392 



C R O 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



C R O 



native marshes has broad flat stalks, and leaves three inches 

 long, a quarter of an inch broad, rough, and but little indented 

 on the edge ; but that on dry ground the leaves are ovate, two 

 inches broad, and serrate. Discovered near La Vera Cruz ; 

 where it flowers in .Inly, and the seeds ripen in autumn. 



5. Croton Gliibcllum ; Lintn-l-lcari'd ('niton. Leaves 

 ovate, bluntish, very entire, smooth, and even ; fruits pedun- 

 cled. This grows in a shrubby form, and is seldom under 

 seven or eight feet in height. All the parts of the plant are 

 of an active warm nature, and have a pretty agreeable smell. 

 Common in all the low lands about Spanish Town and 

 Kingston, in Jamaica. 



6. Croton Tinctorium ; Officinal Croton, Leaves rhomb- 

 ed, repand ; capsules pendulous ; stem herbaceous. Root 

 annual ; stem branching, about nine inches high ; leaves near 

 two inches long, on slender petioles near tour inches in length; 

 flowers in short spikes, from the sides of the stalks at the ends 

 of the branches. The -women about Albudebar dye their 

 stockings with it. Nissole dyed both silk and wool of an 

 elegant blue colour; but the French attempt to extract a 

 material from it for dying, similar to indigo, did not succeed. 

 This is the plant from which the tournsol, used for colouring 

 wines and jellies, is made. It is made from the juice that is 

 lodged between the calix and the seeds : this, if rubbed on 

 cloths, at first appears of a lively green, but soon changes to a 

 bluish purple. It' these cloths be put into water, and afterwards 

 wrung, they will dye the water of a claret colour. The rags 

 thus dyed are brought to England, and sold in the druggists' 

 shops under the name of tournsol. Native of the South of 

 France, Spain, Italy, and the kingdom of Tunis. The seeds 

 of this plant should be sown in the autumn, soon after they 

 are ripe, in a small pot rilled with light earth, and plunged 

 into an old tan-bed in a frame, where they may be screened 

 from the cold in the winter ; and in the spring following, the 

 pot should be removed into a fresh hot-bed, which will 

 bring up the plants in a month's time ; and when grown large 

 enough to remove, they should be each planted into a small 

 pot, and plunged into a fresh hot-bed, being careful to shade 

 the glasses daily, until the plants have taken new root : they 

 should then have air daily admitted to them, in proportion to 

 the warmth of the season, but must be sparingly watered. 



7. Croton Glandulosum. Leaves oblong, serrate, biglan- 

 dular at the base ; fruits sessile. It seldom exceeds seven- 

 teen or eighteen inches high. The seeds are small, and picked 

 up every where in the fields, both by the wild and tame fowls, 

 in the island of Jamaica, of which it is a native, in the 

 savannas of Liguanea. 



8. Croton Argenteum; Silvery -leaved Crotnn. Leaves 

 cordate-ovate, tomentose beneath, entire, serrate. Root an- 

 nual; stem a foot high, angular; flowers in short close ter- 

 minating spikes, the upper ones male, the lower female, all 

 white, the former soon falling. Found in La Vera Cruz. 



9. Croton Sebiferum ; Poplar-leaved Croton, or Tallow Tree. 

 Leaves rhomb-ovate, acuminate, flat, smooth ; glands subpe- 

 tiolar ; leaflets broader than they are long, and involute. The 

 leaves dye a very fine black; they wither in October, turn to 

 a dirty crimson colour, and fall off before the capsules. The 

 young leaves shoot out atrain in March. Each capsule con- 

 tains three hard black shells, the size of pepper-corns or 

 common peas, covered entirely with a delicately snow-white 

 substance. This does not produce the tallow, as it is com- 

 monly supposed ; it is made from the oil expressed from 

 the kernel ; and the white substance above mentioned must 

 be well cleaned from the shells before they are broken, for 

 that will absorb a considerable quantity of oil. For this pur- 

 pose, the shells should remain ten or fifteen days in water to 



soak, and then they may be cleared of the white substance 

 by rubbing, although it will not easily separate from the shell. 

 The oil drops from the press like thick glutinous lamp-oil, 

 ami soon hardens by cold to the consistence of common tal- 

 low, and by boiling becomes as hard as bees' wax. Native 

 of China ; where it is called sheu, or u-kieit. 



10. Croton Japonicum. Leaves undivided and three- 

 lobed, ovate, acuminate, entire, smooth ; stem subangular, 

 naked at bottom, tomentose at top, simple, a foot high and 

 more. Native of Japan, flowering in July and August. 



11. Croton Acutum. Leaves ovate, serrate, acuminate, 

 two-glanded ; stem herbaceous, angular, simple, smooth ; 

 petals white, woolly, the length of the calix. It flowers in 

 September, and is cultivated in Japan, where it was intro- 

 duced by the Portuguese. 



12. Croton Tiglium ; Purging Croton. Leaves ovate, 

 smooth, acuminate, serrate ; stem arboreous. This i> ;i 

 middle-sized tree, with few spreading branches ; flowers in 

 erect simple terminating racemes. Native of the East In- 

 dies, China, and Cochin-china. 



13. Croton Lucidum ; Smooth Croton. Leaves ovate, 

 smooth; flowers in spikes; styles many-cleft, depressed, 

 pubescent, becoming shrubby. Grows in Jamaica. 



14. Croton Lacciferum ; Lac Croton. Leaves ovate, to- 

 mentose, serrulate, petioled ; calices tomentose. A middle- 

 sized tree, with a few long spreading branches ; flowers white, 

 with five-leaved calices ; leaves tomentose, subaeuminate, un- 

 equally toothed, scattered over the branches. The leaves in- 

 fused in warm water or milk, purge and vomit. It exudes a 

 very fine lac spontaneously, but sparingly, which appears like 

 a bud at the origin of the branches ; and is employed by the 

 Ceylonese to varnish their lances, the handles of their tools, &c. 

 It is said to be much finer and superior to that formed by the 

 ants in Siam and Pegu. Lac is said also to exude in small 

 quantities from other species of this genus ; but all that sub- 

 stance which we commonly call gum-lac in Europe, is the 

 work of the red ants, who are supposed to collect or suck the 

 resinous juice from this, and perhaps other trees, to digest 

 it with the animal acids in their stomachs, and then to en- 

 crust the branches with it, to serve as a nest or comb for 

 their young. It is not properly a gum-resin or oil, not be- 

 ing soluble either in water or fat oils. The use of this sub- 

 stance is well known in dying silks, woollens, ;md morocco 

 leather, of a scarlet colour, which it also communicates to 

 sealing-wax and varnish. The wood of this tree is white, 

 light, and brittle. The bark and resin are reputed to be ser- 

 viceable in ulcers of the mouth, in the gonorrhoea, lluor ulbus, 

 dysentery, &c. Native of the East Indies, the southern pro- 

 vinces of Cochin-china, and Cambodia. It is called bihar on 

 the borders of Thibet. 



15. Croton Balsamiferum ; Balsam Croton. Leaves ovate- 

 lanceolate, scabrous, very entire, tomentose beneath. This 

 is an upright, branched, diffused, weet-smelling, shrub, 

 abounding With a balsamic, thickish, odorous, brownish sap. 

 In Martinico this juice is distilled with suirits of wine, and B .j 

 cordial liquor obtained, called Eau de Mante. Flower? 

 white, with small petals. Native of Martinico, Curacao, 

 and Jamaica. 



16. Croton Aromaticum ; Aromatic Croton. Leaves cor- 

 date-ovate, scabrous, serrate at the base beneath and on tht 



iri'. having petioled glands ; racemes terminating. This is 

 a middle-si/cd tree, with spreading branches ; leaves large 

 spreading, unequally serrate ; flo wers numerous, scat te red. >i! 

 l ose . Native of the island of Ceylon, and near Canton ii 

 China. 



17. Croton Humfle ; Humble Croton. Leaves cordate 



