PORTULAGA, Nat. Ord. Portulacacece. 
The Portulaca is a popular, hardy, creeping annual, each strong plant covering a space about 
a foot in diameter, with salver-shaped flowers, of every color imaginable, except blue, and striped, 
and these colors of the most intense 
brightness. The Portulaca delights 
in a warm sun and a sandy soi], 
and the drouth is never too long 
nor the heat too intense for this 
beautiful little salamander. When 
everything else is perishing for 
lack of moisture, the Portulaca will 
give its largest flowers and bright- 
est colors. We well recollect 
when the Portulaca gave us but very few colors, and a double flower would have been a w^onder.. 
Now we have all the colors that heart can desire, and flowers as double as roses and almost 
as large. The Portulaca does 
not like a clay soil nor black muck. 
It makes a brilliant bed on the 
lawn, but as the plants are low it 
is best to raise the bed in the cen- 
ter. Sow the seed in the open 
ground early, or under glass. The 
plants can be transplanted even in 
full flower, and in making a ribbon 
bed with Portulaca, we always 
wait until the first flower opens, so 
as to be entirely sure of the colors. 
Only one possible objection can be made to the Portulaca, and that is that its flowers are fully- 
open only in sunshine ; like the sun-dial, it counts only the bright hours. The perfectly double- 
Portulaca forms no seed, so that seed must be saved from semi-double flowers ; and from fifty to 
seventy-five per cent, of plants from this seed will give double flowers. 
RIGINUS, (Castor Oil Bean,) Nat. Ord. Euphorbiacece. 
ICINUS. Plants with very ornamental foliage and showy fruit, of 
stately growth and quite a tropical appearance. With other 
onamental -leaved 
plants, they make 
a most attractive 
bed on the lawn, 
and are also desir- 
able when grown 
as single speci- 
mens. Plant the 
seed in the open 
ground, in a dry 
situation, and as early as safe in the spring. The 
same soil and treatment that will give good early 
corn is just suitable for the Ricinus, 
In the latter part of the summer the 
splendid spikes, composed of the 
seed-vessels, will be ([uite gorgeous. 
Some of the varieties have spikes 
of a beautiful metallic green, oth- 
ers of a fine, almost transparent 
pink and scarlet, which seem to 
illuminate the grounds. There is 
no ornamental-leaved plant for out- 
door decoration for ordinary use 
equal to the Ricinus. For a clump or bed, the Ricmus should be planted about 
three feet apart. For a screen, and nothing is better fitted for such a purpose,, 
about two feet apart. Plants range from five to ten feet in height, except a dwarf variety, which 
seldom exceeds three feet. 
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