EUPEOBBTACEJE. 275 



women. Tlie viscid juice wliich flows from tlie stem iij)on 

 incision is painted over cuts and wounds'to check bleeding and 

 promote healing ; this it does by forming a thin film when dry 

 like that produced by collodion. The author of the MaJchzan 

 also notices this use of the juice, and calls the plant Baghrendeh. 

 Mr. Ildoy Chund Dutt notices the ha)mostafic properties of the 

 juice, and Dr. Evers has injected a drachm of it into a varicose 

 aneurism. He says : — - '^ The result was astonishing ; in twenty 

 minutes time the pulsation was so faint that no non-professional 

 person could have detected it ; and by evening all pulsation 

 had ceased, and a good firm clot had been produced. No ill- 

 effects resulted from the injection.^^ J. Curcas is said to have 

 been introduced from Brazil by the Portuguese ; it is now quite 

 naturalized in many parts of India, and is a common hedge- 

 plant in the Concans. The oil is used for burning. The juice, 

 when dried in the sun, forms a bright reddish -brown, brittle 

 substance like shcU-lac, which may yet be put to some useful 

 technical purpose. In Goa the root-bark is applied externally 

 in rheumatism. In the Concan it is rubbed with a little 

 asafoetida and given with buttermilk in dyspepsia and diarrhoea. 

 The fresh stems are used as a tooth brush to stop bleeding 

 from the gums. Hoxburgh notices that the leaves warmed 

 and rubbed with Castor oil are used by the natives as a 

 suppurative. 



Jatropha oil was formerly employed as a purgative by Euro- 

 pean physicians, under the names of Oleum Micini mcfjons and 

 Oleum info nude. At the present time it is much used for burn- 

 ing and for soap-making; also for adulterating olive oil, and 

 seemingly for making Turkey-red oil. [F. M. Uoni^ Zcit. Anal. 

 Chem,, xxvii., 163 — 165. 



Description. — The young roots are soft, fleshy, and taper- 

 ing, with a whity-brown scaly epidermis, and a few thin rcotletSj 

 bark yellowish- white internally, witli a peculiar perfume like 

 tuberose when freshly removed ; wood white and very soft. On 

 section the bark is seen to contain oil globules and very numer- 

 ous conglomerate raphides; the vascular system is full of a 



