EUPIIORBIACEAE. 



211 



1. Jatropha Curcas L. PHYSIC-NUT. 

 (Fig. 232.) A tree, up to 15 high with a 

 stout trunk sometimes 8' in diameter, the 

 branches glabrous, the young twigs some- 

 what pubescent. Leaves suborbicular in 

 outline, long-petioled, 3 '-6' broad, cordate 

 at base, sharply or bluntly 3-5-lobed, 

 rarely entire, dark green, glabrous or some- 

 what puberulent ; cymes terminal, mostly 

 shorter than the leaves, stalked ; bracts and 

 pedicels pubescent, the calyx slightly hairy; 

 petals coherent, greenish ; fruit fleshy, 

 about li' long, tardily separating into 3 

 or 2 carpels; seeds oblong, about f long, 

 purgative. 



Collected by Lefroy about 1875 at Tayn- 

 ter's Vale and regarded by him as native 

 there which seems improbable. West Indies 

 and tropical continental America. Lefroy's 

 specimen is preserved in the Kew herbarium. 

 The plant has not been seen in Bermuda by 

 recent collectors, though also mentioned as at 

 Walsinghara by H. B. Small. Flowers in 

 summer. 



Jatropha multifida L., CORAL PLANT, CORAL BUSH, a shrub 4 or 5 

 high, with leaves very deeply cleft into 7-9 narrow laciniate segments, the 

 scarlet umbellate flowers on coral-red stalks, is commonly cultivated in gar- 

 dens for ornament, flowering in summer and autumn. 



Jatropha podagrica Hook., GOUTY-STALKED JATROPHA, Central American, 

 a species with a much swollen stem about 1 high, the large peltate leaves 

 orbicular and lobed, the purplish flowers in flat cymes, the capsules ellipsoid, 

 is recorded by Lefroy as introduced in 1875. 



Jatropha hastata Jacq., KOSE-FLOWERED JATROPHA, Cuban, a shrub about 

 5 high with irregularly lobed fiddle-shaped leaves and umbelled scarlet 

 flowers, is occasionally grown in gardens. [J. panduraefolia Andr.] 



7. MANIHOT Adans. 



Vigorous monoecious herbs or shrubs, commonly with glaucous and gla- 

 brous foliage. Leaves alternate, entire or palmately 3-7-lobed or 3-7-parted, 

 the segments entire or lobed. Flowers apetalous, in racemes or panicles, the 

 staminate with a calyx of 5 partially united sepals. Stamens 10, in 2 series; 

 filaments slender, those of the inner series attached to the lobes of the disk, 

 the anthers opening lengthwise. Pistillate flowers with a calyx similar to that 

 of the staminate but the tube often shorter. Ovary 3-celled; styles 3, slightly 

 united at the base. Ovules solitary in each cavity. Capsule 3-celled. Seeds 

 solitary in each cavity. [South American name.] About 80 species, natives 

 of South America, the following typical. 



