24 : 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[January, 
A Bit of the Sub-Tropical. 
For some years the English horticultural 
journals have had much to say about sub-tropi¬ 
cal gardening, and last spring Mr. Robinson 
brought out a book exclusively devoted to the 
subject. We have had several inquiries as to 
what is meant by sub-tropical gardening, and 
we do not wonder, as the name is not a happily 
chosen one. Like the absurd term “ foli¬ 
age-plants,” sub-tropical gardening has been 
adopted into our horticultural literature, and 
however inappropriate, it is likely to remain 
there. Mr. Robinson very concisely and accu¬ 
rately defines it as “beauty of form in the 
flower-garden.” It is producing pleasing effects 
by the use of plants of striking habit or pecu¬ 
liar character of foliage, in either a single speci¬ 
men or in groups. Flowers and color are sec¬ 
ondary considerations—beauty of form is the 
chief thing sought after. Almost every one has 
admired a fine specimen of the Castor-oil plant. 
There is a luxuriance of growth, a breadth of 
foliage of an attractive form, and an altogether 
unusual air and port about the plant, that arrest 
the attention of the most indifferent observer. 
There are a great many other plants, large and 
small, hardy and tender, that please the lover 
of the beautiful in form equally with the Castor- 
oil plant. It is the use of plants of this kind 
that the term sub-tropical gardening is intended 
to express. Those who have greenhouses and 
conservatories can employ a large number of 
tender things to decorate their grounds during 
summer, but the great majority must confine 
their attempts at ornamentation of this kind to 
those annual plants that can be raised from seed 
each year, or to those the roots of which can be 
kept in the cellar with 
the potatoes and carrots. 
Our efforts in the past 
summer in the sub¬ 
tropical fine were con¬ 
fined to two beds, of the 
simplest kind, yet so ef¬ 
fective as to be a con¬ 
stant source of enjoy¬ 
ment. One was a bed 
of cannas, about ten feet 
across, and filled with a 
number of varieties, pre¬ 
senting foliage of vari¬ 
ous shades of green, aud 
running into blackish 
purple. A splendid ef¬ 
fect was produced, not 
only in form but in 
color. The roots of the 
cannas can be easily 
kept through the winter, 
and they are plants that 
one never tires of. The 
other bed was an oval, 
which was planted with¬ 
out much forethought, 
but which proved to be 
the pride of our grounds. 
Late last spring we sa\f 
at a florist’s a lot of ne¬ 
glected tubers of Cala¬ 
dium esculentum, which he was very glad to 
have taken off his hands; these were planted 
along the outer line of the oval. A friend in 
Africa had sent us some seeds, and, among 
others, those of the Castor-oil plant. Thinking 
that these might possibly prove different from 
our ordinary forms of Ricinus (which they did 
not), they were started with others in a hot-bed, 
and when the weather became warm enough, 
two of the strongest plants were set in the oval. 
At first, the Caladiums had it all their own way, 
but at length the Ricinus got ahead, and how 
the two together did grow! The bed was a 
POD OP “ SEA-BEAN .”—(MllCUnCl MWIS.) 
daily wonder. There were the great elephant’s- 
ear-like leaves of the Caladium, and the beau¬ 
tiful crimped and rayed leaves of the Castor-oil 
plant, each striving to look more “ sub-tropical ” 
than the other. Our artist has given a view of 
this bed, which we merely present as an exam¬ 
ple of what may be done with very little outlay. 
■ SEA-BEANS.' 
SUB-TROPICAL GROUP. 
The glory of this bed departed with the frosts. 
The Caladium roots were put in a warm room 
to dry off, and the Castor-oils went to the muck 
heap, and the bed was made ready for bulbs. 
It is well to begin even thus early to think 
over our successes and our failures, and make 
plans for another year. We can heartily ad¬ 
vise our friends to try a bit of the sub-tropical. 
“ Sea-Beans Asses’-Eyes.” 
Several of our friends who have passed the 
winter in Florida have brought home interesting 
seeds, which they procured under the name of 
“ Sea-Beans,” they having been told by the 
Floridians that they were the product of some 
marine plant. Mr. B. F. Stevens, of San Augus¬ 
tine, sent us some months ( ago specimens by 
mail,with the following account of them: “ They 
are found all along the coast of Florida after 
the north-east storms in September, October, 
and November. Thousands of them were col¬ 
lected last fall, and quite a little trade was car¬ 
ried on by the sale of them to Northern visitors. 
They will take a good polish, and good speci¬ 
mens are used as ornaments. We have had 
several debates as to what they are and where 
they come from. Some are of the opinion that 
they grow on trees, others claim that they grow 
in the water, either in the Atlantic or Amazon.” 
These seeds are the product of a vine, Mv.cuna 
urens , that grows 
in the various West 
Indian' islands aud 
tropical America. 
The vine has 
somewhat the ap¬ 
pearance of the 
Hyacinth Bean 
(Dolichos Labial), 
frequently culti¬ 
vated as an orna¬ 
mental climber. The flowers are yellow, 
and are succeeded by short, broad pods, which 
are roughened by transverse ridges, as shown in 
the engraving. These pods are externally 
clothed with brownish barbed hairs, which 
penetrate the skin with the greatest ease, and 
produce an intolerable 
itching. These hairs are 
the Cowhage (vulgarly 
Cow-itch) of the drug¬ 
stores, which is pro¬ 
duced by this species 
and a closely related 
one. The seeds, which 
are shown in the en¬ 
graving of the average 
size, are double convex. 
These convex surfaces 
are slightly roughened, 
aud of a dark, chestnut- 
brown color, which to¬ 
wards the edges sud¬ 
denly becomes very 
light, and presents the 
appearance of a distinct 
yellowish-brown mar¬ 
gin. The two convex 
surfaces are joined by a 
black band, which ex¬ 
tends nearly around the 
seed. The seed is sus¬ 
ceptible of a handsome 
polish. The specimens 
that we have seen have 
been polished by the 
use of a file and glass, 
followed by fine emery- 
paper and flour of emery 
and oil. The French inhabitants of the West 
Indies call the seed (Eilde bourrique, the Eye 
of the Jackass. These beaus are carried by 
the ocean currents from some other shore and 
thrown upon that of Florida, where their ap¬ 
pearance naturally gives rise to the conjecture 
that they grow upon some plant in the sen. 
None of the proper marine plants bear seeds. 
