Notes and Gleanings. ^i 



RiCiNUS. — Castor-Oil Plant {Palma Christ i). — Some of the species of 

 Ricinus make the most magnificent of border annuals, often attaining the height 

 of ten or twelve feet. The seeds should be sown in pots in heat, early in the 

 season, and transplanted soon as the frosts are over, into a mass of light, rich 

 soil. 



Ricinus co/ntminis, is the common castor-oil plant. It has very large, peltate, 

 palmate leaves ; lobes lanceolate, serrated ; stem herbaceous, frosted ; capsules 

 prickly. It is a native of the East Indies and Africa, and although an annual 

 and herbaceous plant in our gardens, becomes in Africa a tree of several years' 

 standing. In Candia it continues many years, and requires a ladder to come at 

 the seed. The oil obtained is equal to one fourth of the weight of the seeds 

 employed. 



Ricinus sangjiineiis. — Dark red. Among the interesting and gigantic plants 

 now in fashion for ornamenting lawns, there is none that exceeds this species 

 in rapid growth, and in the grandeur of its enormous and elegant foliage, with its 

 terminal spike of scarlet burrs, from one to two feet long. The flowers are not 

 so ornamental as the burrs which succeed them, and which, as the seeds ripen, 

 change to a reddish green, the color of the foliage. The stalks are of a dark 

 red or purplish color. The leaves which, in the infancy of their growth are very 

 delicate and beautiful, soon expand and stretch themselves into gigantic propor- 

 tions. They are of the same shape and style as described under R. coinnmnis. 

 The seeds are similar to those of that variety. 



Mr. J.J. H. Gregory, of Marblehead, has favored me with the following descrip- 

 tion of a remarkable specimen of this interesting plant from a friend : — 



'■'•Ricinus, red. — Seeds planted in a hot-bed. Plants set out in the back yard, 

 near my dwelling, rather shady, in good soil, where the manure from a hog- 

 pen had been placed the winter previous. 



" I raised several enormous stalks, — leaves quite four feet from stalk of plant 

 to point of leaf I did not measure the leaves. 



" I bought the seed last spring, I think of you ; but it is not impossible that 

 I obtained it of some other person, as I purchased seeds of several persons, but 

 Ricinus of but one ; had several varieties. 



" I send you the ' statistics ' of one which goes ahead of all advertisements I 

 have seen — I have the seed from it now : ten and one half feet to first branch 

 of stalk, where the seed-stalk arose, which was two feet and three inches in 

 height ; eleven feet four inches to second branching, and to tip of stalk sixteen 

 feet eight inches. There is a piece of the stalk, thirteen feet long, in the lot now. 

 It measures, after being frozen during the winter, nine and one third inches 

 around the stalk, just above the ground, and six and a quarter inches, ten feet 

 from the ground. Burrs bright red, almost scarlet. G." Joseph Breck. 



Green Russet, or Winter Sweet. — This apple is very heavy, very sweet, 

 and very durable, and may, for the last-named property, be very desirable. On 

 the other hand the fruit is hard, and the tree not very productive. They have 

 been tried baked, and found to bake very well. A few trees for family use 

 might be desirable. Journal of Agriculture. 



