372 HORTICULTURAL MANUAL. 



in a closet of the house where sweet potatoes can be kept. 

 They can also be kept well in a furnace-heated cellar on 

 shelves, singly, as when closely packed they are liable to 

 mould. If they dry too much they should be removed to 

 a more distant part of the cellar, keeping in mind the 

 fact that it freezes when a potato would not be harmed, 

 and that the dampness of a common cellar is almost cer- 

 tain to start mould and rotting. 



379. Elephant's Ear (Caladium Esculentum). This 

 tropical plant with immense leaves is often used with 

 canna in tropical beds with good effect. It is really not a 

 Caladium, but the Colocasia, from which the " poi " is 

 made, so much esteemed in Hawaii. The immense fleshy 

 roots are also used for food preparations in Japan and the 

 Pacific tropics quite generally. The great tubers are 

 planted whole usually, and in the warm, dry air of the 

 prairie States they seem to thrive as well as in their Pacific 

 home. But when started early in pots the large tubers are 



,divided into a number of sections, each of which makes a 

 strong plant by the time it will do to plant outside, about 

 the first of June at the North. 



380. Sweet Pea. This beautiful and fragrant flower is 

 too well known for description. Its chief value is for cut 

 flowers, as the plant and its supports are by no means orna- 

 mental. Its place is in the vegetable garden where it can 

 receive horse culture in rows the same as the garden peas. 

 Planted the usual depth of garden peas, and supported by 

 woven wire four feet in width on stakes, it gives a profusion 

 of flowers for the living-room vases well through the 

 season until after very severe frosts. 



381. The Castor-bean. In about all parts of the Union 

 the castor-bean (Ricinus communis) is used in parks and 

 in tropical beds on lawns. Its broad-lobed leaves, showy 

 panicles of flowers, and its after-fruit pods are especially 



