I 



237 



N. Ord. EUPHORBIACE.E. 

 Tribe Acalyphece. 



Genus Ricinus,* Linn. Mull. Arg. in DC. Prod., xv, pt. 2, 

 pp. 1016-21 ; Baill., Hist. PL, v, p. 109. Species a single 

 very variable one. 



237. Ricinus communis, Linn., Sp. Plant, ed. I, p. 1007 (1753). 

 Palma-Christi. Castor Oil. 



Syn.n. europseus, Nees. R. laevis, DC. R. viridis, Willd. R. 

 lividus, Jacq. R. africanus, Mill. &c. &c. 



Figures. Woodville, t. 22] ; Nees, 1. 140 ; Hayne, x, t. 48 ; Steph. & Ch., 

 t. 50; Berg & Sch., t. 1 c; Flora Grseca, t. 952; Nees, Gen. Fl. 

 Germ. ; Baill., 1. c., f . 153-162. 



Description. Very variable in habit and appearance ; in tropical 

 countries a tree reaching 40 feet high, in warm, temperate regions 

 a slender, woody, branching bush of 12 14 feet, in this country 

 a very large branched, annual herb 4 or 5 feet high ; herbaceous 

 stems hollow, smooth, cylindrical, glaucous, with a purplish bloom 

 in the upper part. Leaves alternate, on long, curved, cylindrical, 

 purplish petioles, sub-peltate, drooping, stipules large, ovate, 

 yellowish, united into a cap enclosing the buds, deciduous, 

 blade 6 8 inches across, palmately cut for three quarters of its 

 depth into 7 11 lanceolate, acute, coarsely serrate segments, 

 smooth, blue-green, paler beneath, red and shining when young. 

 Flowers monoecious, large, arranged on the thick rachis of an 

 oblong, spicate panicle, which is at first terminal, but becomes 

 lateral by the growth of an axillary bud beneath it j male flowers 

 shortly stalked, on branched peduncles at the base of the panicle, 

 pedicels articulated about the middle ; female flowers sessile, at 

 the upper part ; bracts broadly triangular. Male flowers : Calyx 

 deeply cut into 3 5 smooth, broadly ovate, pointed segments, val- 

 vate in aestivation ; petals none ; stamens very numerous, irre- 

 gularly combined into many much branched, compound stamens, 



* Ricinus, a dog-tick, from the form of the seed ; the plant was called KIKI 

 and Kporuv by the Greeks, the latter word having the same meaning. 



