A BIG BEAN STORY.
I have just harvested my Ricinus or Castor Bean, which I raised from the seed you sent me last spring. It was of mammoth growth, attaining a height of fourteen and a half feet, and sixteen feet across the branches of which there were seventeen after cutting off five during the summer. Each of the branches contained a cluster of burs, the center one having one hundred and thirty-four burs, the other branches not so many. Many of the leaves measured from thirty to thirty-two inches across from tip to tip or point of leaves. When sawed off at the ground, the body measured five inches and a half of wood in diameter, inside of the bark, which was one-fourth of an inch thick. This is a big bean story but nevertheless a true one.—T. G. T. in Vick's Magazine.
IT is an old adage that one must take Time by the forelock. In the culture of flowers, we must certainly do so, planning and preparing in spring for the coming winter, if we would secure for ourselves plants that can be relied on for blooming. We know of none equal to
THE CHINESE PRIMROSE,
for common house culture, commencing to flower usually in November, and continuing through the spring months. The seed for this ought to be sown in April—if later the plants will not come into bloom so early. The soil for Primroses in all stages should be fine, light and rich, with a good mixture of sand.