Flora Medica

EUPHORBIACE.IE.glaucous; of a purplish-red colour upwards. Leaves large, deeplydivided into 7 segments, on long, tapering, purplish stalks. Flowers inlong, green, and glaucous spikes, springing from the divisions of thebranches ; the males from the lower part of the spike, the females theupper. Capsules prickly. Seeds ovate, shining, black dotted with grey.The seeds of this plant yield by expression the well-known valuablecathartic substance called Castor oil.JATROPHA.Flowers monoecious. Calyx 5-parted or lobed. Corolla5-parted or 0. $ Stamens . 8-10, with unequal monadelphousfilaments. J . Styles 2, bifid or dichotomous. Capsule 3-coccous.375. J. Curcas Linn. sp. pi. 1429. Willd. sp. pLiv. 560.As. researches xi. 169. Roxb.fl.ind. iii. 686. Pereira in Med.Gaz. xx. p. 821. fig. 202. A very common small tree or bushon the coast of Coromandel. (Physic nut.)Bark smooth, light ash-coloured. Leaves scattered, stalked, broadcordate,5-angled, smooth, about 6 inches each way. Petioles round,smooth, 4-6 inches long ; Stipules 0. Panicles terminal, or from theexterior axils, cymose, bearing many small, yellow flowers. The maleflowers at the extremities of the ramifications, on short, articulatedpedicels, and the female ones in their divisions, with their pedicels notarticulated. Bractes a small one below each subdivision of the panicle,and generally one pressing on the calyx. $ . Calyx 5-leaved.Corolla 5-petaled, campanulate, somewhat hairy. Disk of 5 glandularbodies, round the base of the filaments. Filaments 6, the central onevery thick, columnar ;the 5 exterior ones filiform, towards the baseadhering to the central one, all erect, and a little longer than the calyx.Anthers 10, sagittate, equal ;5 supported by the large central filament,and 1by each of the others. $ Calyx, . corolla, and disk as inthe male. Ovary oblong, smooth ; Styles 3, short ; stigma bifid, somewhathairy. The leaves rubefacient and discutient ; warmed and rubbedwith castor oil are applied by the natives of India to inflammationswhen suppuration is wished for. Seeds are violently emetic anddrastic their ; expressed oil reckoned a good external application in itchand herpes ; it is also used a little diluted, in chronic rheumatism.Milky juice reckoned detergent and healing ; it dyes linen black.The oil boiled with oxyde of iron forms a varnish used by the Chinesefor covering boxes. In large doses the seeds are energetic poisons.According to Martius this produces in Brazil the Pinhoes de Purga, oneof the strongest known drastics; in a fresh state 1 seed is sufficientfor a dose.376. J. glauca Vahl. symb. i. 79. Wittd. sp.pliv. 558.Croton lobatum Forsk. 162. (Pluk.t. 220. f. 4.) Arabia felix.Leaves 3-5-lobed, mucronate, serrate, toothed. Petioles naked.Stipules palmate, with setaceous branched divisions glandular at theapex. Seeds yield stimulating oil recommended by the Hindoos asan external application in cases of chronic rheumatism and paralyticaffections. Ainslie.377. J. glandulifera Roxb.fi.ind. iii. 688. East Indies.Leaves about the extremitiesof the branchlets, alternate, petioled,184