CASTOR OIL PLANT (Ricinus communis, L.). Flowers small 

 without petals, greenish, of two sexes, in showy terminal ra- 

 cemes, the female flowers above the staminate. Leaves from 

 6 inches to a foot or more broad, divided into 6 to 11 finger- 

 like toothed lobes. Seed vessels ^ inch or so in diameter, 

 usually spiny, splitting when mature and discharging the 

 smooth, shiny seeds which are black, mottled with white or 

 brown. A stout, herbaceous plant, from 3 to 15 feet high, 

 which, in places where there is little frost, becomes woody and 

 treelike. The immature fruit is conspicuously rosy red. 



This is the plant from whose seeds the famous medicine 

 Castor Oil is produced. It is native to Asia and Africa, but 

 having a pronounced taste for travelling, it is now found at 

 home in most of the warmer parts of the earth. It is not 

 known surely how it reached California, but perhaps the Fran- 

 ciscan Missionaries who imported the seeds of so many of the 

 Old World's useful plants introduced this one also, for its medi- 

 cinal value. At any rate, it is now well established as a wild 

 plant in many parts of the state, and makes indeed an orna- 

 mental sight. Mexicans call it " higuerilla," little fig tree, prob- 

 ably from the form of the leaf. From the latter also is derived 

 a common Old World name, Palma Christi, the hand of Christ. 

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