

Macaranga^ EUPIIORBIACE.e (^rraiu). 487 



Natal; Dumisa, 2O0O ft., Fadatu, 740 1 7461 InanJa, Wood, 875! Clainnout, 

 Wood, 552G ! Krantz Kloof, 1800 ft., Wood, 253 ! 544 ! Nobote River, Gerrard, 1 E 

 1911 ! Ziiluland ; 'N^oje, 1-2000 ft., Wood, 11551 ! and without precise locality, 

 Gudnzius[ Cooper, 3142! 



XXXII. RICINUS, Linn. 



Floioers monoecious ; petals ; disc 0. Male : Calyx closed in LuJ, 

 splitting into 3-5 valvate segments. Stamens very numerous ; fila- 

 ments connate in repeatedly branching clusters ; anther-cells 

 distinct, divaricate, distant, subglobose, dehiscing longitudinally. 

 Rudiment<ary ovary 0. Female: Calyx normally spathaceou'^j very 

 caducous. Ovary 3-celled ; ovules solitary in each cell ; style 

 short or long, spreading, more or less plumose, 2-fid or 2-partite, or 

 occasional!} entire. Capsule 3-dymous, breaking up into three 

 2-valved cocci. Seed ovoid-oblong, carunculate; teista crustaeeous ; 

 albumen fleshy ; cotyledons broad, flat. 



A tall glabrous annual, usually glaucous ; in 

 or small tree ; leaves large, alternate, peltate, palmately 7-llMobed, lobes serrate ; 

 racemes more or less paniculate at the ends of the brauehes ; flowers rather large, 

 the uppermost male, crowded, the lower female, shortly pedicelled ; capsules 

 smooth or echinate, 



DisTRTp. A single variable species, possibly a native of Tropical Africa, widely 

 cultivated and often naturalised in all warm countries. 



1. R- communis (Linn, Sp. PL ed. i. 1007); a small evergreen 



tree ; young shoots and panicles usually glaucous ; leaves large, long- 

 petioled, membranous, palmately lobed, Jobes 7-13, oblong to linear, 

 acute Or acuminate, their margin glandular-serrate, blade 1-2 ft. 

 across, glabrous, green or reddish especially when young ; stipules 

 green or red ; racemes stout, erect, dense or open ; male flowers 

 about ^ in. across ; female calyx -^— i in. long ; capsule 3-coccous, 

 subglobose, ellipsoid or oblong, usually echinate, sometimes smooth or 

 nearly so, J.-| in. long ; seeds with a prominent subglobose caruncle, 

 oblong, 1^2 in. loni^, testa smooth, shining, mottled. Thiinh. Prodr. 



117 ;i?o/.iHa^. /.2209; Baillttml Gen, Enjihorh. t. lO^UJgs, 1-5, 

 and Adavfioiim, iii. 149; Bentl d- Trim. Med. PI iv. t. 237; 

 Arff. h DC Prodr, xv. ii. 1017 ; Harv. Gen, S, Afr, PL ed. 2, 33G ; 

 SooJc. f. Flora Brit. lud. v. 457; Prain in Dyer, FL Trop. Afr, vi. 



communis, I Uvidus, MiilL Arg. I.e. 1018. 



Coast and Eastern Rkgtons : cultivated and naturalised, also cultivated in 

 the Eastern Transvaal. 



The only form, or variety, of which specimen? have been sent from Sout]i 

 Africa to Kew is var. lividus, Mlill. Arg. {R Uddus, Jacq.), in which the leava^^ 

 are dark red above, paler red with dark red veins beneath, red stipules, a rather 

 dense fruiting panicle and an ellipsoid rather densely and stoutly echinate caps.de : 

 doubtless, Itowever, other forms are also to be met witli. 



