Jatropha. MONOECIA MONADELPHIA. 687 
Beng. Baghbafinda, 
_ Teling. Napalam. 
This is one of the most common small trees or bushes on 
the coast of Coromandel, and in flower and fruit all the 
“year. 
Trunk irregular, from being constantly kept low for 
hedges. Wood soft and spongy. Bark smooth, light ash- 
coloured. Leaves scattered, petioled, broad-cordate, five- 
angled, smooth, about six inches each way. Petioles round, 
smooth, from four to six inches long. Stipules none. Panicles 
terminal, or from the exterior axills, cymose, bearing many 
small, yellow flowers, The male flowers at the extremities of 
the ramifications, on short, articulated pedicels, and the fe- 
male ones in their divisions, with their pedicels not articu- 
lated. Bractes a small one below each sub-division of the 
panicle, and generally one pressing on the calyx. Male 
calyx five-leaved. Corol five-petalled, campanulate, some- 
what hairy. Nectary of five glandular bodies, round the 
base of the filaments. Fi/aments six, the central one very: 
thick, columnar ; the five exterior ones filiform, towards the 
base adhering to the central one, all erect, and a little longer 
than the calyx. Anthers ten, sagittate, equal; five sup- 
ported by the large central filament, and one by each of the 
others, Female calyx, corol and nectary as in the male. 
Germ oblong, smooth. Styles three, short. Stigma bifid, 
somewhat hairy. Pericarpium and seed as in the genus. 
The wood of this tree, or rather bush, is too soft and. 
spongy to be of any use, it will not even burn freely. 
The leaves warmed, and rubbed with castor oil are by 
the natives applied to inflammations where suppuration is 
wished for. An oil is expressed from the seed, which is only . 
used to burn in lamps, by the poorer classes of the natives. 
The seeds taken inwardly act with great violence both up- 
wards and downwards, and are therefore almost exploded 
from the Hindoo Materia Medica. They are seldom or ne- 
ver administered by our Medical Gentlemen. wi: 
