RICINUS. ] EUPHORBIACEM. 113 



R. communls, Linn., Roxb. Fl. Ind. in, 689 ; Royle III. 328 ; 

 Brandis For. FL 445 ; Ind. Trees 593 ; DC. UOrig. PL Cult. 339 ; 

 Duthie and Fuller F. and G. Crops ii, 38, t. 43 ; F. B. I. v, 457 ; 

 Watt E. D.; Comm. Prod. Ind., 915 ; Gamble Man. 622 ; Prain 

 Beng. PL 952 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb, ii, 627.Vern. Arand, etc. The 

 Castor-oil plant, or Palma Christi. 



The Castor- oil plant is much cultivated within the area of this flora 

 and throughout the hotter parts of India. It frequently runs wild, 

 and in many places has become naturalized. The tall perennial 

 bushy kind is often grown in hedges, or in fields as a shelter for 

 other crops. In order to obtain oil of the best quality the plant is 

 usually grown as an annual, and often as a pure crop. The oil is 

 largely used for burning and as a lubricant, and (when cold-drawn) for 

 medicinal purposes. The plant is much cultivated in gardens for the 

 sake of the brightly coloured foliage of some of its varieties. For 

 full particulars regarding its cultivation in India, and the extraction 

 ana the various uses of the oil see Watt's " Commercial Products of 

 India." 



20. TRAGIA, Linn. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. v, 464. 



Perennial usually twining or climbing herbs, hispid u ith stinging 

 hairs. Leaves alternate, simple or palmataly 3-lobed, serrate, 

 3 -5 -nerved at the base. Flowers monoecious, in terminal and leaf- 

 opposed androgynous racemes, apetalous and without any disk ; 

 the males uppermost in the raceme, females below and few. MALE 

 flowers: Calyr globose or obovoid, valvately 3-5-partite. 

 Stamens 1-3, rarely many, filaments free or connate ; anthers ovate 

 or oblong, cells parallel and contiguous. Pistillode minute, 3-fid. 

 or none. FEM. flowers : Sepals 6, imbricate, entire or pinnatifid, 

 often enlarged, hardened and stellately spreading in fruit. Ovary 

 3-celled ; styles united below in a stout column, free spreading and 

 entire above ; ovules solitary in each cell. Fruit a capsule of three 

 2-valved cocci, endocarp crustaceous. Seeds globose, testa crusta- 

 ceous, albumen fleshy, cotyledons broad and flat. Species about 

 50, chiefly tropical. 



A twining herb ; leaves simple ; style circin- 



nately revolute . . . . . \. T involucrata. 



An erect or sometimes climbing herb ; leaves 

 palmately 3 -partite ; styles slightly spreading, 

 not revolute ... . 2. T* cannabina. 



