Flora Medica

JATROPHA.generally palmate ; lobes from 3 to 5, oblong, serrate, with each serratureending in a short, green, glandular-headed bristle. Stipules bristly,many-cleft, each division ending in a glandular head. Panicles terminal,about as long as the leaves. Male flowers most numerous and terminal,small, of a pale greenish yellow colour. Female flowers few, andsubsessile in the divisions of the panicle. The pale or whey-colouredthin juice which exudes from a fresh wound is employed by the Hindoosas an escharotic to remove films from the eyes. Roxb.377 a. J. multifida Linn, sp.pl. 1429. (Dill, elth.217. t. 173.f.213.) Tropical America.Leaves palmate, 1 1-lobed, smooth the ; segments wedge-shaped andpinnatifid. Stipules setaceous, multifid. Flowers corymbose, scarlet,with coloured pedicels. The seeds are one of the best of all emeticsand purgatives, acting briskly, but without inconvenience ; theireffects are readily stayed by the administration of a glass of goodwhite wine.377 b.Omphalea triandra Linn, sp.pl 1377. Aubl. t. 328,a native of tropical America, although not used for medicalpurposes, deserves to be noticed here as producing, in a poisonousfamily,, the most delicious and wholesome of all known nuts.JANIPHA.Flowers monrecious. Calyx campanulate, 5-parted. Petals 0.$. Stamens 10; filaments unequal, distinct, arranged arounda disk. ? . Style 1. Stigmas 3, consolidated into a rugose mass.Capsule 3-coccous. A. de J.378. J. Manihot HBK. ii. 85. Bot. Mag. t.3071. JatrophaMamhotLinn.sp.pl.1428. Manihot utilissima Pohl.pi. bras. ic. i. 32. t. 24. Brazil.Root oblong, tuberous, as big as one's fist, full of a wheyish, venomousjuice. Stems white, crooked, brittle, having a very large pith, andseveral knobs sticking out on every side like warts, being the remainsof the footstalks of the leaves, which have dropped off, usually 6 to 7feet high, with a smooth, white bark ;branches crooked, and have, onevery side, near their tops, leaves irregularly placed on long teretepetioles, broadly cordate in their outline, divided nearly to their baseinto 5 spreading, lanceolate, entire segments, attenuated at both extremities,dark green above, pale glaucous beneath ;the midrib strong,prominent below, and there yellowish red : from it there branch offseveral oblique veins, connected by lesser transverse ones. Stipulessmall, lanceolate, acuminate, caducous. Panicles or compound racemes,axillary and terminal, 4 to 5 inches long, bearing sometimes allmale or all female flowers, at other times these are mixed on the samepeduncle. Pedicels with small, subulate, bracts at their base. Maleflowers smaller than the female. Calyx purplish on the outside, fulvousbrownwithin, cut about half way down into 5 spreading segments.Disk orange-coloured, fleshy, annular, 10-rayed. Stamens 10, alternatewith the lobes of the disk. Filaments shorter than the calyx,white, filiform, free. Anthers linear-oblong, yellow. Female flowerof the same colour as the male, deeply 5-parted, the segments lanceolate-ovate,spreading. Disk an annular, orange-coloured ring, in185