Botanical Description.--_P. Niruri_ is an herb with straight stem. Leaves alternate, pinnate with stylet in place of the odd leaflet. Leaflets nearly oval, glabrous, 2 stipules at the base. Flowers monoecious, greenish, axillary; the staminate growing along the common petiole above the pistillate. Staminate: Calyx, 5 lanceolate, entire sepals; no corolla; 1 filament with 1 anther. Pistillate: Calyx and corolla as above; ovary free, 3 biovulate cells; style with 2 stigma-bearing branches. Fruit capsular, globose. _P. urinaria_ may be distinguished by its sessile flowers and reddish stem. Habitat.--Very common in Manila and all over Luzon. _Jatropha Curcas_, L. Nom. Vulg.--_Tuba_, Tag.; _Kasla_, Vis.; _Tawatawa_, Iloc. (Seeds called "English Physic Nuts" in India.) Uses.--The milky juice of the trunk and branches is a drastic purgative, too active for safety as a physic. Mixed with water it is used as a wash for atonic ulcers. The seeds yield 25-30 per cent. of a yellowish oil, more active than castor oil as a purgative but less certain. Ten or twelve of the former equal in effect 30 to 40 drops of the latter. Its density is 0.919, and it differs from castor oil in being only slightly soluble in absolute alcohol. In some parts of the Philippines it is used for purposes of illumination, and it is exported to Europe to adulterate soaps and candles. It contains a little stearin which begins to be deposited at 9° and is entirely solidified at 0°. The fruit is strongly purgative, and this action is not due to the oil but to a peculiar resin so active that 3 fruits produce drastic effects. Whatever purgative action the oil possesses is due to the resin which it contains in solution. It seems, therefore, preferable to treat the seeds with alcohol, thus dissolving the resin, and use the tincture thus obtained in place of the oil. The natives use the plant to intoxicate the fish in ponds and sluggish streams. The seeds of the species _J. multifida_, L., also called _tuba_ in Tag., and _mana_, are likewise purgative in their action. Dr. Waring saw a case of poisoning with the fruit; the patient, a young man, suffered violent vomiting, intense pain in the stomach and head, and marked prostration. He recovered under the use of lime juice and stimulants. Botanical Description.--The _J. Curcas_ is a small tree growing as high as 9°. Leaves alternate, cordate, glabrous, 3-5 cut-lobed. Flowers yellowish-green, monoecious, in terminal umbels, staminate and pistillate flowers mingled without order. Staminate: Calyx, 5 unequal sepals; corolla bell-shaped, 5 petals, woolly within, a small notch at the end, bent downward; stamens 10, in 2 whorls of 5. Pistillate: Calyx and corolla as above; several tongue-like staminodes replace the stamens; ovary free, oblong, 3-celled, 1 ovule in each cell; style 3-branched. Seed vessel fleshy, of 3 capsules, each bearing 1 oval, coriaceous seed. Habitat.--Luzon and Visayas.