EUPHORBIACE^E. 



glaucous; of a purplish-red colour upwards. Leaves large, deeply 

 divided into 7 segments, on long, tapering, purplish stalks. Flowers in 

 long, green, and glaucous spikes, springing from the divisions of the 

 branches; the males from the lower part of the spike, the females the 

 upper. Capsules prickly. Seeds ovate, shining, black dotted with grey. 

 The seeds of this plant yield by expression the well-known valuable 

 cathartic substance called Castor oil. 



JATROPHA. 



Flowers monoecious. Calyx 5-parted or lobed. Corolla 

 5-parted or 0. $ . Stamens 8-10, with unequal monadelphous 

 filaments. $ . Styles 2, bifid or dichotomous. Capsule 3-coccous. 



375. J. Curcas Linn. sp. pi. 1429. Willd. sp. pi. iv. 560. 

 As. researches xi. 169. Roxb.fl. ind. iii. 686. Pereira in Med. 

 Gaz. xx. p. 821. fig. 202. A very common small tree or bush 



. on the coast of Coromandel. (Physic nut.) 



Bark smooth, light ash-coloured. Leaves scattered, stalked, broad- 

 cordate, 5-angled, smooth, about 6 inches each way. Petioles round, 

 smooth, 4-6 inches long ; Stipules 0. Panicles terminal, or from the 

 exterior axils, cymose, bearing many small, yellow flowers. The male 

 flowers at the extremities of the ramifications, on short, articulated 

 pedicels, and the female ones in their divisions, with their pedicels not 

 articulated. Bractes a small one below each subdivision of the pan- 

 icle, and generally one pressing on the calyx. <? . Calyx 5-leaved. 

 Corolla 5-petaled, campanulate, somewhat hairy. Disk of 5 glandular 

 bodies, round the base of the filaments. Filaments 6, the central one 

 very thick, columnar ; the 5 exterior ones filiform, towards the base 

 adhering to the central one, all erect, and a little longer than the calyx. 

 Anthers 10, sagittate, equal ; 5 supported by the large central filament, 

 and 1 by each of the others. 9 . Calyx, corolla, and disk as in 

 the male. Ovary oblong, smooth ; Styles 3, short ; stigma bifid, some- 

 what hairy. The leaves rubefacient and discutient ; warmed and rubbed 

 with castor oil are applied by the natives of India to inflammations 

 when suppuration is wished for. Seeds are violently emetic and 

 drastic ; their expressed oil reckoned a good external application in itch 

 and herpes ; it is also used a little diluted, in chronic rheumatism. 

 Milky juice reckoned detergent and healing ; it dyes linen black. 

 The oil boiled with oxyde of iron forms a varnish used by the Chinese 

 for covering boxes. In large doses the seeds are energetic poisons. 

 According to Martius this produces in Brazil the Pinhoes de Purga, one 

 of the strongest known drastics ; in a fresh state 1 seed is sufficient 

 for a dose. 



376. J. glauca Vahl. symb. i. 79. Willd. sp.pl iv. 558. 

 Croton lobatum Forsk. 162. (Pluk.t. 220. f. 4.) Arabia felix. 



Leaves 3-5-lobed, mucronate, serrate, toothed. Petioles naked. 

 Stipules palmate, with setaceous branched divisions glandular at the 

 apex. Seeds yield stimulating oil recommended by the Hindoos as 

 an external application in cases of chronic rheumatism and paralytic 

 affections. Ainslie. 



377. J. glandulifera Roxb.fl. ind. iii. 688. East Indies. 

 Leaves about the extremities of the branchlets, alternate, petioled, 



184 



