MACHLA-KA-DANT 



JATROPHA 

 CURCA8 

 Physio Nut 



the figures were Rs. 28,81,190 raw and Rs. 1,46,762 manufactured ; ten 

 years lator (1H96-7) the total of both kinds was only Rs. 23,19,229; and 

 the figures returned were raw ivory Rs. 18,20,766 and manu- 

 l,i. tared Rs. 2,35,809; in 1905-6, raw Rs. 14,52,379, and i.mnufa. tured 

 H.r,y9; and in 1906-7, raw Rs. 12,71,754, and manufactured 

 Rs. 2,24,984. 



Tims India is by no means self-supporting in the matter of ivory, but, 

 as shown above, it has for several centuries procured large supplies from 



i. In Indian i oinint-rce ivory is spoken of as "elephant's U> 

 but a second substance is called " fish tooth." This is of a dirty oily puh Tooth. 

 \-fllo\v colour, with the texture looking as if crystallised into patches. The 

 si^nitit -ance of being called in every language of India by the same name 



Puggestive of a foreign origin. It is, as already explained, highly valued 

 OK! and dagger hafts, and is more extensively so used than ordinary 

 i \or\-. It would appear to be mainly if not entirely the so-called fossil 

 ivoiv of Siberia the ivory of the mammoth a substance that has lain 



: countless ages in the frostbound drifts of Liakoff and New Siberia. 

 1 1 is also just possible that a fair proportion of the machld-ka-dant of India 

 is hippopotamus or even walrus ivory, the latter, along with fossil ivory, 

 having found its way to India across the land frontier. In fact, from the 

 antiquity of the daggers, etc, with fish-tooth hafts, it seems highly probable 

 that the traffic in the commodity mentioned was a very ancient one alone 

 destroyed by the growth of fire-arms. 



[Cf. Monographs, Ivory Carving : Dutt, Bengal, 1901 ; Stubbs, U. Prov., 

 1900 ; Ellis, Pb., 1900 ; Burns, Bombay, 1900 ; Donald, Assam, 1900 ; Thurston, 

 Madras, 1901 ; Pratt, Burma, 1901 ; Maskell, Cantor Lect. on Ivory, in Journ 

 Soc. Arts, Nov. 2, 1906, liv., 1127-42 et eeq. ; Journ. Ind. Art (many passages).] 



JATROPHA, Linn. ; FL Br. Ind., v., 382-4 ; Gamble, Man. Ind. D.E.P., 

 limbs., 1902. 612-3 ; Talbot, List. Trees, etc., 1902, 309-10; Prain, Beng. iv., 645-9. 

 Plants, 1903, ii., 941 ; Brandis, Ind. Trees, 1906, 576 ; EUPHORBIACE.E. 

 A genus of woody plants, chiefly natives of America. Four species are 

 indigenous to India and three others naturalised or cultivated. 



J. Curcas, Linn. ; Rec. Bot. Surv. Ind., Hi., 101, 275. The Physic Nut, bag- 

 berenda, safed arand, rattanjot, magalieranda, kaat-amunak, thinbaw-kyetau, etc. 

 An evergreen shrub, indigenous to America, but cultivated in most parts of India. 



Garcia de Orta (1563, Coll., xviii.) describes certain seeds which he calls 

 curcas, but it is perhaps doubtful if he refers to the seeds of the present species. 

 [Cf. Ball, Rev. of Garcia de Orta in Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad., ser. 3, 1889-91, i., 405.] 

 Heyne regards the milk of this plant as possessing " the exclusive property " 

 of " oxydating silver." When dried in the sun the juice forms a reddish brown, Juice. 

 brittle substance like shellac or kino, and is also stated to dye linen black. The 

 seeds yield about 30 per cent, of a pale yellow oil, incorrectly known as Croton 

 Oil, which is used for burning, in medicine as a purgative and emetic, and as an OIL 

 application in cutaneous diseases. It has also been recommended as a substitute 

 for olive oil, in dressing of woollen cloths, and as a good drying oil. Numerous 

 cases of poisoning are on record through eating the entire seed, though used by the 

 Natives as a purgative. Gamble states that in Madras the fruit is sometimes 

 collected and sold, and in Assam the leaves are occasionally used to feed the tri 

 silkworm, when other leaves are not available. [Cf. Heyne, Tracts on Ind,, 

 1M4. 242, 245 ; Pharmacog. Ind., 1893, Hi., 274 ; Nicholls, Textbook Trop. Agri., 

 1892, 205 ; Henry, Econ. Bot. China, 1893, 61 ; Kirtikar, Poison. PL Bomb., 

 1896, i., 59 ; Waring, Bazar Med., 1897, 124-5 ; Woodrow. Gard. in Ind., 1899, 

 442 ; Firminger, Man. Gard. Ind. (ed. Cameron), 1904, 417.] 



699 



Seed. 



LWTM. 



