FOR THE HOME BEAUTIFUL 131 



rangement: For the center of the bed make use 

 of either one plant or a grouping of three Ricinis 

 or castor oil bean plants. These plants often 

 attain a height of ten feet and the foliage is tropi- 

 cal looking and very grand indeed. 



Surround the ricinis with a row of caladium or 

 elephant ears, next making use of a row of semi- 

 dwarf cannas, and finally an outside border of 

 dusty miller. This arrangement will make a show- 

 ing that will be very favorably received generally. 



Under this heading of "Bedding Plants" we 

 shall devote more attention to the Canna than to 

 any of the others, both because it is today our 

 most popular tall growing type of bedder, and 

 because its requirements both as to culture and 

 storing of the mature roots is not so generally 

 understood as the care of such plants as the 

 geranium. 



Reading a description of the canna as written 

 so recently as the year 1883, we note this : "The 

 flowers don't amount to much, but the plant is 

 majestic and gorgeous." 



The patient work of the hybridizer again has 

 brought forth an abundant fruitage, and in just 

 a very few years has produced from a "flower 

 that don't amount to much," one that today is 

 gorgeous in the extreme; the individual flowers 

 now as large as the gladiolus, and the acme of 

 brilliancy and showiness of coloring. 



