4.24 OEiaiN OF CULTIVATED PLANTS, 



mention of the species. A few speak of the facility with 

 which the species becomes naturajlized from cultiva- 

 tion. Loureiro had seen it in Cochin-China and in 

 China " cultivated and uncultivated," which perhaps 

 means escaped from cultivation. Lastly, for the Sunda 

 Islands, Rumphius^ is as usual one of the most 

 interesting authorities. The castor-oil plant, he says, 

 grows especially in Java, where it forms immense fields 

 and produces a great quantity of oil. At Amboyna, it is 

 planted here and there, near dwellings and in fields, 

 rather for medicinal purposes. The wUd species grows 

 in deserted gardens (in desertis hortis) ; it is doubtless 

 sprung from the cultivated plant (sine dubio degeneratio 

 doTuestica). In Japan the castor-oil jDlant grows among 

 shrubs and on the slopes of Mount Wuntzen, but 

 Franchet and Savatier add,^ " probably introduced." 

 Lastly, Dr. Bretschneider mentions the species in his 

 work of 1870, p. 20; but what he says here, and in 

 a letter of 1881, does not argue an ancient ctdtivation 

 in China. 



The species is cultivated in tropical America. It 

 becomes easily naturalized in clearings, on rubbish-heaps, 

 etc. ; but no botanist has found it in the conditions of 

 a really indigenous plant. Its introduction must have 

 taken place soon after the discovery of America, for a 

 common name, lamourou, exists in the West India 

 Islands; and Piso gives another in Brazil, nhambu- 

 guacu, figuero inferno in Portuguese. I have received 

 the largest number of specimens from Bahia ; none are 

 accompanied by the assertion that it is really indigenous. 



In Egypt and Western Asia the culture of the species 

 dates from so remote an epoch that it has given rise to 

 mistakes as to its origin. The ancient Egyptians practised 

 it extensively, according to Herodotus, Pliny, Diodorus, 

 etc. There can be no mistake as to the species, as its 

 seeds have been found in the tombs.* The Egyptian 

 name was kiki. Theophi'astus and Dioscorides mention 



' Bumphins, Herb. Amb., vol. i7. p. 93. 



' Franchet and Savatier, Ermm. Japan., i. p, 424. 



• Unger, Pflanzen dea Alien JEgyptens, p. 61. 



