237 RICINUS COMMUNIS 



inserted on the raised centre of the receptacle, anthers small, 2- 

 celled, dehiscing longitudinally. Female flowers : Calyx as in 

 the male, but more deeply cut, with the segments narrower, more 

 acute and erect; petals none; ovary shorter than the calyx, 

 superior, globular-trigonous, with the blunt angles bearing several 

 lines of large, soft, erect, finger-shaped prominences, tipped with 

 a transparent spiny bristle, 3-celled, with a single ovule attached 

 to the top of the axis in each cell, style very deeply divided into 

 three long, flattened branches, each split into two, the inner sur- 

 face covered with papillae, bright carmine-red. Fruit a blunt, 

 greenish, deeply-grooved, tricoccous capsule, less than an inch 

 long, with the prominences of the ovary become sharp, weak, 

 spreading spines, 3-celled, dehiscing loculicidally and septicidally 

 into 6 valves. Seeds ovoid, flattened, nearly f inch long by i 

 broad, smooth, shining, pinkish-grey, prettily mottled with dark 

 brown, caruncle large, subglobular, raphe faintly raised, running 

 down centre of ventral surface, embryo large in axis of the endo- 

 sperm, cotyledons foliaceous, broadly ovate, with a cordate base, 

 veined. 



Habitat. It is believed that this well-known plant is a native 

 of India, and that it has spread thence over all the warmer 

 countries of the world. In the Mediterranean region, especially 

 in Spain and Sicily, where it occurs as a bush or small tree, it 

 has quite the look of a native plant. It is cultivated for medi- 

 cinal purposes in India, Italy, and other countries ; in England it 

 is only grown as a garden ornament and is an annual. The 

 known varieties are very numerous, and have mostly been 

 described as species. Miiller groups them in one species under 16, 

 distinguished by the varying size and form of the capsules and 

 seeds ; the colour of the latter varies also considerably, and the 

 spines on the capsule are sometimes quite absent. 



The name " Castor " was originally applied to this plant in 

 Jamaica, where it seems to have been called " Agnus Castus," 

 though it bears no resemblance to the South European plant 

 properly so named (Vitex Agnus-Castus, L.). 



Mull. Arg. in DC., 1. c., p. 1017; Lindl., PL Med., p. 183; Pappe, 



