on the Hortus Malabaricus, Part IL. 253 
The fifth species of Willdenow, R. inermis, which also M. Poi- 
ret considers as a mere variety of the R. communis, shows on 
what slight grounds even the genus Ricinus rests, as several spe- 
cies of Croton differ in nothing else from the Ricinus but in 
having a smooth capsule. We perhaps may therefore return to 
the classification of Pliny (/. 15. c. 6.), who considers Croton as 
another name for the Ricinus; and we ought thus to include in 
one genus with the Ricinus all the plants that have a similar 
flower, without attention to the mere external covering of the 
capsule. By this we should include not only several species of 
Croton, but also some of the Jatrophe, which have exactly the 
habit of the Ricinus: but these genera, as they now stand, can be 
distinguished by no character common to all the species. 
CapEL ÁvANACU, p. 6l. fig. 33. 
This plant is one of the Linnzan species of Croton, a genus 
concerning which I have given my opinion when treating of the 
Nilicamaram in the Commentary on the first part of the Hortus 
Malabaricus*. ltisnot, however, one of these which could be as- 
sociated with the Ricinus or Croton of the ancients, as mentioned 
above: yet the affinity is sufficiently strong to justify the natives 
of Malabar in including it in their genus Avanacu. It must, 
however, be observed, that the generic character of the genus 
Avanacu given by Rheede (64.) is remarkably deficient, what he 
says being only applicable to the two first species. Japalu, the 
name by which the Brahmans of Malabar call this plant, is 
merely another orthography for the Jipala of the Sanscrita, the 
name of a tree that will be afterwards described. 
According to Commeline the seeds of this plant, which are a 
valuable though drastic purgative, were originally known by the 
name of Pinei nuclei Molucani; but, when he published this 
* Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 503. 
"hdd * work, 
