DESCBIPTIVE LIST OF FLOWERS. 345 



RICINTTS. PALMA CHRISTL CASTOR-OIL PLANT. 



[From the Latin name for the tick, an insect which the seeds resemble.] 



Ricinus communis. This is the common Castor-oil 

 Plant. A very luxuriant, strong-growing annual, some- 

 times found in the garden, not so much for its beauty as 

 for curiosity. Some of the species are ornamental as well 

 as curious. 



R. sanguine US, is well worthy of a place in the flower- 

 garden, where there is a plenty of room. The seeds 

 should be started in a hot-bed or green-house, and trans- 

 planted into small pots when they are three or four inches 

 high, and turned out into the garden in June. They 

 make a vigorous growth, and attain the height of eight or 

 ten feet before the frost overtakes them, with numerous 

 side branches, with terminal spikes of greenish-yellow 

 flowers, one or one foot and one-half long ; these are suc- 

 ceeded by thorny capsules of a light-scarlet color, which 

 are very ornamental. The stalks of the plants as well as 

 the foot-stalks of the leaves, are brownish-red. The leaves 

 are very large, palmate, and elegant. 



RUDBECKIA. 



[Named after Olaus Rudbeck, professor of botany at Upsal.] 



A genus of North American plants, some of them valu- 

 able for the border ; all are hardy, and easily propagated 

 by dividing the roots. 



Rudblckia fulgida has large, brilliant yellow flowers, 

 with a dark center, or disk ; about two feet high ; continu-r 

 ing in bloom all the months of July and August ; peren- 

 nial. 



R. amplcxi folia, An herbaceous annual plant, grows 

 from two to three feet high ; straight branching stems ; 

 lanceolated radical leaves, sinewy and petiolatcd ; the 

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