324 GARDEN FLOWERS. 



May; North America; 1826. R. speciosum (showy); hardy 

 shrub ; 4 feet ; flowers scarlet, in May ; California ; 1829. 



Other species may be planted in extensive shrubberies. 



RICINUS. Palma Christi. [Euphorbiaceae.] For ordi- 

 nary gardens, 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 hot-bed in 

 April, 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 May. 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 R. 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 larger, 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. 



R. communis (castor-oil plant) ; half-hardy shrub ; 5 feet ; 

 flowers greenish-yellow, in July ; East Indies ; 1548. 



This plant has latterly attracted much attention, and there 

 are many very fine foliaged varieties which we may mention. 

 R. sanguineus, Borboniensis arboreus, Tunciensis, macrocarpus, 

 spectabitis, albicans, leucocarpus, Africanus, and macrocarpus 

 nanus, afford every variety of white, green, and red foliage. 

 The seed ripens as far North as Massachusetts in favorable 

 seasons. 



RICOTIA. [Cruciferae.] A hardy annual, thriving in gar- 

 den soil from seed sown in May. 



