on the Hortus Malaharicus, Part II. 257 



~i: Gaertner for his Croton Tiglium {De Sem. ii. lip.) continues 

 to quote Rheede, Rumphius and the elder Burman. He men- 

 tions nothing of the remarkable smallness of the seeds compared 

 with the containing-cells noticed by Rumphius ; but in the 

 figure the seeds seem to fill the cells entirely ; and he describes 

 the capsule as quite smooth (glabra) without mentioning its 

 shape, which in the figure, however, is much liker the Cadel 

 Avanacu than the Granum Moluccum. 



In India I have found two trees certainly distinct, yet both 

 agreeing so well with the later accounts of the Croton Tiglium, 

 that I am uncertain to which I should refer the name ; and I 

 have to regret that, not aware of all the difficulties attending the 

 subject, I paid less attention in describing one of them than was 

 necessary : but I have given specimens of both to the collection 

 of the East India Company ; and there is little doubt that the 

 one I have most fully described is the Croton Tiglium of Dr. Rox- 

 burgh, and therefore of the Hortus Kewensis ; but, as it is a 

 middle-sized tree, there is some doubt of its being either the 

 Cadel Avanacu or the Ricinoides of Burman, Rheede says 

 nothing of the flower of his plant, and therefore there is more 

 room for admitting the identity of it than of the Ricinoides, the 

 numbers in the male flowers of which are quaternary, while in 

 my plant they are quinary : but I shall now describe it, and leave 

 others to judge. It must however be premised, that, although the 

 seeds of the Cadel Avanacu of Malabar, of the Ricinoides of Cey- 

 lon, and of the Grana Tilli of Molucca, have all a drastic purga- 

 tive quality, this is no proof their being one species, those of the 

 Rici7ius communis and Jatropha Curcas having similar powers. 



However much I may be displeased with the genus Croton, I 

 know too few of the species to venture on a new arrangement, 

 and new names. The specific characters which I give are merely 

 intended to distinguish the two plants from each other, 



Croton 



