RICINUS COMMUNIS. ORD. XXXIX. Tricoccce. 
is, ] 
‘2 
S: 
Class Monoecia. Ord. Monadelphia. Jin. Gen. Plant. 1085. 
Ess. Gen. Ch. Masc. Cal. 5-partitus. Cor..0. Stam. numerosa: 
Fem. Cal. 3-partitus. Cor. 0. Styli 3, bifidi. Caps. 3 locul. 
Sem. 1. 
Sp. Ch. — R. foliis peltatis subpalmatis serratis. 
THE root is biennial, long, thick, whitish, and beset with many 
small fibres: the stem is round, thick, jointed, channelled, glaucous, 
of a purplish red colour towards the top, and rises luxuriantly six 
or eight feet in height:{ the leaves are large, and deeply divided 
into seven lobes or pointed serrated segments, of a bluish green 
colour: the footstalks are long, tapering, purplish, and inserted in 
the disc of the leaf (peltated): the flowers are male and female 
on the same plant, and produced in a clustered terminal spike : 
the male flowers are without a corolla, and consist of a calyx, 
divided into five oval pointed purplish segments, enclesing nu- 
merous long stamina; which unite at the base: the female flowers 
occupy the upper part of the spike, and have the calyx cut into 
three narrow segments, of a reddish colour: the styles are three, 
slender, and forked at the apex: the capsule is a large three-celled 
nut, covered with tough spines, and contains three flattish oblong 
seeds, {| which are forced out on the bursting of the capsule. JItis 
a Bid tte the Indies, and flowers i gust. 
+ Long says that in > Saaich it grows with surprising igi to the height of 
fifteen or sixteen feet. 1. c. 
|| Hujus cuilibet loculo inest nux ovata, utrinque compressa, interiori precipne 
superficie, que et linea longitudinali distinguitur, magnitudine seminis Phaseoli 
minoris flore pheeniceo, hilo promagente sursum notato, cui callus ante adheserat, 
Cortex ex bruno luteoque variegatus, fragilis, cingit nucleum album, vestitum 
oy tenella concolore—Figurz seminis cum insecto Ricino (Acaro Ricino L.) 
bus & canibus infesto, similitudo ansam denominationis totius planta dedit. 
ee Ap. Med. vol. iv. p. 197. 
No. 49.—voun. 4. ‘ae 
