EDITORIAL. 
= 
INHERITANCE OF CERTAIN CHARACTERS WITH CASTOR 
OIL PLANT. 
The castor oil plant, botanically known all the world over as Ricinus 
communis, presents many forms which have from time to time been 
considered as distinct species. Many of these forms transmit their — 
characters integrally to their descendants. This has been shown by 
control cultural experiments made at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens 
with numerous pure strains of the first, second, and third generations. 
Series of crosses were made between the most widely divergent forms, 
and these gave in every case perfectly fertile and normal F, and F, 
hybrids, Crosses were made to study the inheritance of many distinct 
characters, ¢.g., stem colour, presence or absence of pruina, dehiscence 
and indehiscence of capsules, colour of spermodern, shape and size of the 
seed, periodicity, length of stem, growth, shape of leaves, &c. These 
have been proved to be mendelian characters, but the experiments made 
so far do not warrant conclusions being drawn as to their gametie 
structure. The results already obtained will be of great value to those 
carrying out similar work, especially in Queensland, where the Institute 
of Science and Industry, in co-operation with the Queensland Acclimati- 
zation Society, has similar work in progress, and in Western Australia, 
where certain testing work is about to be commenced. The relative 
dehiscence of the capsules is a most important-characteristic. In the 
dehiscent type, the ripe capsules open spontaneously with violence, scat- 
tering the seeds around to a great distance. This is probably caused 
by cells which, when ripe, rapidly lose their moisture and contract, 
causing the pod to break and expel the seeds. This is a very unfavor- 
able character, and necessitates: frequent harvesting—at least twice a 
week—to avoid the loss of large quantities of seed. The walls of 
dehiscent capsules are very thick and tough. In the indehiscent type 
the seed adheres to the walls of the fruit when it is completely ripe. 
When the cross is made between dehiscent x indehiscent form, 
dehiscent plants, and in the F,, both dehiscent and indehiscent forms 
in the ratio of 9.7. Dehiscence, it would appear, is due to two factors, 
with the full determination of the various mendelian characteristics. 
THE USES OF CASTOR OIL. 
The largely increasing uses which industry is finding for castor oil 
were indicated in a recent number of the Wngineering World. Castor 
oil figures to a large extent in the manufacture of the artificial leather 
which takes the place of natural leather in upholstery. It is also an_ 
essential component in some artificial rubbers and various kinds of 
celluloid. The oil furnishes a colouring for butter, and from it is pro- 
duced the so-called “ Turkey-red” oil, which is an important factor in 
the dyeing of cotton textiles. One of the largest uses of castor oil is in 
the making of transparent soaps. The oil also yields sebacic acid, 
which is employed in the manufacture of candles; and from it is also 
obtained caprylic acid, which enters into the composition of varnishes 
peculiarly suitable for the polishing of all kinds of high-class furniture 
and of carriage bodies. Castor oil is also used in the making of certain 
waterproof preparations. Most fly-papers owe a large part of their 
instantaneous action and effectiveness to the fact that the preparation 
smeared on them largely consists of castor oil. 
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