THE POISONOUS PLANTS OF BOMBAY. 69 



I must not omit to mention here what Professor Schmiedebero- of 

 the University of Strassburg says regarding the active principle of Cas- 

 tor oil. He says : — " It is soluble in the intestinal fluids only ; here 

 alone it meets with the conditions necessary to its efficiency after it 

 gets into the bowels. Like Croton oil, Gamboge and Jalap resin, 

 Castor oil is insoluble in watery fluids, and consequently passes the 

 stomach unchanged. In the intestines it is dissolved by the alkalies of 

 the bile and pancreatic juice." These remarks may well apply to the 

 seed-oil of Jatropha curcas. 



DESCRIPTION OF PLATE V. 

 Fig. No. 1. Jatropha curcas, ^ natural size sprig with diminutive 

 inflorescence and tender red leaf. 

 „ 2. Natural size inflorescence, with the companulate 



female flower. 

 „ 3. Fruit natural size. 



,, 4. Transverse section of natural sized fruit with tricoccous 



arrangement, showing a seed in each coccus. 

 „ 5. Seed. Natural size, showing the white aril at the top. 



* Elements of Pharmacology, translated by Dixon of the University of Sydney, 

 pp. 108 and 109, Edinburgh, 1887. 



