on the Hortus Malabaricus, Part II. 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 Jatropha, 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. 



Cadel Avanacu, p. 61. Jig. 33. 



This plant is one of the Linnaean 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* . It is not, 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. Japahc, 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 



* Tram. .Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 503. 



2 L 2 work, 



