JATROPHA. 



generally palmate ; lobes from 3 to 5, oblong, serrate, with each serra- 

 ture ending in a short, green, glandular-headed bristle. Stipules bristly, 

 many-cleft, each division ending in a glandular head. Panicles terminal, 

 about as long as the leaves. Male flowers most numerous and termi- 

 nal, small, of a pale greenish yellow colour. Female flowers few, and 

 subsessile in the divisions of the panicle. — The pale or whey-coloured 

 thin juice which exudes from a fresh wound is employed by the Hindoos 

 as an escharotic to remove films from the eyes. Roxb. 



377 a. J. multifida Linn, sp.pl 1429. {Bill, elth.217. t. 173. 

 f. 213.) — Tropical America. 



Leaves palmate, 1 1-lobed, smooth ; the segments wedge-shaped and 

 pinnatifid. Stipules setaceous, multifid. Flowers corymbose, scarlet, 

 with coloured pedicels. — The seeds are one of the best of all eme- 

 tics and purgatives, acting briskly, but without inconvenience ; their 

 effects are readily stayed by the administration of a glass of good 

 white wine. 



377 b. Omphalea triandra Linn, sp.pl. 1377. Aubl. t. 328, 

 a native of tropical America, although not used for medical 

 purposes, deserves to be noticed here as producing, in a poison- 

 ous family, the most delicious and wholesome of all known nuts. 



JANIPHA. 



Flowers monoecious. Calyx campanulate, 5-parted. Petals 0. 

 $. Stamens 10; filaments unequal, distinct, arranged around 

 a disk. 2 • Style 1. Stigmas 3, consolidated into a rugose mass. 

 Capsule 3-coccous. A. de J. 



378. J. Manihot HBK. ii. 85. Bot. Mag. t. 3071. — Ja- 

 trophaManihotZmw.5p.jo/. 1428. Manihot utilissima Pohl. 

 pi. bras. ic. i. 32. t. 24. — Brazil. 



Root oblong, tuberous, as big as one's fist, full of a wheyish, venom- 

 ous juice. Stems white, crooked, brittle, having a very large pith, and 

 several knobs sticking out on every side like warts, being the remains 

 of the footstalks of the leaves, which have dropped off, usually 6 to 7 

 feet high, with a smooth, white bark ; branches crooked, and have, on 

 every side, near their tops, leaves irregularly placed on long terete 

 petioles, broadly cordate in their outline, divided nearly to their base 

 into 5 spreading, lanceolate, entire segments, attenuated at both ex- 

 tremities, dark green above, pale glaucous beneath ; the midrib strong, 

 prominent below, and there yellowish red : from it there branch off 

 several oblique veins, connected by lesser transverse ones. Stipules 

 small, lanceolate, acuminate, caducous. Panicles or compound ra- 

 cemes, axillary and terminal, 4 to 5 inches long, bearing sometimes all 

 male or all female flowers, at other times these are mixed on the same 

 peduncle. Pedicels with small, subulate, bracts at their base. Male 

 flowers smaller than the female. Calyx purplish on the outside, fulvous- 

 brown within, cut about half way down into 5 spreading segments. 

 Disk orange-coloured, fleshy, annular, 10-rayed. Stamens 10, alter- 

 nate with the lobes of the disk. Filaments shorter than the calyx, 

 white, filiform, free. Anthers linear-oblong, yellow. Female flower 

 of the same colour as the male, deeply 5-parted, the segments lanceo- 

 late-ovate, spreading. Disk an annular, orange-coloured ring, in 

 185 



