest to flower is Ranunculus bulbosus, which has a bulbous root like a little turnip. This has a bold yellow flower, the sepals of which turn downwards. Ranunculus repens is the creeping-rooted buttercup, with large glossy flowers. It occurs in every variety of soil, but always in an open situation, and when much exposed is the most splendid flower of its family. A few years since we saw vast quantities of this species in some new roads connected with the deserted docks near Rotterdam. The plant had spread amongst the loose stony soil of those roads, and all traffic being abandoned through a commercial collapse, the buttercup had that part of the world all to itself, and the flowers were of great size, intensely yellow, and very highly varnished. The third in the series is Ranunculus acris, the acrid meadow crowfoot, more of a meadow and pasture plant than the last, and only a shadow less beautiful. This is the species to which we are indebted for the double variety here figured. But all three produce double flowers, and, in fact, R. repens produces two double varieties, which are unequal in quality, the best of the two being of dwarf growth and neat habit. Any of these are the mary-buds of the poets, for the sentimental eye does not recognise the distinctions of the botanists, which are often as trivial as the fancies of the versifiers, but less attractive, and perhaps in the end less useful.

The hairy buttercup (R. hirsutus) comes near to the foregoing, though smaller and paler in colour; but it produces a double variety to make its resemblance the more complete. Of the other British crowfoots or buttercups we need not speak, for they are scarcely to be reckoned garden flowers. There are, however, several valuable plants in the genus respecting which a few words may be offered with advantage.

The most generally useful of the garden crowfoots is the double variety of Ranunculus aconitifolius, popularly known as Fair Maids of France, a name betraying the origin of the plant. The slender-stemmed crowfoot (R. amplexicaulis), is an exquisite beauty, with grey foliage and pure white flowers. A group of Alpine species claims the special attention of the cultivator of choice rock-plants. They are all most lovely. A. anemonoides is very dwarfed in growth, with finely-divided leaves and purple-tinged white flowers. R. alpestris agrees generally with the latter, but is distinct enough for garden purposes. R. glacialis, the glacier crowfoot, is the most dwarfed of all, forming a little tuft, crowned with purple-tinted white flowers. The cyclamen-leaved crowfoot (R. parnassifolius) is very distinct in leafage, with showy yellow flowers. The rue-leaved crowfoot (R. rutoefolius) has white flowers with yellow centres, the leafage being distinct. Finally, to complete this list, R. speciosus is a showy rock-plant, with flowers of the brightest yellow.

It will be time to look for others when the amateur has obtained and mastered the foregoing. But we may also add the names of a few that are well worth attention for their beauty, though not specially desirable for beginners. R. bullatus, R. Lyalli, and R. cortusoefolius are not hardy enough for commonplace treatment, but they are fine frame and cool house plants, needing a little protection against extreme cold and damp. R. pyrenoeus, R. gramineus, R. thora, R. uniflorus, and R. spicatus may be added to the list.

The crowfoots agree pretty nearly in their cultural requirements. They love moisture, and the Alpine species are quite sensitive in this respect, for drought soon kills them. Full exposure suits them generally much better than a position in any degree shaded; but R. speciosus likes the shade, and Fair Maids of France will brave the fullest sun or endure some amount of shade, and is one of the best of border flowers for a London garden.