Chapter XX: Appendix: D

ON SOME OF THE ECONOMIC PLANTS OF MAROCCO.

BY JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER.

_Gum Ammoniacum._

Our endeavours to obtain accurate information regarding the Marocco gum ammoniac plant were ceaseless and fruitless. Jackson, who gives a rude figure of a portion of a leaf and a scanty description (‘Account of the Empire of Marocco,’ 136, t. 7), says that it is the produce of a plant like Fennel, but larger, and called Fashook in Arabic, and that it grows in the plains of the interior provinces, abounding in the north of the city of Marocco, in a sandy light soil. Jackson further states that neither bird nor beast is seen where this plant grows, the vulture only excepted, and that it is attacked by a beetle having a long horn proceeding from its nose, with which it perforates the plant, and makes the incisions whence the gum oozes out. Under his description of the vulture, he states that, with the exception of the ostrich, this is the largest bird in Marocco; that it is common in all places where the gum ammoniac grows, as in the plains east of El Araiche,[1] where he has seen at least twenty of these birds in the air at once, darting down on the insects with astonishing rapidity (p. 118). Jackson’s figure (t. 8) of the so-called beetle apparently represents a dipterous insect resembling a Bombylius, with a very long straight proboscis.

Lindley (‘Flora Medica,’ 46) doubtfully refers Jackson’s Fashook to the eastern _Ferula orientalis_ L.; and Flückiger and Hanbury (‘Pharmacographie,’ 289) say that, according to Lindley, the _Ferula tingitana_ yields a milky gum resin, having some resemblance to Ammoniacum, which is an object of traffic with Egypt and Arabia, where it is employed like the ancient drug in fumigations. The authors go on to say that there can be but little doubt that the Maroccan Ammoniacum is identical with that of the ancients, and that it may well have been imported by way of Cyrene from regions lying farther westward.

Pliny and Dioscorides say that the Ammoniacum is the juice of a Narthex growing about Cyrene and Libya, and that it is produced in the neighbourhood of the temple of Ammon.

Dr. Leared (‘Morocco and the Moors,’ 356) was informed that the Fashook grows at a place two days’ journey from Mogador, on the road to the city of Marocco,[2] but states that the exudation from the roots of specimens which he obtained differed from the African Ammoniacum. We, on the other hand, were persistently assured that it grew nowhere along that route, nor nearer to it than El Araiche, north of Marocco city. And this is confirmed by information obtained by Mr. R. Drummond Hay to the effect that it is found near Marocco, and chiefly around Tedla. The Moors who gave us this information at once recognised the figure by Jackson, and called the plant Kilch (Kelth according to Leared). The roots presented to Kew by the kindness of Dr. Leared did not make any indications of growth.

The Maroccan Ammoniacum plant must not be confounded with the Persian _Dorema Ammoniacum_, or ‘Ushak,’ which is also bled by insects.

The Fashook gum is used by the Moors and by some Orientals as a depilatory, and in skin diseases; it is exported to the East from Mazagan, _viâ_ Gibraltar and Alexandria.

_Euphorbium, Furbiune or Dergmuse._

_Euphorbia resinifera_.—Berg. und Schmidt, Officinelle Gerwächse, v. iv. (1863) xxxiv. d.; Flückiger and Hanbury, Pharmacographia, 502; Cosson, in Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr. xxi. 163; Ball, in Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot. xvi. 661; Euphorbium, Jackson’s ‘Account of the Empire of Marocco,’ 134, t. 6 (left-hand figure only).

We have little to add to the description of the Euphorbium tree given by Jackson, and that in the ‘Pharmacographia’ cited above. As stated in the body of this work it is confined to the interior of the empire, and the only living specimens we met with were from a garden in Mesfiouia (see p. 163). Jackson confounded two plants under this name; one, the true species, growing in the Atlas, with 3-4-angled branches, the other a sea-coast plant, with 9-10-angled branches, which is carried to Marocco for tanning purposes, and of which he says, that during the three years of his residence at Agadir he never saw any gum upon it.

The true plant is figured and described by Jackson as an erect tree, with a stout short woody trunk, and very numerous upcurved long sparingly divided branches, the whole resembling a candelabrum. The angles of the branches are armed with short spines, and the flowers are produced from the tips of the young shoots. The thorns adhere to everything that touches them, and he supposes them to have been intended by nature ‘to prevent cattle from eating this caustic plant, which they always avoid on account of its prickles.’ The juice flows from incisions made with a knife, and hardens and drops off in September. The plants, he says, produce abundantly once only in four years, and the fourth year’s produce is more than all Europe can consume. The people who collect the gum are obliged to tie a cloth over their mouths and nostrils, to prevent the small dusty particles from annoying them, as they produce incessant sneezing.

The history of the Euphorbium as given in the ‘Pharmacographia’ is, that it was known to both Dioscorides and Pliny as a native of the Atlas, and was named in honour of Euphorbus, physician to the learned King Juba II. of Mauritania, himself the author of treatises on Opium and Euphorbium.

The prevalence of cactoid _Euphorbiæ_ in Marocco, of which there are three species in the southern districts, is a similar instance to that of the Argan, of tropical forms advancing far north in the extreme west of the old world; and as the Argan has its nearest ally in Madeira, so have the Maroccan Euphorbiums close congeners in the Canary Islands. All these belong to the section _Diacanthium_ of Boissier, of which the other species are Abyssinian, Arabian, Indian, and South African.

Gum Euphorbium was extensively used by early practitioners as an emetic and purgative, and was exported in large quantities; now, however, the trade in it is rapidly declining, and we were informed that it is chiefly used in veterinary practice, and as an ingredient in a paint for the preservation of ships’ bottoms.

_Euphorbia resinifera_ is in cultivation at Kew, where specimens may be seen both in the Succulent-plant House and Economic-plant House.

_The Arar, Thuja or Gum Sandrac Tree._

_Callitris quadrivalvis_.—Ventenat, Nov. Gen. Decad. 10; Richard, Conif. 46, t. 8, f. 1; Endlich, Synops. Conif. 41; Parlatore, in DC. Prod. xvi. pars 2, 452; Ball, in Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot. xvi., 670.

_Thuja articulata_.—Shaw’s ‘Travels in Barbary,’ 462, with a plate; Vahl, Symb. ii. 96, t. 48; Desf. Flor. Atlant. ii. 353, t. 252.

_Frenela Fontanesii_.—Mirbel, in Mem. Mus. xiii. 74.

This tree is a native of the mountains of North Africa, from the Atlantic to Eastern Algeria; but we are not aware whether its eastern limit has ever been accurately determined. It has no congener, its nearest ally being a South African genus of Cypresses (_Widdringtonia_), of which several species are recorded from the Cape Colony, Natal, and Madagascar, and which differ in having alternate leaves and many ovules to each scale.

The great interest attached to this plant arises from the beauty and durability of the wood, which, there is every reason to believe, was known to the ancients from the earliest times, under the name of Thuja. It is thus hypothetically, but probably correctly, identified with the θυῖον[3] of the Odyssey (ii. 6), with the θυῖον and θυία of Theophrastus (‘Hist. Pl.’ v. 5), and the thyine wood of the Revelations (xviii. 12). It is undoubtedly the Citrus wood of the Romans, and the Alerce of the Spaniards; the latter name being derived from the Moors of Marocco, for it is not a native of Spain.

The first botanical notice of the Callitris is in Shaw’s ‘Travels in Barbary,’ where it is figured and briefly described as _Thuja articulata_ (462); and for its identification with the Alerce we are indebted to the late Mr. Drummond Hay when Consul of Tangier, who, further, sent a plank of the wood to the Royal Horticultural Society.[4] At about the same time, the attention of a most intelligent traveller, the late Capt. S. E. Cook (afterwards Widdrington), was attracted by the wood of the cathedral of Cordova (formerly a mosque built by the Moors in the ninth century) called Alerce, which differed from any Spanish wood, or any other wood now used in Spain. Coupling this name with the communication made by Mr. Drummond Hay to the Horticultural Society, Capt. Cook was enabled to identify the Cordova wood with the Callitris, which, as he assumes, was brought from Marocco, to roof a mosque intended to be second in sanctity only to that of Mecca.

Except in a garden at Tangier, we saw no specimen of the Callitris approaching a large size, or capable of yielding the beams which we were shown in the ceilings and roofs of buildings in that town and elsewhere, and which are considered to be indestructible. On the contrary, most of the native specimens we saw in Southern Marocco resembled small Cypresses, with very sparse foliage and branches, and were apparently shoots from the stumps of trees that had been cut or burnt down, though possibly their impoverished habit may have been due to the sterility of the soil. The largest were in the Ourika valley, and were about thirty feet high (see p. 177). In many cases the stem swelled out at the very base into a roundish mass half buried in soil, which is said to attain even four feet in diameter, though we saw none approaching that size.

It is the basal portion, whether the result of mutilation or natural growth, that affords the wood so prized by ancients and moderns, and which forms a most valuable article of export from Algiers to Paris, where small articles of furniture, &c., are made of it and sold at very high prices.

Under the name of Citrus wood, it is alluded to, according to Daubeny, by Martial and Lucan, and by Horace (‘Carm.’ lib. iv. Od. 1), who suggests its employment as the most precious commodity that could be selected for a temple in which a marble statue of Venus should be placed:—

Albanos, prope te, lacus
Ponet marmoream sub trabe citrea;

Also Petronius Arbiter, descanting upon the luxury of the Romans, seems to represent it as worth more than its weight in gold, when he says—

Ecce Afris eruta terris
Ponitur, ac maculis imitatur vilius aurum
Citrea mensa.

For a detailed description of what was known of this tree to the ancients, and of its value, we must refer to the description in Pliny (‘Nat. Hist.’ book xiii. chaps. 29, 30). This author describes it as the thyion and thyia of Homer and the Greeks, and adds that its wood was used with the unguents burnt for their pleasant odour by Circe; as also that Theophrastus awarded a high rank to it, the timber being used for roofing temples and being indestructible; as also that it is produced in the lower part of Cyrenaica, and that the finest kind grows in the vicinity of the temple of Jupiter Ammon.

Pliny himself gives Mount Atlas as the native country of the wood; in the vicinity of which, he says, is Mauritania, a country in which abounds a tree which has given rise to the mania for fine tables, an extravagance with which women reproach the men when they complain of their vast outlay upon pearls. He attributes the knots from which the tables are made to a disease or excrescence of the roots, of which the most esteemed are entirely concealed under ground, these being much more rare than those which are produced above ground, and that are to be found on the branches also.

The principal merits of the tables were to have veins arranged in waving lines, or forming spirals like whirlpools. The former they called ‘tiger’ and the latter ‘panther’ tables; whilst others, which are highly esteemed, have markings resembling the eyes on a peacock’s tail. In others, again, called ‘apiatæ,’ the wood appears as if covered with dense masses of grain. The most esteemed colour was that of wine mixed with honey.

In respect of their size, Pliny gives a little over 4 ft. as the average maximum, though one that belonged to Ptolemæus, King of Mauritania, was 4½ ft. in diameter and ¼ of a foot in thickness. It was formed of two semi-diameters so skilfully united that the joining was concealed. Another, made of a single piece, was named after Nonius, a freedman of Tiberius Cæsar, and was 4 ft. less ¾ in. in diameter, and 5¼ inches in thickness. And with regard to the price, Cicero paid a million sesterces (9,000_l_.) for one; two belonging to King Juba were sold by auction, one for one million two hundred thousand sesterces, and the other for somewhat less. Some of Pliny’s statements are probably fabulous; as that the barbarians bury the wood when green, first giving it a coating of wax, and that the workmen, when it comes into their hands, put it for seven days beneath a heap of corn, and then take it out for as many more, after which it is surprising to find how much it has lost in weight. More apocryphal still is his statement that it is dried by the action of sea-water, and thereby acquires a hardness and density that render it proof against corruption; also that, as if created for the behoof of wine, it receives no injury from it.[5]

In Marocco, where no ornament or article of luxury is known, it need hardly be said that the Alerce wood is employed only for building purposes and fire-wood; though the resin called Sandarach, which was once a reputed medicine, is collected by the Moors and exported from Mogador to Europe, where it is used as a varnish.

_Gum Arabic._

_Acacia gummifera_.—Willd. Sp. Pl. iv. 1056; DC. Prod. ii. 455; Hayne, Arzneigew. x. t. 8; Benth. in Trans. Linn. Soc. xxx. 509; Ball, in Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot. xvi. 442.

_Mimosa gummifera_.—Brouss. in Poir. Dict. Suppl. i. 164.

_Acacia coronillæfolia_.—Desf. Cat. Hort. Par. ed. ii. 207.

_Mimosa coronillæfolia_.—Pers. Encheirid. n. 44.

_Sassa gummifera_.—Gmel Syst. ex DC. 1. c.

Of this plant very little indeed is known, and we were unfortunately unable to find either flower or fruit of the only Acacia which we met with on our visit to Marocco, and which we were assured was the Gum Arabic plant (Alk Tlah) of that country. It is interesting as representing the northern limit of distribution of the immense genus Acacia in Africa. Our specimens, such as they are, coincide perfectly with the description of _Acacia gummifera_ in Willdenow, and with the excellent figure in Hayne, which was taken from specimens collected by Broussonet near Mogador. We found the plant abundantly in the lower region of Southern and Western Marocco, occurring as a thorny bush, along with _Rhus pentaphylla_ and other shrubs. That it was the plant producing the Marocco Gum Arabic the natives consistently testified, though this could not be inferred from the description in Jackson’s ‘Account of the Empire of Marocco’ p. 136, who says of the gum that it ‘is produced from a high thorny tree called Attalet, having leaves similar to the Arar, or gum Sandarac tree, and the Juniper.’ Jackson goes on to say:—

‘The best kind of Barbary gum is procured from the trees of Marocco, Ras-el-wed, in the province of Abda; the secondary qualities are the produce of Shedma, Duquella, and other provinces; the tree grows abundantly in the Atlas mountains, and is found also in Bled-el-jerrêde. The gum, when new, emits a faint smell, and, when stowed in the warehouse, it is heard to crack spontaneously for several weeks; and this cracking is the surest criterion of new gum, as it never does so when old; there is, however, scarcely any difference in the quality. The Attaleh is not so large a tree as the Arar, which produces the Sandarac gum, nor does it reach the size of the Auwar tree, which produces the gum Senegal. It has a low crooked stem, and its branches, from the narrowness of its leaves (long and scanty), have a harsh, withered, and unhealthy appearance at the time it yields the most gum—that is, during the hot and parching months of July and August; but although not an ornamental tree, it is a most useful plant, and will always be considered valuable. Its wood is hard, and takes a good polish; its seeds, which are enclosed in a pericarpium, resemble those of the Lupin, yield a reddish dye, and are used by the tanners in the preparation of leather. These seeds attract goats, who are very fond of eating them. The more sickly the tree appears, the more gum it yields; and the hotter the weather, the more prolific it is. A wet winter and a cool or mild summer are unfavourable to the production of gum.’

As observed in the body of this work, the gum does not seem to be collected in the western portion of its range in South Marocco, but in Demnet, whence it is brought to Mogador; and it may very well be that it is only in the hotter and drier regions of the interior that the gum is produced in sufficient quantities to be worth collecting.

It is remarkable that no notice whatever of _Acacia gummifera_ occurs in Flückiger and Hanbury’s invaluable ‘Pharmacographia’ (1874), where the Marocco gum is supposed to be the produce of _Acacia arabica_ Willd., a plant which extends from Nubia to Natal, and eastward to Central India, but which is not known as a native of Marocco. In another passage of the above work (p. 211), the ‘Marocco, Mogador, or brown Barbary gum,’ is described as consisting ‘of tears of moderate size, often vermiform, and of a rather uniform light dusky brown tint. The tears, which are internally glassy, become cracked on the surface and brittle if kept in a warm room; they are perfectly soluble in water.’

It is possible that the _Acacia arabica_, which is found in Senegal, may extend to the Sous Valley, and be the source of some of the Marocco gum; and that more than one species producing gum are confounded together by the Moors; this is the natural inference from Jackson’s account, itself anything but explicit. On the other hand, I am informed in a letter lately received from Mr. R. Drummond Hay, H.B.M. Consul at Mogador, who has kindly had inquiries made for me, that the _Acacia arabica_ (Alk Awarwhal) is not found in Sous, no tree of the kind existing either north or south of the Atlas, but that its gum is brought from Soodan by Arabs, and is of inferior quality to that of the _Acacia gummifera_. Mr. Hay further informs me that the _Acacia gummifera_ grows chiefly in the provinces of Blad Hamar, Rahamma, and Sous.

As stated above, the specimens which we collected of _Acacia gummifera_ precisely accord with the published description and drawing; but we have others under this name from Mr. Cosson’s collector, Ibrahim, gathered near Mogador and at Ouanyna, which differ in having very short spines, ⅙ to ¼ in. long, whilst those of our plant are from ⅔ to ¾ in. long and much stouter.

Very small plants of _Acacia gummifera_ are living at Kew, raised from seeds obligingly presented by Mr. Cosson. They grow exceedingly slowly, and several have been lost by damping off. They are not in a state fit for exhibition.

_The Argan Tree._

_Argania Sideroxylon_.—Roem. and Sch. Syst. Veg. iv. 502; Alph. DC. Prod. viii. 187; Hook. in Kew Journ. Bot. vi. (1854) 97, t. iii. iv.; De Noé, in Rev. Hort. 1853, 125; Ball, in Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot. xvi. 563.

_Sideroxylon spinosum_.—Linn. Hort. Cliff. 69 (excl. syn. et loc.); Correa, in Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat. viii. 393.

_Rhamnus siculus_.—Linn. Syst. Nat. ed. 12, iii. 227, excl. syn., non Bocc.

_R. pentaphyllus_.—Linn. Syst. Nat. ed. Gmel. 398, fid. Dryandr. excl. syn. Bocc.

_Elæodendron Argan_.—Retz Obs. Bot. vi. 26; Willd. Sp. Pl. i. 1148, excl. syn. Jacq. and Bocc.; Schousboe, Iagttag. over væxtrig. in Marocc. 89.

_Argan_.—Dryandr. in Trans. Linn. Soc. ii. 225.

This tree is rightly regarded as the most interesting vegetable production of Marocco, being confined to that empire and to a very circumscribed area in it, belonging to an almost exclusively tropical natural family, yielding a most important article of diet to the inhabitants, and a wood that for hardness and durability rivals any hitherto described. The earliest account of the Argan tree known to us is a brief one by the celebrated African traveller Leo Africanus, who visited Marocco in 1510. Speaking of some of the customs of the Moors, Leo Africanus says: ‘Unto their Argans (for so they call a kind of olive which they have) they put nuts; out of which two simples they express a very bitter oil, using it for a sauce to some of their meats, and pouring it into their lamps’ (‘Purchas,’ ii. 772). And in another passage he describes the oil correctly, as ‘of a fulsome and strong savour.’ The further history of the Argan tree is given in a very full and careful account by the late Sir W. Hooker, in the ‘London Journal of Botany’ for 1854 (vol. vi. p. 97, Tab. iii. iv.), which, as the work is of limited circulation, we here introduce.

‘Through the kindness and by the exertions of the Earl of Clarendon, Chief Secretary for Foreign Affairs, the Royal Gardens of Kew have been put in possession of living plants and fresh seeds of a tree or shrub very little known in Europe, little known even to botanists, but highly esteemed by the Moors, in those parts of Marocco where it is a native, for its useful qualities, viz. the “Argan.” Its economical properties are best explained by the copy of a letter which his Lordship did me the favour to communicate along with the plants and seeds, from Henry Grace, Esq., British Acting Vice-Consul at Mogador, addressed to J. H. Drummond Hay, Esq., Her Britannic Majesty’s Agent and Consul-General at Tangier; both of which gentlemen spared no pains in procuring the information and seeds and living specimens; an example we should be glad to see followed by our consuls in other countries abounding in new and useful plants.

‘“Mogador, November 7, 1853.

‘“Sir,—The Argan tree grows more or less throughout the states of Western Barbary, but principally in the province of Haha, and south of this town. The soil in which it is found is light, sandy, and very strong; it is usually seen upon the hills, which are barren of all else, and where irrigation is impossible.

‘“I should imagine, from the appearance of some of the trees, that they are from one to two hundred years old; and a remarkably large one in this neighbourhood is probably at least three hundred. This individual measures 26 ft. round the trunk; at the height of three feet it branches off; the branches (one of which measures 11 ft. in circumference near the trunk) rest upon the ground, extending about 15 ft. from the trunk, and again ascend. The highest branch of this tree is not more than 16 ft. to 18 ft. from the ground, while the outer branches spread so as to give a circumference of 220 ft.: this is the largest I am aware of.

‘“The mode of propagation, in this vicinity, is mostly by seed. When sowing this, a little manure is placed with it, and it is well watered until it shoots; from which period it requires nothing further. In from three to five years after sowing it bears fruit, which ripens between May and August (according to the situation of the tree). The roots extend a great distance underground, and shoots make their appearance at intervals, which are allowed to remain, thus doing away with the necessity of transplanting or sowing. When the fruit ripens, herds of goats, sheep, and cows are driven thither; a man beats the tree with a long pole, and the fruits fall and are devoured voraciously by the cattle. In the evening they are led home, and, when comfortably settled in their yards, they commence chewing the cud and throw out the nuts, which are collected each morning as soon as the animals have departed upon their daily excursion. I have heard it remarked that the nut passes through the stomach; but this is only a casualty, and not a general rule. Large quantities of the fruit are likewise collected by women and children: they are well dried, and the hull is taken off, and stored for the camels and mules travelling in the winter, being considered very nutritious.

‘“The process of extracting the oil is very simple. The nuts are cracked by the women and children (and not a few fingers suffer at the same time, owing to the want of proper tools, for the nuts are very hard, and a stone is the only implement used); the kernels are then parched in a common earthen vessel, ground in handmills of this country, and put into a pan; a little cold water is sprinkled upon them, and they are well worked up by the hand (much the same as kneading dough) until the oil separates, when the refuse is well pressed in the hand, which completes the process. The oil is left to stand, and the sediment removed. The cake (in which a great deal of oil remains, owing to the want of a proper press) is generally given to the milch cows or goats.

‘“I never heard of any part being used as manure, but I have no doubt it would form an excellent one.

‘“Some of these Argans grow in clusters, others are in single trees.

‘“I have, &c.,

(Signed)‘“ HENRY GRACE.

_‘“To J. H. Drummond Hay, Esq., &c. &c.”’_

‘Except a brief notice of the exportation into Europe of Argan oil by the Danish Councillor of State, Georges Höst, who travelled in the kingdoms of Marocco and Fez during the years 1766-1768, the only published account of the uses of the Argan is given in a very little known Danish work, published by P. K. A. Schousboe, entitled “Iagttagelser over Væxtriget i Marokko. Forste Stycke. Kiobnhavn, 1800, 4, 7 Tab.,” of which a German edition appeared in 1801, in 8vo, by J. A. Markussen. It gives an account of some Marocco plants; and, after an introductory sketch of the physical geography of Marocco, it contains descriptions of the plants of the country in Latin and German, with occasional observations in German. The account of the Argan under Retz’s name of _Elæodendron Argan_ is long: first comes a technical description, followed by a history of its synonymy, and then the following notes (kindly translated for us by Mr. Bentham):—

‘“It is surprising that this tree should hitherto have been so little known; as it is found in a country near Europe, and visited by many travellers, who speak in their diaries and descriptions of oil of Argan and of Argan trees, these last as constituting a considerable proportion of the forests of the country. It is, however, not to be met with in the northern provinces, but only towards the south. All those persons, from whom I have sought more accurate information on the subject, are unanimous in stating that it only grows between the rivers Tansif and Sus—that is, between the 29° and 32° N. lat.—and there constitutes forests of considerable extent. It flowers in the middle of June, and the fruit remains on the tree the greater part of the year. The young fruit sets in the end of July or beginning of August, and grows slowly till the rainy season commences, towards the end of September. It now enlarges rapidly and attains its full size during that season, so as that by the middle or end of March it is ripe enough to be gathered for economical uses. Both the fruit and the wood are serviceable, but especially the former; for from the kernel an oil is extracted which is much employed for domestic purposes by the Moors, and is an important production of the country, as it saves much olive oil, which can thus be thrown into commerce, and made to bring money into the country. It is calculated that in the whole Argan region one thousand hundredweight of oil is annually consumed, thus setting free an equal quantity of olive oil for exportation to Europe. Our countryman, Höst, in his ‘Efterretninger om Marokos,’ p. 285, says that the Argan oil is exported to Europe, where it is used in manufactures. Such may have been the case in former times when it might be cheaper; but now there would be no advantage in doing so, as it costs almost as much as olive oil. At present, no Argan oil whatever is exported.

‘“As the practice in preparing this oil is somewhat different from that of common olive oil, it may be useful to enter into some details on the subject. I have myself been present during the whole operation, and consequently speak from experience.

‘“In the end of March the countryman goes into the wood, where the fruits are shaken down from the trees and stripped of their husks on the spot. The green fleshy pericarp, which is good for nothing else, is greedily eaten by ruminating animals, such as camels, goats, sheep, and cows, but especially by the first two. Therefore, when the Arab goes into the woods to collect Argan nuts, he gladly takes with him his herds of the above animals, that they may eat their fill of the green husks whilst he and his family are collecting and shelling the nuts. The horse, the ass, and the mule, on the contrary, do not like this food. When a sufficient quantity of nuts are collected they are brought home, the hard wooden shell is cracked between stones, and the inner white kernels are carefully extracted. These are roasted or burnt like coffee on earthen, stone, or iron plates; in order that they may not be too much done, they are constantly stirred with a stick. When properly roasted they should be all over of a brown colour, but not charred on the outside. The smoke, which is disengaged during the process, has a very agreeable odour. As soon as the kernels have cooled, they are ground in a handmill into a thick meal, not unlike that of pounded almonds, only that it is of a brown colour, and the meal is put into a vessel in which the oil is separated, which is done by sprinkling the mass now and then with hot water, and keeping it constantly stirred and kneaded with the hand. This process is carried on until the mass becomes so hard that it can no longer be kneaded: the harder and firmer are the residuary coarse parts, the more completely is the oil extracted. At the last, cold water is sprinkled upon it, in order, as they say, to expel the last particles of the oil. During the operation the oil runs out at the sides, and is from time to time poured into a clean vessel. The main point to be attended to in order to extract the greatest quantity and the best quality of oil, is that it should be well kneaded, and that the proper proportion of hot water for the extraction of the oil should be used; it is always safer to be sparing of it than to be too profuse. The residuary mass, often as hard as a stone, is of a black-brown colour, and has a disagreeable bitter flavour. The oil itself, when it has settled, is clear, of a light brown colour, and has a rancid smell and flavour. When it is used without other preparations in cooking, it has a stimulating and pungent taste which is long felt on the gums. The vapour which arises when anything is fried in it, affects the lungs and occasions coughing. The common people use it generally without preparation; but in better houses it is the custom, in order to take off that pungency, to mix it previously with water, or to put a bit of bread into it and let it simmer before the fire.

‘“The wood, which is hard, tough, fine-grained, and of a yellow colour, is used in house carpentry, and for other purposes.”’

‘We have been at some pains to distribute the seeds of this plant, with which we have been liberally supplied, to various parts of the East Indies, and to such of our Colonies as appeared suited to the growth of this tree, in respect of climate, &c. It is impossible for seeds to be in better condition; and though the surrounding hard portion of the nut is as thick and solid as that of hickory, those which we ourselves sowed sprouted in less than a month from the time they were put in the ground. The young trees bore the rough treatment of the voyage in midwinter remarkably well; and it is easy to see that this is a plant of ready culture in favourable climates.

‘The value of the husks of the fruit as food for cattle, and the uses of the wood, are mentioned in the above extracts. The nature of the oil seems only to have been considered in relation to olive oil. But vegetable oils are now so much in demand, especially by Messrs. Price & Co., for their great candle-works at Vauxhall, as well as at Birkenhead, near Liverpool, that I was anxious to know the opinion of Mr. G. F. Wilson, the scientific director of those vast establishments, on the nature of Argan oil. Some seeds were consequently communicated to that gentleman, and he lost no time in experimenting upon them, and assuring me that “they contain a large percentage of a very fine oil. We have tried it in several ways, in each case with a favourable result. Some is now being exposed to a severe test, to show how the air acts upon it: I have, however, little fear but that it will answer. Our city friends are inquiring for us the best means of getting a ton or two of the nuts for experiments on a large scale. The only unfavourable point I see is the small weight of kernel to that of hard shell:—

6 Nuts gave—kernel 30 grains
„ „ hard shell 350 grains
„ „ outer husk 193 grains.

The hard shell probably should be sent home with the seed when the kernels are required to yield a sweet oil; for unless prepared with great care, hardly to be expected in a wild country, the oil would not be nearly so sweet if sent home expressed, instead of in its kernel and shell. Perhaps if the kernel is pounded and rammed tightly into casks, we might obtain sweet oil without great waste in freight.”

‘In a botanical point of view this plant is scarcely of less interest than in an economical. It has had the hard fate, often the consequence of being with difficulty procured, to be much misunderstood, and, except by Schousboe, to be imperfectly described; and references are given in works to plants as being identical which have no relationship with it; or to descriptions which, if the same, exhibit little or no resemblance.

‘The first botanist who appears to have noticed this plant is Linnæus, who, in the _Hortus Cliffortianus_, in 1737, described it, from dried specimens, under the name of _Sideroxylon spinosum_. “From Clifford’s Herbarium,” observes Mr. Dryander, “now in the possession of Sir Joseph Banks, the Argan was taken up by Linné in his _Hortus Cliffortianus_; though most of the synonyms are wrong, and consequently the _locus natalis_ (_utraque India_) which is deduced from them. The specimen in Linné’s Herbarium, under the name of _Sideroxylon spinosum_, is without flowers, and it is impossible to tell you with any certainty what it is. Clifford’s Herbarium is therefore the only authority by which this species can be ascertained.” Linnæus’s _Rhamnus siculus_, in the Appendix to the third volume of the twelfth edition of the _Systema Naturæ_, is, we are assured by Mr. Dryander, “the Argan, or Olive-tree of Marocco (see Höst’s ‘Efterretninger om Marokos,’ p. 284), as appears from the specimen in Linné’s Herbarium, which has a ticket affixed, with the name of Argan of Marocco, and which I have also compared with specimens in Sir Joseph Banks’s Herbarium from Marocco.” The description, too, of Linnæus is very correct. He errs only in considering the plant to be the same as the _Rhamnus Siculus pentaphyllos_ of Boccone (_Rhus pentaphyllum_, Desf.), which has _folia quinata_, which latter he introduces into the specific character, but not into the description; and he erroneously followed Boccone in giving Sicily as the native country in addition to Africa, and in adopting the specific name _Siculus_.

‘In the _Species Plantarum_ of Linnæus, Malabar alone is mentioned as the native country of the _Sideroxylon spinosum_. Nevertheless, with the exception of Willdenow, who rejects it altogether as “planta valde dubia, forte nullibi obvia,” most of the older authors adopt this name for the Argan of Marocco. Under it, it appears in the first edition of _Hortus Kewensis_, with the reference to _Species Plantarum_ of Linnæus, and to Commelyn, _Hortus Amstelod_. tab. 83, where, however, nothing is said of its native country, further than may be surmised by the name adopted from Breynius’s “Lycio similis frutex Indicus spinosus, Buxi folio” (which, as already observed, Willdenow considered to be his _Flacourtia sepiaria_, from India), and of which the flowers and fruit were unknown to the author. If this were the Argan, it was in cultivation in Holland as early as 1697. At a period not much later, viz. in 1711, according to the _Hortus Kewensis_, it was introduced into England: “Cult. 1711, by the Duchess of Beaufort, Br. Mus. H.S. 141, fol. 39.” It is indicated as a stove-plant.

‘Sir James Smith, article _Sideroxylon spinosum_ in Rees’s “Cyclopædia” (1819), throws no new light upon the subject; he omits the reference to Commelyn. Retz, in “Obs. Bot.” vol. vi. p. 26, refers the plant to _Elæodendron_, in which he is followed by Willdenow, and by Schousboe, which latter author has given by far the fullest and best account of the plant botanically and economically.

‘M. Corréa de Serra, “Annales du Museum d’Histoire Naturelle,” 1809, tom. viii. p. 393, tab. v. f. l., has published a very good analysis of the fruit, with very brief characters and no observations. At length Mr. Brown, “Botanicorum facile princeps,” in his invaluable Prodromus, under his Observations on Sapoteæ, says, “_Sideroxylon spinosum_, L., fructu valde diversum proprium hujus ordinis genus efficit;” and, acting upon his suggestion, Rœmer and Schultes, “Systema Vegetabilium,” vol. iv. pp. xlvi. and 502, have formed of this plant a new genus, _Argania_, in which they have been followed by Endlicher and Alphonse De Candolle. In this latter work a very full generic character is given, which need not here be repeated.’

‘It is singular that no further allusion to this tree should appear in Jackson’s “Account of the Empire of Marocco” than the following: “Oil Arganic is also in abundance in Suse; it is much used for frying fish and burning-lamps. When used for frying fish, a quart of it should be boiled with a large onion cut in quarters; and when it boils, a piece of the inside of a loaf, about the size of an orange, should be put in; after which it should be taken off the fire and let stand to cool, and when quite cold should be strained through a sieve; without this precaution it is supposed to possess qualities which promote leprosy.”—Dr. Barretta.’

The limited distribution of the Argan is one of its most noticeable features, for as a genus it is not far removed from _Sideroxylon_, a very widely spread tropical and subtropical genus of both hemispheres, and which reaches its northern limit in Madeira (in the same latitude as that attained by the Argan), where one species, _S. Mermulana_, Lowe, is found on the rocky heights of the interior. The order is not found in the Canary Islands, but reappears in the Cape de Verdes in a species of _Sapota_, and is well represented in the humid regions of Western Africa. It would thus appear that _Argania_ and the Madeiran _Sideroxylon_ are two outlying representatives of a very tropical order; and, considering the proximity of the areas they inhabit, and their position in the extreme west of the Old World, they are, in a Botanico-Geographical point of view, plants of a very high interest, as evidences of a relationship between the Floras of these areas, which must originally have been established under very different conditions from those which now prevail.

The Argan was, as stated above, introduced into England in 1811, and was long established on a south wall, but ultimately was killed in an unusually severe winter. Numerous plants were raised, from seed sent by Sir John Hay, by Mr. Grace, and from those brought by myself, and the plant may be seen in the Economic-plant House at Kew. It is of very slow growth, which has disappointed colonists and others, to whom the fruits have been largely distributed from Kew.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Not El Araisch, SSW. of Tangier on the Atlantic coast, but some place in the interior, and N. of the city of Marocco.]

[Footnote 2: This is no doubt _Elæoselinum humile_ (Ball), which we found near or at the above defined locality. Ball formed a very decided opinion that Jackson’s plant, whether the true Ammoniacum or not, was a species of _Elæoselinum_.]

[Footnote 3: It is mentioned under this name by Homer in his description of the Island of Calypso. See Daubeny _On the Trees and Shrubs of the Ancients_, p. 42.]

[Footnote 4: See Cook’s _Sketches in Spain_, vol. i. p. 5 (1831); and Loudon’s _Gardener’s Magazine_, Ser. ii. vol. iii. p. 522.]

[Footnote 5: See Bostock’s translation of Pliny, vol. iii. p. 194, &c.]

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