308 FLORA OF JAMAICA Eicw 



Leaves 1-5-6 dm. broad; petiole 1-3 dm. 1. Male flowers 12-15 mm. 

 in diam. Female calyx about 8 mm. 1. Capsule 1*3-2 '4 cm. 1., ellipsoidal. 

 Seeds flattish-ellipsoidal, 10-17 mm. 1. (without tbe caruncle). 



The seeds yield the castor-oil of commerce. The oil-cake is a valuable 

 manure. See Barham, Hortus Americanus, 120, 144 ; Watt Comm. Prod. 

 Ind. ; Bull. Dept. Agri. Jamaica n.s. ii. 50 (1912). 



[MANIHOT Aclans. 



Tall herbs or shrubs. Leaves alternate, with three to seven 

 digitate lobes or segments, sometimes entire. Flowers large for 

 the Family, monoecious, without petals, one in axil of each bract, 

 in racemes. Racemes terminal or in the upper axils, sometimes 

 branching, lax, the upper flowers male, the female generally at 

 the base of the raceme. Calyx often coloured, campamilate, 

 with five imbricate lobes. Male flowers : Stamens 10, in two 

 series, attached between the lobes or glands of the disk ; anthers 

 dorsifixed. Rudiment of ovary wanting or small, 3-lobed. 

 Female flowers : Disk hypogynous. Ovary 3-celled ; styles 

 shortly united at the base, spreading, many-lobed ; ovules solitary. 

 Capsule splitting up into three 2-valved cocci. Seeds smooth, 

 with large caruncle. 



Species 128, all American, mostly Brazilian, a few dispersed 

 through the tropical regions as far north as Mexico, one or two 

 cultivated for many years in various tropical lands. 



M. utilissima Polil Plant. Bras. i. 32, t. 24 (1827) ; Muell. 

 Arg. in DC. Prodr. xv. pt. 2, 1064 & in Fl. Bras. xi. pt. 2, 457, 

 t. 65 ; Urb. Symb. Ant. iv. 350 ; Pax in Engl. Pflanzenreicli iv. 

 147. ii. 67. M. Manihot Cockerell in Bull. Torr. Bot. Cl. xix. 95 

 (1892). Jatropha Manihot L. Sp. PL 1007 (1753); Tussac 

 Fl. Ant. Hi. t.l; Wright Mem. 218. Janipha Manihot H. B. & K. 

 Nov. Gen. & Sp. ii. 108 (1817); Bot. Mag. t. 3071 ; Griseb. FL 

 Br. W. Ind. 37. Manihot inodorum &c. Plak. Plujt. t. 205, /. 1. 

 Ricinus minor viticis &c. Sloane Cat. 41, Hist. i. 130, t. 85. 

 (Fig. 102.) 



Cassava or Cassada, Tapioca, Manioc. 



Sloane Herb. ii. 98, 99! cult., Broughtonl cult., Harris I Fl. Jam. 

 5606, 7703, 7719. Cultivated throughout the tropics and in subtropical 

 regions, e.g. Florida, Bermuda, probably indigenous in Brazil. 



Root tuberous, elongated, full of starch, with juice which is sometimes 

 bitter and poisonous. Shrubby, sometimes arborescent, 5-9 ft. high. 

 Leaves deeply 3-7-parted, membranous, on upper surface glabrous, 

 beneath glaucous and minutely puberulous or glabrous along the nerves ; 

 lobes 8-15 cm. L, lanceolate, entire ; petiole generally longer than the 

 leaf ; stipules linear, acuminate, entire, 6-7 mm. 1. Inflorescence branching 

 from the base, primary branches 3-5 cm. 1. Flowers glabrous except the 

 apex of the connective which has a cluster of hairs. Male flowers : Calyx 

 5-cleft, glabrous outside, puberulous inside, 3-4 mm. 1. Female flowers : 

 Calyx 5-parted, 9-10 mm. L, glabrous. Ovary 6-ribbed, glabrous. Styles 



