CXV. EUPHOEBIACE^. 601 



The seeds yield a yellowish oil which is used as a drastic purgative and as a 

 rubefacient. The plant was at one time grown at Hewra near Poona, and the 

 capsules sent to the Medical Stores at Bombay, where the oil was expressed. The 

 supply is now imported from China via Singapore. See Watt, Diet. Econ. Prod. 1. c. 



Excluded Species. 



CROTON AROMATICUS, Linn. Sp. PI. (1753) p. 1005. A slightly aromatic shrub 

 or small tree; bark smooth, pale-grey; young parts rough with harsh stellate hairs. 

 Leaves 2.^-4 by 1^-3 in., ovate, acute, irregularly and shallowly crenate-serrate, 

 slightly rough with a few stellate hairs above, much more so, especially on the nerves, 

 beneath, base 3-5-nerved, rounded or cordate, usually with 2 (rarely 4) stalked peltate 

 circular glands; petioles -2-I5 in. long, rough. Flowers numerous, pedicellate, in 

 terminal racemes 4-G in. long, the males in the upper half of the raceme ; bracts 

 small, lanceolate, acute. SIale flowers : Sepals acute, y'j in. long, stellately hairy. 

 Petals as long as the sepals, bordered with white hair. Stamens 20-30, on a densely 

 white-woolly receptacle. Female flowers remote, on stout pedicels. Ovary stellately 

 hispid ; style-branches 3, each again subdivided. Fruit less than ^ in. in diam., sub- 

 globose, 3-lobed, rough with short stellate hairs. Fl. B. I. v. 5, p. 388 ; Wight, Icon. 

 t. 1915; Trim. Fl. Ceyl. v. 4, p. 47 ; Talb. Trees, Bomb. ed. 2, p. 311 ; Woodr. in 

 Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 12 (189'.)) p. 371 ; Watt, Diet. Econ. Prod. v. 2, p. 015. 



I cannot find any evidence in favour of the plant being indigenous in the Bombay 

 Presidency. There is one sheet in Herb. Kew. marked Hc?'h. Stoc/i's, but, as no habitat 

 is given, the specimen might have been collected anywhere. Talbot (Trees, Bomb, 

 ed. 2, p. 311) gives the Bababudin Hills above 4000 ft. (which are outside our area) 

 as the habitat- of the plant, and Woodrow in his list gives no habitat at all. The 

 specimens in Herb. Kew. are from the Nilghiris, Kurg and Travancore, and the plant 

 seems te be tolerably common in Ceylon. 



CROTON LAWIANUS, Nimmo, in Grab. Cat. PI. Bomb. (1839) p. 251. A small tree ; 

 branches slender, terete, smooth. Leaves coriaceous, 3-5 in. long, broadly ovate, 

 caudate-acuminate, entire, strongly 3-nerved, the young leaves finely softly stellately 

 hairy. Flowers in short slender racemes ; bracts 0. Male flowers 3-5 ; pedicels 

 capillai'y. Sepals ovate, obtuse, gland-dotted, sparsely stellately hairy. Petals larger, 

 oblong, fimbriate. Stamens about 20. Disk of 5 large glands. Female flowers 

 few. Pedicels stout, erect. Sepals large, oblong, glabrous, much enlarged and 

 foliaceous in fruit. Ovary oblong, glabrous, 3-lobed; styles 3, united below, very stout, 

 recurved, 2-lobed, the lobes 2-fid. Capsules | in. in diam., shorter than the enlarged 

 leafy green sejDals, thickly crustaceous, rugose, glabrous. Seeds 5-5 in. long, oblong, 

 striately mottled brown and white. Fl. B. I. v. 6, \). 394 ; Dalz. & Gibs. p. 232 ; 

 Talb. Trees, Bomb. ed. 2, p. 311. 



Dr. Gibson states that this ti"ee has been found at Bhimasankar, a high hill of the 

 Western Ghats, but no other collectors have found it, and, as Mr. Talbot renmrks 

 (Trees, Bomb. ed. 2, p. 312), it may perhaps be found in the southern parts of 

 N. Kanara, but has not as yet been seen in the Bombay Presidency. The Bababudin 

 Hills given as a habitat in the ' Flora of British India ' are outside our area. 



CROTON RHEEDEI, Grab. Cat. (1839) p. 182, described as an erect suffruticose 

 plant 2 ov 3 feet high with flowers in terminal spikes appearing in April, found on the 

 Thai Ghat and in Salsette, cannot be identified. Fl. B. I. v. 5, p. 395. 



CROTON GIBSONI, Grab. Cat. (1839) p. 182, described as an erect sufi"ruticose 

 species with petiolate cordate serrate leaves, much resembling the last species and found 

 in the northern parts of the Deccan, cannot be identified. Fl. B. I. v. 5, p. 395. 



CROTON RAMIFLORUS, Grab. Cat. (1839) p. 182, described as a small tree with 

 alternate petiolate ovate-oblong leaves somewhat glaucous beneath, small white flowers 

 growing froui the naked branches, and fruit the size of a large pea half hidden in the 

 calyx which grows into 5 scarious wings in shaded ravines at Khandala. but not 

 common, flowering in October, cannot be identified. It is not improbable that it may 

 be Bimorpliocalyx, Fl. B. I. v. 5, p. 395. 



