CASTOR-BEAN 



CASTOR-BEAN 



229 



Bulletin No. 58, Division of Chemigtry, United 

 States Department of Agriculture; Agricultural 

 Ledger, 1904, No. 10, Calcutta, India; Bulletin of 

 Botanical Department, Jamaica, Vol. IX, Part 6. 



CASTOR-BEAN. Rieinus comraunis, Linn. Euphor- 

 biacece. Figs. 325-330. 



By E. Mead Wilcox. 



Castor-oil is derived from the seeds or beans of 

 rieinus, a coarse perennial plant (treated as annual 

 in temperate climates), bear- 

 ing large alternate palmately 

 lobed leaves, flowers in large 

 terminal clusters, and vari- 

 colored seeds in prickly three- 

 membered pods or burs. The 

 flowers are unisexual and are 

 gathered on a frequently much 

 elongated axis, the starainate 

 flowers generally being along 

 the lower, the pistillate along 

 the upper part of the inflores- 

 cence; flowers without petals; 

 stamens many; pistils three, 

 two-parted, red. 

 The castor-oil plant belongs 

 to a family that 

 has over four 

 thousand species 

 and is developed 



most highly in the tropics. It furnishes 

 a great variety of useful products, 

 among which may be named cassava 

 or tapioca, caoutchouc and shellac. In 

 the tropics, the castor-bean grows to a 

 tree thirty to forty feet high, but in 

 temperate regions it is a large annual. 

 The original home of the castor-oil 

 plant was in Africa or India, but it is 

 now cultivated in all the warmer parts 

 of the world, either for its oil or as an 

 ornamental plant. The highest yield 

 of oil is secured in the tropics, and it 

 is grown only for ornamental purposes 

 in the northern part of the corn-belt, 

 where it would be a failure if grown 

 for oil. It is said, however, that the 

 oil secured from beans grown in the 

 temperate climate of the United States 

 is superior for medicinal purposes to 

 that grown in the tropics. 



In the United States the plant is 

 now cultivated commercially in Okla- 

 homa, Illinois, Missouri and Kansas, 

 Oklahoma producing probably over 

 half the total product. The product of 

 the beans in the United States has 

 fallen off very much in recent years, 

 and we are becoming more and more 

 dependent on the supply from India. 



Fig. 325. 

 Flowers of castor-bean. 

 A.Staminate; B,pl8- 

 tlUute. 



I^' 



will not do well on either a stiff clay or a light 

 sand. In this respect it may be said to do well on 

 soil suited to corn or wheat. If virgin soil is not 

 employed, one must apply either manure or com- 

 mercial fertilizers to keep up the supply of avail- 

 able nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid. 



Planting. — The seeds are planted either in rows 

 four to five feet apart each way, or else in rows 

 about four feet apart and only eighteen inches 

 apart in the row. When the plants are about six 

 to eight inches high they are thinned to a stand of 

 one plant per hill. It may be found desirable to 

 pour water, nearly boiling hot, over the seeds and 

 allow them to stand, without further heating, for 

 twenty-four hours. This treatment seems to ensure 

 a more uniform and prompt germination. The 

 plants are cultivated level to keep down the 

 weeds, as is corn, until they are about two feet 

 high, from which time they should be able to take 

 care of themselves. 



From four to six seeds are planted in a hill, to 

 allow for all accidents. At the greater distances 

 (4x5 feet) about one and one-half quarts of seed 

 are required for an acre ; at the lesser distances 

 (4 X IJ feet), about four quarts are required. 



Varieties. 



Numerous varieties are known, the types most 

 used for ornamental purposes generally being larger 

 than those found among the cultivated oil-yielding 

 plants. The oil-bearing varieties are distinguished 

 by the color, shape and size of the seeds and leaves 



Culture. 

 Soil. — The plant prefers a 



Castor-bean ^"^^ — T'*® plant prefers a rich, 

 inflorescence, well-drained sandy or clay loam and 



Castor-bean fruits. 



and the color of the stem. They differ considerably 

 among themselves as to their oil-producing powers, 

 but they cannot be characterized so readily botan- 

 ically. The writer seems to have been the first to 

 undertake the systematic breeding of the castor-oil 

 bean for the express purpose of increasing its oil- 

 producing quality. This work was started in Okla- 



