238 glenny's handbook 



compost of one part good light loam, one part leaf-mould, and 

 one part decayed manure, with sand, &c., as may be requisite. 

 The suckers should be removed if a single-stemmed vigorous 

 plant is preferred ; but if larger, thicker plants are required, 

 it is only to shift them on into larger vessels till they get a 

 yard across, when they look very fine, but of course get 

 cumbrous. Small single plants are very pretty, and are 

 certainly preferable for windows. The plants, which form 

 thick fleshy tubers, are to be divided when they are dry and 

 at rest, and the largest tubers or offsets should be selected for 

 flowering. These plants will grow all the winter, and come 

 into a flowering state some time between January and May, 

 according to the time they commenced their growth. It 

 succeeds in a cistern in the greenhouse, and in a tank out of 

 doors during summer. 



PiICINUS. Palma Chrtsti. [Euphorbiaceae.] For 

 ordinary gardens the R. communis, or Castor-oil plant, is 

 sufficient. It is one of those plants which, wherever there is 

 room for them, should always find a place, for the sake of 

 their fine expansive palmate foliage. The flowers are curious, 

 but not showy. The seeds should be sown in a hotbed in 

 February, and the young plants potted singly, and grown in 

 the frame for a few weeks, then transferred to the greenhouse 

 or a cooler frame, and finally hardened off in a cold frame, 

 ready for planting out by the end of June. The soil should 

 be made rich for them ; for, being grown on account of their 

 foliage, it is desirable to encourage them, that the leaves may 

 be fine and vigorous. The variety called JR. communis minor 

 is preferable, except where there is abundant space, when 

 the variety major may be grown : the leaves of the latter 

 are considerably the largest, though both are large. This 

 plant, though a shrub or tree in its native climate, is destroyed 

 here by our winter, and is therefore treated as a half-hardy 

 annual. 



RIGIDELLA. [Iridaceae.] Beautiful half-hardy bulbs. 

 Sandy loam and peat. Offsets. 



ROBINIA. [Leguminosae, § Papilionaceae.] Deciduous 

 shrubs and trees, many of them of large size, as is the case 

 with the False Acacia, or Locust tree {R. pseudo-acacia), 

 which, besides its elegant pinnate foliage and drooping 



