272 A COMPENDIUM OF 
Ricinus Communis, Castor Oil plant, Palma 
Christi.—Natural order Euphorbiacex. Native 
of India and cultivated in tropical countries and 
many of the sub-tropical regions of the world. 
The castor oil plant in Indiais a perennial, and 
attains a height varying from 16 to 20 feet, and 
adorned with large palmetto-peltate-shaped 
leaves, with purplish petioles. The segments 
of the leaves are deeply divided into lanceolate 
and serrated partitions. Flowers in terminal 
panicles, the lower ones being male and the up- 
per ones female, but all articulated with thin 
peduncles, and often supported by double 
glandular bracts. Fruit a tricoccus capsule 
covered with yielding spines, with 1 seed in each 
of its three cells. The Semen Ricini is usually 
about 3 of an inch (15 millimeters) long, some- 
what flattened, and oval-oblong in shape; the 
apex of the seed is prolonged into a short pro- 
tuberance, or beak, which is covered by a 
whitish caruncle, under which is the hilum and 
micropyle; the raphe is on the flattened sur- 
face and the chalsa at the base of theseed. The 
testa of the seed is of a grayish-brown, varie- 
gated with bands or spots of gray and brown, 
and very glossy. The kernel or nucleus fills 
the testa, and when separated (which is easily 
done) shows a covering of a delicate nature, 
which is the tegmen or inner membrane. The 
seed has a straight embryo, the radicle of which 
is somewhat conical in shape, whilst the twoco- 
tyledons are broad and thin. When not rancid 
the seeds are without odor, whilst the taste is 
bland, but occasionally acrid. The seeds of the 
Ricini Communis contain nearly so per cent. of 
