1836.] RoyWs Botany, fyc. of the Himalayas and Cashmere. 425 



castor oil plant, Ricinus communis, khiroa or cherua of the Arabs, 

 aranda of the Hindoos, and KpoTvov and kIki of the Greeks ; and also 

 several species of J atropha, as J. Curcas, physic-nut (II. bagh-burinda), 

 J. glandulifera is used as an escharotic to remove opacities of the eye 

 in India (Roxb.). The most active, being at the same time safe and 

 which is perhaps the most extensively used in India, and also consider- 

 ed emmenagogue, is the Croton Tiglium, Grana Molluccana and Tilli 

 of old Pharmacopoeias, jumalgotta of the Hindoos, dund of the Arabs 

 and Avicenna, for which, inN. India, those of C. polyandrum are sub- 

 stituted, and called by the same name. Species of Phyllanthus are 

 considered diuretic, others of the order sudorific, and some emetic. 

 The best substitutes for Ipecacuanha are said to be some species of 

 Euphorbia, as E. Ipecacuanha, Gerardiana, &c. ; also Pedilanthus 

 tithymaloides. Space would fail, if we were merely to enumerate all 

 those to which useful properties have been ascribed, but they may be 

 seen in the Essay of M. Adrien de Jussieu, Lindley, Fee, Roxburgh, 

 and Ainslie. The acrid and stimulant principle is united with essen- 

 tial and fragrant oil in some barks and woods, as in Croton Cascarilla, 

 Eluteria, and gratissimum. The wood-cutters of the Delta of the Gan- 

 ges state, that no Agallochum is afforded by Excozcaria Agallocha 

 (Roxb.). A peculiar principle {cereo-resine, Fee), called Euphorbium, 

 furjiyoon, (Gr. ajirbiyoon) of the Persian works on Materia Medica, 

 and said in them to be a produce of Soudan and Africa, is considered 

 by botanists to be yielded by Euphorbia officinarum, Canariensis, and 

 antiquorum. I doubt whether the last, at least the species so called 

 in India, yields any, as in some experiments I made on the subject, I 

 found the juice comparatively inert. The leaves of E. nereifolia are 

 considered purgative and deostruent (Ainslie) ; the root of E. ligularia 

 mixed with black pepper, is employed for the cure of snake-bites. 

 Some of this family are violent poisons, as Hippomane Mancinella, 

 Hura crepitans, Hycenanche globosa, Exc&caria Agallocha, Sapium 

 aucuparium and indicum. Seeds of the latter intoxicate fish, as does 

 the bark of Fluggea virosa (Roxb.), and the hairs of some species, as 

 Tragia cannabina and involucrata, sting as violently as nettles. Some 

 species yield oil useful for burning, as Elozococca (Dryandra, Thunb.), 

 verrucosa, and Vernicia, the oil and varnish trees of China, Aleurites 

 triloba, Ricinus communis, &c. ; while Stillingia sebifera, or tallow-tree 

 of China, yielding a vegetable fat, is now common about Calcutta, but 

 it is only during cold weather that this substance becomes firm (Roxb.). 

 The most useful product of the family, however, and that which has 

 lately become so important an article of commerce, and of great utility 

 \ in a variety of arts, is Caoutchouc, so well known as India-rubber, and 

 exported principally from Para. This is chiefly yielded by Siphonia 

 elastica (Hevea guianensis, Aubl.), a tree of Guiana and Brazil, which 



