<*fc HORTUS JAMAICENSIS, %3 



OIL-NUT-TREE. RICINTJS. 



Cl. 21, or. 8. Moaeecia morutdehphia. Nat. or. Trieocea. 



Gf.TJ. char. Male calyx a one-leafed perianth, five-parted ; segments ovate, con 

 cave; no corolla; stamens very numerous filaments, filiform, branchingly con- 

 nected below into various booties ; anthers twin, roundish. Female calyx a one- 

 leafed, three-parted, perianth; segments ovate, concave, deciduous; no corolla; 

 the pistil has an ovate germ, covered with subulate corpuscles ; styles three, two- 

 parted, from erect spreading, hispid; stigmas simple; the pericarp a roun lish, 

 capsule, three- grooved, prickly all over, three-celled, three-valved; seeds soli- 

 tary, sub-ovate. 



1. COMMUNIS. COMMON. 



Ricinus Amerlcanus fructu racemoso hispido. Sloan e, v. 7, p. 12P. 

 Jffuticosus atsurgens, foliis majoribas ptltato lobatis, lobis serrutis 

 ecu/is. Browne, p. 330. 



Leaves deeply divided. 



This tree, which is sometimes called palma ckristi, is of speedy growth, a3 in one- 

 year it arrives p.t its full size, seldom exceeuing from fifteen to twenty feet. Tho 

 rooc is biennial, long, thick, whitish, beset with small fit>res; the trunk is sub-ligneous, 

 with a large pith, round, thick, jointed, channelled, glaucous, of a purplish red co- 

 lour, in some varieties whitish. The leaves grow singly, on very long footstalks, hav- 

 ing a large pith and small hollow; the leaves are peltate, palmate, from eight to twelve - 

 parted; tne segments lanceolate-serrate, spread out in a ring, of different sizes, the 

 three smallest below the footstalk Flowers in terminating racemes, the males nelow, 

 with a five-parted calyx, and about one hundred oblong white anthers, in different 

 bundles, the whole having a globular figure ; the females at the top, the calyx com- 

 monly five- parted, with three red, filiform, bifid, stigmas: the capsule is sub-globu- 

 lar, corticate, educated all over with small spines, tncoccous ; rind herbaceous, thin; 

 the three component parts or cells ovate,- papery, on one side convex, with a dorsal 

 streak, on the other angular; and perforated with a cordate hole below the tip, two- 

 valved. Receptacle columnar, three-cornered, widening above, entering, by a tripie 

 blunt end, the ventral perforations of the cells. Seeds solitary, biggish, ovate, con- 

 vex on one side, very bluntly angular on the ather, smooth, somewhat shining, some- 

 times livid, wiili cloudy spots, sometimes variegated like the abdomen of the spider 

 frith white lines, dots and stains, on a testaceous or brown ground; on the topis a 

 fungou-, thick, white, umbilicus, or navel. 



When tne bunches begin to turn black, they are gathered, dried in the sun, and the 

 Seeds picked out. Castor oil is obtained irom them either b' expression or by decoc- 

 tion. This oil burns clear and bright in lamps, and is fit for all the purposes of the 

 painter, or for the apothecary in ointments or piasters. As a medicine it purges without 

 & stimulus, and is so mild as to be given to infants soon after birth, to purtre off the 

 meconium. By many physicians it has been deemed a sovereign remedy in bilious, 

 calculous, and nephritic, complaints; but its ta^te is extremeiv nauseous, and, when 

 frequently used, it is apt to relax the tone of the bowels. It is recommende I to be 

 given in clysters ; and Dr. Canvane of B.ith affirms, that when children cannot be made 

 to swallow any medicine, if tuc u*vel and hypochondria be rubbed with tins oil, it will 



produce 



