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RAPHIA RUFFIA, Mart. 



Raffia Fibre Palm. 

 Native of^Madagascar. 



The Raphia palm grows in brackish swamps The trunk is not 

 large, but the pinnate leaves are often 50 feet in length. 

 There are young palms in the Castleton Botanic Gardens. 

 Fibre yielded by the decaying spathes of the leaves. 



RED HEAD. See Asclepias curassavica. 



REDWOOD. See Erythroxylum areolatum. 



RHIZOPHORA MANGLE, Linn. 



Red Mangrove. 



Native of West Indies, tropical America and West Africa. A 



tree, 20 to 40 high, forming thickets along swampy shores by sending 



down roots from their branches and from the seeds while still in the 



fruit. (Rhizophorece.) 



Wood "makes a good post, and lasts well as piles." (Harrison.) 

 Bark used for tanning, especially sole leather. 



RHUS METOPIUM, Linn. 

 Jamaica Sumach, Poison Wood. 



Native of Jamaica and Cuba. A tree, 15 to 40 feet high ; leaves 

 compound, with three leaflets, or only one ; flowers small ; berry 

 scarlet. (Anacardiacece.) 



" Common on limestone hills. Affords a good timber of light 

 colour and texture." (Hooper.) 



RICE. See Orv/a sativA. 



RICINUS COMMUNIS, Linn. 

 Castor oil. Oil plant. 



Native probably of Africa ; found throughout the tropics. 



A bush or small tree; leaves cut into 7 to 11 segments; flowers 

 monoecious on a long stalk, male flowers with numerous stamens, 

 female with carmine style ; fruit spiny splitting into six valves. 

 ( Enphorbiacece. ) 



Seeds yield the oil. 



The method of preparing it in the West Indies by boiling, skim- 

 ming off and straining the oil, produces an inferior article. " All the 

 oil now consumed in England, India, and the United States, is obtained 

 by expression. All processes in which a high temperature is employed 

 are considered objectionable from increasing the acridity of the oil. In 

 India, in order to extract the oil, the seeds are at first gently crushed 

 between rollers, and after the seed-coats or husks, and unsound seeds 

 have been removed by hand-picking, the clean kernels are submitted 



