CROZOPHORA. 



subulate segments. Capsule sound, leprous with starry scurf, tri- 

 coccous. Seeds somewhat angular. An acrid plant, with emetic, 

 drastic, corrosive properties. Its seeds, ground into powder and mixed 

 with oil, are employed as a cathartic medicine. It is cultivated for the 

 deep purple dye called Turnsole which is obtained from it. 



CROTON. 



Flowers monoecious or very rarely direcious. Calyx 5-part- 

 ed. $ . Petals 5. Stamens 10 or more, distinct. ? . Petals 0. 

 Styles 3, divided into 2 or more partitions. Capsule tricoccous. 

 A.deJ. 



360. C. Cascarilla Linn. sp. pi. 1424. Willd. iv. 531 



C. lineare Jacq. amer. 256. t. 162. f. 4. (Sloane i. t. 86. f. 1.) 

 West India islands ; Jamaica, St. Domingo. 



Young branches covered with a fine close scaly yellowish down, 

 which disappears with age. Leaves J to 1^ inch in length, variable in 

 breadth, linear, quite entire, obtuse at each end, mucronate at the 

 point, quite smooth on the upper side, closely covered with a fine 

 silvery or yellowish scaly down on the under side, with 2 or 3 glands at 

 the base, very much hidden by the fur. Flowers dio3cious, in short 

 dense terminal downy spikes, about the size of common shot. The 

 bark called Cascarilla, a most valuable bitter, aromatic, tonic stimulant, 

 abounding in volatile oil, is by some believed to be produced by this 

 tree, which occurs in apart of the West India islands : St. Domingo and 

 Jamaica for example. M. Fee states positively that such is the case, 

 but he adds that Cascarilla is brought from Paraguay as well as the 

 West Indies; and Croton Cascarilla has not been recorded as a 

 Paraguay species. Schiede assigns the bark to C. Pseudo-china: an 

 opinion adopted by Mr. Don, who declares that Cascarilla is not imported 

 either from Jamaica or the Bahamas; Edinb. new phU.journ. xvi. 368 ; 

 which is going back to the old assertion that the bark is imported from 

 the Spanish main. But Mr. Pereira has clearly proved, upon the best of 

 all evidence in this case, viz., the customs entries, that Cascarilla prin- 

 cipally comes from the Bahamas, as has always been asserted by the 

 most original authorities ; and then, taking the authority of Catesby, the 

 author of a " Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Is- 

 lands," who assures us that a plant which he figures and describes (2. 46. 

 t.46.) under the name of Ricinoides elaeagni folio, produces the Chacrilla 

 or Ilateria of the Bahamas, Mr. Pereira comes to the conclusion that 

 this plant, called C. Cascarilla by Linnaeus, is the true source of the 

 officinal bark of that name. To this however there are several objec- 

 tions ; in the first place Catesby speaks of a bark exported from the 

 Bahamas a century ago, and I do not know that any evidence exists to 

 prove that Ilateria and Cascarilla are identical ; moreover it appears 

 that at the time when this author visited the Bahamas (1722-4) the 

 plant was already becoming scarce from the quantity of its bark that 

 had been consumed, and it would not be unreasonable to conclude that 

 the supply has in fact ceased. It is also to be noticed that it is impos- 

 sible to say what the plant is that Catesby figured j for I know of 

 no Croton, nor indeed any other plant to which it can belong. If, as 

 is universally believed, it was intended for the C. Cascarilla of Linnaeus, 

 I can only say in that case that it bears that plant the smallest possible 

 179 N 2 



