5G JOURNAL, BOMBA Y NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XV. 



THE POISONOUS PLANTS OF BOMBAY. 



By Lieut.-Colonel K. R. Kirtikar, i.m.s., f.l.s., 



Member, 

 Association Internationale des Botanistes, 



Holland, 



Civil Surgeon, Ratnagiri. 



Part XX. 



(With Plate V.) 



{Continued from page 45, Vol. XIV.) 



JATROPHA CITRCAS, Linn. 



Natural Order — Eufhorbiace.$:. 



Marathi : — ^Tr55=( Jepal ), *rr*Tc5f V^=(Mogli Erand). 



A large, low-branching, irregular, scraggy shrub. 



BRANCHES — irregular ; younger ones with close-packed leaves 

 and green bark. 



BARK — of older branches from one to two lines thick, light-green, 

 covered with a thin pellucid or translucent paper-like epidermis which 

 cracks and falls off in irregularly-shaped pieces. The bark on section 

 with a penknife pours out copiously a thin translucent whitish juice 

 which on exposure to air turns brown or even blood-red, and dries up 

 in opaque tears or irregular masses. The bark of the oldest branches 

 is light-ash-coloured, and has here and there innumerable yellowish 

 spots of the size of a millet-seed. 



WOOD — white, very soft and spongy ; pith well marked and dense 

 in young and topmost branches. The wood, says Dymock, is loaded 

 with starch. 



LEAVES — scattered on the older branches ; closely packed at the 

 top of youngest branches ; alternate ; the youngest leaves of a reddish 

 tinge, with a tomentose under-surface, the tomentum disappearing as 

 the leaf grows old and assumes a green color. Upper surface smooth. 

 Shape broad-cordate, or orbicular-cordate ; 5-angled. Hence called 

 " Angular-leaved Physic-nut" Hooker says the leaves are 8 — 5 lobed, 

 but as generally observed they are distinctly 5-lobed. Lobes 4 — 6 

 inches in diameter. 



Nerves — otherwise called VEINS, well marked and prominent on 

 the under-surface. 



