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1172 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS.

N₄O₄ , which is termed ricininic acid ; the same acid may also be obtained by the hydrolysis of ricinin with caustic soda. It is a dibasic acid, which melts at 295,° yields a silver salt, a barium salt crystallising with 4 H₂O, and a bromo-derivative, C₁₅H₁₂Br₂N₄O₄ , melting at 180°. (J. Ch. S. 1896, A. I. 386.)

Syn.:—B. montanum MuelL-Arg., B. polyandrum, Wight ; Croton polyandros, Roxb. 687.

Sans. : — Danti.

Vern. : — Danti, hakum or hakun (H. and B.) ; Konda-âmudam naypawlum, adavi-âmudam (Tel.); Poguntig (Lepcha) ; Jangli jamâlgota (U. P.) ; Danti (Mar.) ; Jamálgota, dantimul (Bomb., Guj. and Cutch).

"The vernacular names of B. Montanum, Croton tiglium, Jatropha glandulifera and J. curcas are confounded with each other in most districts of India, particularly in the Madras Presidency." (Moodeen Sheriff.) Roots sold as Danti-mul in the Bazars.

Habitat :— Tropical and subtropical Himalayas, from Kashmir to Bhotan ; from Assam and Khasia mountains to Chittagong. Deccan Peninsula from Behal and the Concan to Travancore.

A stout leafy undershrub 3-6ft. high with herbaceous branches from the root, glabrous except the young shoots and sometimes the leaves beneath. Leaves firmly coriaceous, very variable in size and shape ; the upper 2-3in. long, lanceolate, penninerved ; the lower 6-12in. long, often palmately 3-5 lobed and with sinuate-toothed margins ; base rounded or cuneate ; petioles 2-6in. long ; stipules of 2 glands. Flowers usually monœcious, arranged in many axillary racemes or contracted panicles, all male or with a few females at the base. MALE flowers -—Calyx globose, 1/10in., 4-5-partite, often slightly hairy ; segments finely mottled. Disk of 6 glands. Stamens about 20. FEM. flowers : — Sepals not enlarging in fruit. Disk thin, 1/10in. in diam. Ovary hairy ; styles about 1/16in. long, thick, 2- partite, dull-red. Capsules ⅓=½in. long, obovoid, usually hairy. Seeds ⅓in. long, smooth, mottled. (Duthie.)