THE CASTOR-OIL PLANT. 
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THE CASTOR-OIL PLANT. 
1. Almost everyone knows the pretty speckled 
seeds of the castor-oil plant. They grow in a 
husk which, when ripe, splits open and shows 
the three chambers in which the seeds grow. 
When the husk splits, it mostly does so with 
great force, so that the seeds are shot off some 
distance from the 
plant that bore 
them. 
2. This is the 
way that some 
plants manage to 
keep their seed- 
lings from crowd- 
ing too near each 
other, that they 
may have room to 
grow. The castor- 
oil seeds, however, are so useful to us that we 
try to gather them before the plant is quite ready 
to scatter them. 
3. The castor-oil plant is common in the West 
Indies, and we all like to see its beautiful palm- 
shaped leaves. They are large, with at least 
seven 'Mobes" or parts, spreading out something 
like the fingers of an outspread hand. Have you 
Castor-oil Seeds, closed and open. 
