THE PURGING CROTON. 759

^■'habitants of the Canary Isles. The aromatic tonic bark of the Croton Cascarillaanother exception to the very general acridity of euphorbiacenns plants.

‘)'s acrid juice pervades various parts of the plants; in the stem it resides princi-

tl I die c °rtical portion. “ M. Berthollet has recorded a remarkable instance ofunt mless quality of the sap in the interior of a plant, whose hark is filled with ac.y Proper juice of a poisonous nature. He describes the natives of Teneriffe as>"¥ iu the habit of removing the bark from the Euphorbia canariensis, and thent,: C . ff the inner portion of the stem in order to quench their thirst, this part con-»■ ’’tiff a cnnctilersihlo ninnhtu .if Itmnid and nun-elaborated sap” (Ilenslow,

B n ? a considerable quantity of limpidan y, in Lardner's Cyclop, p. 217).

Cyclop, p. 217).

Cro’ton Tiglium, Lam. L. E. D.— The Purging Croton.

Croton Jamalgota, Hamilton.

Sex. Syst. Monoecia, Monadelphia.

(Oleum e seminibus expressum, L. D. Expressed Oil of the Seeds, E.)

an Vouy.—Croton seeds are mentioned by Avicenna (lib. 2 ,ld “ , ) cap. 219)0r Av Serapion {De Simplicibus, cccxlviii.) under the name of PendIp, (:/l de. The earliest Em'opean describer of them is Christopher/ C ° Sta > in 1578 (Clusius , Exoticor. p. 292), who terms them pinte * malucani. When Commeline wrote, they were known in theitin A the name of cataputia minor, although they wdre sold byr n A. rail l-s as grand dilla or grana tilli. They were much employed bybut ' Ca ^ rnen in the 17th century, and were known by various names,principally by that of grana tiglia. They, however, went out of use,(j 0 a t ) ly j n consequence of the violence and uncertainty of their openi-ng Their re-employment in modern practice is owing partly to theI)/ 06 ? them by Dr. White and Mr. Marshall, in the first edition ofpA,-^inslie’s work {Materia Medica of IUndostan, 1813); but princi-^ y 1° the introduction of the oil, in 1819, by Dr. Conwell ( Recherch.l8o es Propr. med. et VEmploi en Med. de VHuile de Croton Tiglium,),'A For further historical details, consult Professor II. H. Wilson’sp ^ er in the Trans, of the Med. and Phys. Society of Calcutta , vol. i.

Vqi ° Tany - Gen. Char . — Flowers monoecious, or very rarely dioecious.

ii'^'Pnrted. Males : —Petals five. Stamens ten or more, distinct.Q a ' es — Petals none. Styles three, divided into two or more partitions.Pfule tricoccous (Adr. de Jussieu).

Char. —Arboreous. Leaves oblong-ovate, acuminate, slightlytlm a ^ e> Sl nooth. Stamina fifteen, distinct. Each cell of the fruit filled by

1 seed.

middle-sized tree, from fifteen to twenty feet high.

Bark smooth,

Sf ., c< A )ur ed. Leaves sometimes cordate, and with tw'o flat round glandsbnv 1T ^ >a se ; when young, covered on both surfaces, but especially thef|, it ° r °ne, with minute stellate hairs. At the base of the leaves are two(In, r ° Un< i glands. Raceme terminal, erect, simple. Petals of malejj‘ T white.

A - —Continent of India , islands forming the Indian Archipelago,

.^Ceylon.

•ig|j e Proton Parana (Hamilton, Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. xiv. 257) is said also to yieldM^i m or croton seeds. It is distinguished from C. Tiglium by having only tenb. p ,la > a nd by the seeds being much smaller than the cells in which they are placed.AinV*' 111 * s a native of Ava, north-eastern parts of Bengal? Amhoyna?? Ur.mu thinks it is the Granum lUoluccum of Rumphius .

Es crh>tion .—Croton seeds (semina tiglii seu semina crotonis; grana