Chapter XLII: Section V (1)

OLEAGINOUS PLANTS, AND THOSE YIELDING FIXED OR ESSENTIAL OILS.

Few cultivators are probably aware of the great importance of oil to this country, and the number of purposes for which it is employed in the arts and manufactures. It is extensively used for candle and soap making, for burning in lamps, for diminishing friction in machinery of all kinds, and especially for locomotives--in wool-dressing, in the manufacture of paints and varnishes, as an article of food, for medicinal purposes, &c.

So important are vegetable oils deemed, that the Society of Arts, in its prize list for 1851, offered gold medals for the importation or introduction into this country of any new plants or trees from China, India, or elsewhere, producing oils or fatty substances, such as can be used as food, or are applicable to manufacturing purposes; and also to the person who shall manufacture and import the finest specimen of oil, not less than ten gallons, the produce of olives grown in any British colony in Africa or Australasia.

The time of burning of equal quantities of the following oils has been found to be--

Hours.
Oil of poppy 14
" sunflower 13
" rape 11
" mustard 11½
" flax seed 10
" gold of pleasure
(_Camelina sativa_) 9½
" olives 9
" hemp seed 8
" tallow 10½

FOREIGN VEGETABLE OILS IMPORTED.

1821. 1845. 1850.
tuns. tuns. tuns.
Coco-nut oil -- 2,148 98,040
Olive oil 1,900 12,315 20,783
Palm oil 3,200 25,285 448,589 cwts.
Rape seed oil 800 3,973 --
Linseed oil 10,500 38,634 --
------ ------ -------
16,400 82,355
Fish oils 32,356 22,626 21,328

The total quantity of all kinds of wool annually consumed in England and Wales, in 1843, was estimated at 801,566 packs. Now, five gallons of olive, rapeseed or other oils, being used in the preparation of every pack of wool, for cloth (independent of the quantity used in soap, applicable to the woollen manufactures), it follows that five gallons on 801,566 packs are equal to 4,007,830 gallons, or 15,904 tuns; and adding for olive or sperm oil used in machinery 1-11th of the whole, 1,446 tuns, the total quantity consumed is 17,350 tuns.--("Enderby on the South Whale Fishery.")

_Fixed oils_ are found in the cells and intercellular spaces of the fruit, leaves, and other parts of plants.

Some of these are drying oils, as linseed oil, from _Linum usitatissimum_; some are fat oils, as that from olives (fruit of _Olea sativa_ or _Europæa_); whilst others are solid, as palm oil.

The solid oils or fats procured from plants are, butter of cacao, from _Theobroma cacao_; of cinnamon from _Cinnamomum verum_; of nutmeg, from _Myristica moschata_; of coco-nut, from _Cocos nucifera_; of laurel, from _Laurus nobilis_; of palm oil, from _Elais guianiensis_; Shea butter, from _Bassia Parkii_; Galam butter, or Ghee, from _Bassia butyracea_; and vegetable tallow, from _Stillingia sebifera_ in China, from _Vateria indica_ in Canara and China, and from _Pentadesma butyracea_ in Sierra Leone, and from the almond. These oils contain a large amount of stearine, and are used as substitutes for fat. Some of them are imported in large quantities, and enter into the composition of soap, candles, &c.

Castor oil, from the seeds of _Ricinus communis_, differs from other fixed oils in its composition.

Decandolle states the following as the quantity of oil obtained from various seeds:--

Per cent.
in weight.
Hazel-nut 60
Garden cress 57
Olive 50
Walnut 50
Poppy (_Papaver somniferum_) 48
Almond 46
Caper-spurge (_Euphorbia Lathyris_) 41
Colza (_Brassica oleracea_) 39
White mustard (_Sinapis alba_) 36
Tobacco 34
Plum 33
Woad 30
Hemp 25
Flax 22
Sunflower 15
Buckwheat 14
Grapes 12

The following table, quoted from Boussingault, shows the results of some experiments made by M. Grauzac, of Dagny:--

Seed produced Oil obtained per
per acre. acre, in lbs. Oil per Cake
cwts. qrs. lbs. lbs. ozs. cent. per cent.

Colewort 19 0 15 875 4 40 54
Rocket 15 1 3 320 8 18 73
Winter rape 16 2 18 641 6 33 62
Swedish turnips 15 1 25 595 8 33 62
Curled colewort 16 2 18 641 6 33 62
Turnip cabbage 13 3 19 565 4 33 61
Gold of pleasure 17 1 16 545 8 27 72
Sunflower 15 3 14 275 0 15 80
Flax 15 1 25 385 0 22 69
White poppy 10 1 18 560 8 46 52
Hemp 7 3 21 229 0 25 70
Summer rape 11 3 17 412 5 30 65

The subjoined list will serve to exhibit the richness of the produce of different Indian seeds, from which varieties of oil are extracted; it gives the proportion of oil per cent. in weight:--

Sesame oil (_Sesamum indicum_) 46.7
Black til, coloured variety of ditto (_Verbesena sativa_) 46.4
Gingelie oil (_S. orientale_) 46.7
Ground nuts, produced by _Arachis hypogoea_ 45.5
Wounded seeds obtained from the Poonnay-tree (_Calophyttum
Inophyllum_), a bitter lamp oil 63.7
Karunj seeds, from the _Pongamia glabra_ 26.7
Ram til, the seeds of the nuts Ellu, or _Guizotia oleifera_ 35
Poppy seeds (_Papaver somniferum_) 43 to 58
Silaam, an oil seed from Nepaul 41
Rape seed (_Brassica napus_) 33

The foregoing are not all the seeds from which oil is extracted by the natives of the East. In addition to this there are cottonseed oil, used for their lamps. Castor oil and Argemone seed, similarly used. Oil obtained from the fruit of _Melia Azadriachta_, for medicine and lamps. Apricot oil in the Himalayas, sunflower oil, oil of cucumber-seed for cooking and lamps, oil of colocynth seed, a lamp oil.

The seeds of bastard saffron (_Carthamus tinctorius_) yield oil.

Mustard oil, the produce of various species of _Sinapis_, &c. Shanghae oil, from _Brassica Chinensis_. Illiepie oil, from _Bassia longifolia_, which is used for frying cakes, &c., in Madras; and Muohwa oil, from another species of the same genus in Bengal, _B. latifolia_. Oil is expressed from the seeds of _Cæsalpina oleosperma_, a native of the East. The neem tree seeds afford a very clear or bitter oil, used for burning.

Wood oil is a remarkable substance, obtained from several species of _Dipterocarpus_, by simply tapping the tree.

The horse-eyes and cacoons of Jamaica (_Fevillea scandens_) yield a considerable quantity of oil or fat, as white and hard as tallow. It has been employed for similar purposes on the Mosquito shores.

The seeds of the _Argemone mexicana_, and of the _Sanguinaria canadensis_, also contain a bland, nutritious, colorless, fixed oil. The mass from which the seed is expressed is found to be extremely nutritious to cattle.

The _Camelina sativa_ is cultivated in Europe, for the extraction of an oil used only by the soap makers, and for lamps.

A solid oil, of a pale greenish color, a good deal resembling the oils of the Bassia in character, though rather harder, and approaching more in properties to myrtle wax, was shown at the Great Exhibition, from Singapore. It is supposed to be the produce of the tallow tree of Java, called locally "kawan," probably a species of Bassia. It is very easily bleached; indeed, by exposure to air and light, it becomes perfectly white; if not too costly, it promises to become a valuable oil.

According to Mr. Low, there are several varieties of solid oil commonly used in the Islands of the Archipelago, and obtained from the seeds of different species of _Dipterocarpus_.

Piney tallow is obtained from the fruit of the _Vateria Indica_, a large and quick-growing tree, abundant in Malabar and Canara. It is a white solid oil, fusible at a temperature of 97 degrees, and makes excellent candles, especially when saponified and distilled in the manner now adopted with palm oil, &c. It has one great advantage over coco-nut oil, that the candles made of it do not give out any suffocating acrid vapors when extinguished, as those made with the latter oil do.

An oil is produced from the inner shell of the cashew-nut (_Anacardium occidentale_ var. _indicum_), in the East.

In Japan a kind of butter, called _mijo_, is obtained from a species of the Dolichos bean (_Dolichos soya_).

The kernel of the seeds of the tallow tree of China, _Stillingia sebifera_, an evergreen shrub, contains an oil, which, when expressed, consolidates through the cold to the consistence of tallow, and by boiling becomes as hard as bees' wax. The plant also yields a bland oil. A similar fatty product is obtained from a shrub in British Guiana, the _Myristica (Virola) sebifera_.

Oil is obtained in South America from the sand box tree _(Hura crepitans_), and from the _Carapa guianensis_.

A fatty oil is obtained in Demerara from the seeds of the butter tree, _Pekea_ (?) _Bassia butyrosa_, and also from the Saouari (_P. tuberculosa_).

The fleshy seeds contained in the woody capsules of the Monkey pot (_Lecythis Tabucajo_), which derive their generic name from their similarity to an oil jar, are common in the West India Islands and South America, and yield a considerable quantity of oil.

The seeds of the plants of the cucumber family frequently supply a bland oil, which is used in the East as a lamp oil and for cooking. Among the vegetable oils imported into Ningpo, and other Chinese ports, from Shantong, Leatong, and Teisin, are oil of teuss, obtained from green and dried peas; black oil of the fruit of the tree _kin_ (?) and oil from the pea of suchau.

The seeds of _Spergula saliva_, a large, smooth-seeded variety of the common cow spurrey, which is cultivated in Flanders as a pasture grass and green crop, afford, on expression, a good lamp oil.

A pale brownish yellow oil is obtained from the seeds of _Carthamus tinctorius_, in Bombay; the seeds contain about 28 per cent. of oil.

Excellent oil is expressed in various parts of India from the seeds of different species of _Sinapis_, especially from the black mustard seed. _S. glauca, S. dichotorna_, and _S. juncea_ are extensively cultivated in the East for their oil. The _Erysimum perfoliatum_ is cultivated in Japan for its oil-seeds.

A beautiful pale yellow oil is procured from the seeds of the angular-leaved physic nut, _Jatropha curcas_, a shrub which is often employed in the tropics as a fence for enclosures. It is used by the natives in medicine and as a lamp oil. About 700 tons of this oil was imported into Liverpool in 1850 from Lisbon, for the purpose of dressing cloth, burning, &c.

A rich yellow oil, perfectly clear and transparent, is obtained from the seeds of _Bergera koenigii_.

RAPE OIL.--The imports of rape oil, from _Brassica napus_, into Liverpool, are about 15 to 20 tuns annually.

Rape oil has been found to be better suited than any other oil for the lubrication of machinery, when properly purified from the mucilage, &c., which it contains in the raw state. Rape oil is now used extensively for locomotives, for marine engines, and also for burning in lamps. It is stated that a locomotive consumes between 90 and 100 gallons of oil yearly; and the annual consumption of oil by the London and North-Western Railway, for this purpose alone, is more than 40,000 gallons. The oil obtained from good English rape seed is purer and of superior quality to that from foreign or colonial seed; and as an acre of land yields nearly five quarters of seed, which is worth at present 50s. per quarter, it is a profitable crop.

Rape seed is now largely imported for expressing oil. The imports, which in 1847 were but 87,662 quarters, weighing 17,532 tons, had reached, in 1851, 107,029 quarters, weighing 21,606 tons. The price of new seed is £25 to £27 the last of ten quarters. The oil is £34 per tun.

The refuse cake, after the seed is crushed for oil, is in demand as food for cattle, being worth £4 the ton.

We imported in 1851, from Trance, 289 tuns of rapeseed oil, worth about £17,000, on which there was no duty levied.

There are exported annually from Hesse Darmstadt, 34,660 cwts. of poppy and rape oils.

The oil of the colza is much used in Europe, and highly prized. In France it has been adopted for all the purposes of lighthouses. In this country it has lately come into extensive domestic use, for burning in the French moderateur lamps, being retailed at from 3s. 4d. to 4s. the gallon.

DOMBA OIL.--The Poonay or Palang tree (_Calophyllum Inophyllum_), the Alexandrian laurel, is a beautiful evergreen, native of the East Indies, which flourishes luxuriantly on poor sandy soils, in fact where scarcely anything else will grow. The seeds or berries contain nearly 60 per cent. of a fragrant, fixed oil, which is used for burning as well as for medicinal purposes, being considered a cure for the itch. As commonly prepared it has a dark green color. It is perfectly fluid at common temperatures, but begins to gelatinise when cooled below 50 degrees.

THE EARTH-NUT (_Arachis hypogæa, or hypocarpogea_).--This very singular plant has frequently been confounded with others, partly through the carelessness of travellers, and by the improper use of names, which tended to mislead and confuse. Its common appellative, the earth-nut, has led to the conclusion that it was a species of nut, such as is known in England under the name of "pig nut," "hawk nut," and "ground nut." This, as well as the "earth chesnut," belongs to a totally different genera. On the Continent and in the East Indies a similar confusion had long existed by the appellation of "ground pistachio," which caused the fruit to be confounded with the nut of the tree _Pistacia vera_. Some resemblance, on the other hand, existing between these--as well as from their being eaten by different nations, and used as an article of food, and also for producing oil--rendered the true description still more difficult. Botanists are, however, no longer at a loss, having well established the nature and character of all these plants. The Arachis "nut" partakes of the nature of the pea or bean of our own country, and is a low annual plant of the order _Diadelphia decandria_ of Linn.; originally from Africa, but now extensively cultivated in every quarter of the globe. It has been naturalised in Europe, and with the climate of the South of France it may be turned to good account.

It has been said to be indigenous in Florida, Peru, Brazil, and Surinam; but the plant may be grown on a light sandy soil, under a moderate heat, equal to that of Italy or the South of France. The class to which it belongs approaches to the pea tribe; but its remarkable difference to this, as to the pulse we know as a bean, is the circumstance of its introducing its fruit or pod--if we may so call it--into the earth, for the purpose of ripening its seed. The Arachis, or earth nut, has obtained its name from this operation. The flowers, leaves, and stems are produced in the ordinary manner we see in the pea tribe. When the yellow flower has withered and the seed fertilised, there is nothing left but the bare stem which had supported it. This stem, in which is the germ of the future fruit and pod, now grows rapidly in a curved manner, with a tendency to arrive shortly on the surface of the ground, into which it penetrates this now naked stem, and sinks into the earth several inches. It is in this obscure position that the fruit takes its ripened form, and is either gathered from its hiding place or left to the future season, when its time of rising into new existence calls it from what was thought its unnatural position.

When mature, it is of a pale yellow color, wrinkled, and forms an oblong pod, sometimes contracted in the middle; it contains generally two seeds. The nuts or peas are a valuable article of food in the tropical parts of Africa, America, and Asia. They are sweetish and almond-like, and yield an oil, when pressed, not inferior in use and quality to that obtained from the olive. The leaf resembles that of clover, and, like it, affords excellent food for cattle. The cake, after the oil is expressed, forms an excellent manure.

The Arachis is usually sown in dry, warm weather, from May to June, and are placed at the distance of eighteen inches from each other. Insects are fond of them; and if the season is cold and unfavorable to them, or the growth retarded, they become musty and bad, or are eaten by insects.

The mode of obtaining the oil is nearly the same as for other pulse or seeds; and under favorable circumstances the Arachis will produce half its weight of oil. When heated and pressed the quantity is very considerably increased. This oil is good for every purpose for which olive or almond oil is used. For domestic purposes it is esteemed, and it does not become rancid so quickly as other oils. Experiments have been made on its inflammable properties, and it is proved that the brilliancy of light was superior to that of olive oil, and its durability was likewise proved to be seven minutes per hour beyond the combustion of the best olive oil, with the additional advantage of scarcely any smoke. In Cochin-China and India it is used for lamps. It is known as Bhoe Moong or Moong Phullee in Bengal, and as Japan or Chinese pulse in Java.

From China this plant was probably introduced into the continent of India, Ceylon, and the Malayan Archipelago, where it is generally cultivated.

In South Carolina the seed is roasted and used as chocolate. The leaves are used medicinally.

It is grown in Jamaica, and there called Pindar nut.

That the culture of the Arachis in warm climates, or even in a temperate one, under favorable circumstances, should be encouraged, there can be but one opinion. And when it is considered that its qualities are able to supersede that of the olive and the almond, which are but precarious in their crops--to which may be added, that as a plant it is greedily devoured in the green state by cattle--how much may it not serve to assist the new settler in regions of the world which have a climate suited to it.

It is known by various local names--such as _mani manoti_ by the Spaniards, and has obtained also that of _cacahuete_ in some countries. It has the additional term _hypogea_ attached to it, which literally signifies subterranean. This is apt to mislead; for the plant grows above ground as other pulse, whereas only its seed and pericarp are inserted, after blooming, into the earth. Hence the better term _hypocarpogea_.

It appears to form an important article of cultivation along the whole of the west coast of Africa, and probably on the east coast, on several parts of which it was found by Loureiro ("Flor. Cochin," p. 430). It was doubtless carried from Africa to various parts of equinoctial America, for it is noticed in some of the early accounts of Peru and Brazil. 800 quarters of this nut were imported into Liverpool from the West Coast of Africa, in 1849, for expressing oil, and about half that quantity in 1850.

Eighty to 90 tuns of the expressed oil are now annually imported. The seeds contain about 44 per cent. of a clear pale yellow oil, which is largely used in India as food, and for lamps, particularly at Malwa and Bombay, &c. Two varieties are grown in Malacca, the white seed and the brown seed, and also in Java, in the vicinity of sugar plantations; the oil cake being used as manure. It is there known as katjang oil.

This plant, which seems to be a native of many parts of Asia, has within the last ten years been much cultivated about Calcutta. The seeds contain abundance of fixed oil, have a faint odor, and very mild agreeable taste; 1,950 parts of seed, separated from their coverings and blanched, give 1,405 of kernels, from which, by cold pressure, 703 parts of oil are procured. The seeds are consumed as a cheap popular luxury, being half roasted, and then eaten with salt. The oil is calculated to serve as an efficient and very cheap substitute for olive oil, for pharmaceutical purposes. It burns with little smoke, with a clear flame, and affords a very full bright light, answering perfectly in Argand lamps.

The oil cake affords, also, an excellent food for cattle.

The ground nut has of late become of considerable importance as an article of exportation, by English houses; yet more so by French houses at Ghent, Rouen, and Bordeaux; some of whom have contracted with the merchants of the African colonies for large quantities, sending shipping for the cargoes. One house alone contracted for 60,000 bushels in the years 1844 and 1845. This nut oil is so very useful to machinery that the naval steam cruisers on the coast have adopted it. A ground-nut oil factory exists in the colony of Sierra Leone; but from the want of steam power and proper machinery, and from bad management, together with the inferior attainments of the African artisan, when compared with the European mechanic, and their facilities in quantity or quality, there is abundant scope for improvement. The price in the colony is 4s. 6d. per gallon. It is capable of being refined so as to answer the purpose of a salad oil; the nut is prolific, and eaten by the natives and Europeans, boiled, roasted, or in its raw state; and frequently introduced at the table as we do the Spanish Barcelona nut at dessert. It grows in the rainy season, and is collected in the dry, and sold in the colony for one shilling to eighteen-pence per bushel, in goods and cash. Form of the nut, long, light shell, contains two kernels covered with a brown rind, when shelled white in appearance.

It is a low creeping plant, with yellow flowers; after they drop off, and the pods begin to form, they bury themselves in the earth, where they come to maturity. The pod is woody and dry, containing from one to three peas, or nuts, as they are called, hence the common names, ground-nut or pea-nut. They require to be parched in an oven before they are eaten, and form a chief article of food in many parts of Africa.

From a narrow strip of land, extending about 40 miles northerly from Wilmington (North Carolina), comes nearly the entire quantity of earth nuts (known as pea-nuts) grown in the United States for market. From that tract and immediate vicinity, 80,000 bushels have been carried to Wilmington market in one year.

The plant has somewhat the appearance of the dwarf garden-pea, though more bushy. It is cultivated in hills. The pea grows on tendrils, which put out from the plant and take root in the earth, where the nut is produced and ripened. The fruit is picked from the root by hand, and the vines are a favorite food for horses, mules, and cattle. From 30 to 80 bushels are produced on an acre. There are some planters who raise from 1,000 to 1,500 bushels a year.--("Hunt's Merchant's Magazine," vol. xv., p. 426.)

The ground-nut is exceedingly prolific, and requires but little care and attention to its culture, while the oil extracted from it is quite equal to that yielded by the olive. Almost any kind of soil being adapted for it, nothing can be more simple than its management. All that is required is the soil to be turned over and the seed sown in drills like potatoes; after it begins to shoot it may be earthed with a hoe or plough. In many parts of Western Australia they are now grown in gardens for feeding pigs, the rich oil they are capable of yielding being entirely overlooked. In regard to their marketable value at home, I will give a copy of a letter of a friend of mine, received from some London brokers, largely engaged in the African trade:--

"Wilson and Rose present compliments to Mr. N., and beg to inform
him the price of African ground nuts is as under:--Say for River
Gambia, £11 per ton here. Say for Sierra Leone, £10 per ton here.
For ground nuts free on board at the former port, £8 per ton is
demanded; these are the finest description of nut, the freight would
be about £4 per ton; the weight per bushel imperial measure, and in
the shell, is about 25 lbs."

The following, also, is an extract from a letter written in 1842, by Mr. Forster (the present M.P. for Berwick), an eminent African merchant. Speaking of the staple of Africa, he says:--

"I have lately been attempting to obtain other oils from the coast,
and it was only yesterday I received from the hands of the oil
presser the result of my most recent experiment on the ground nut,
which I am happy to say is encouraging. I send you a sample of the
oil extracted from them. They are from the Gambia. It is a pure
golden colored oil, with a pleasant flavor, free from the frequent
rancidity of olive oil."

Since then the cultivation has gone on, and the exportation largely increased. The French also have entered into the trade, and several vessels are exclusively employed in exporting this product from the river Gambia, conveying it to oil factors on the continent, who extract its oil. Seeing, then, the many advantages the cultivation of such a product bestows, and its adaptation to the soil and climate of Australia, I cannot refrain from expressing a hope that some of the influential landowners in the cultivated districts will give the matter their consideration.

I am informed by an American merchant that he cleared 12,000 dollars in one year, on the single article of ground or pea nuts obtained from Africa. Strange as it may appear, nearly all these nuts are transhipped to France, where they command a ready sale; are there converted into oil, and thence find their way over the world in the shape of olive oil; the skill of the French chemists enabling them to imitate the real Lucca and Florence oil, so as to deceive the nicest judges. Indeed, the oil from the pea nuts possesses a sweetness and delicacy that cannot be surpassed.

Advices from the West Coast of Africa to the 16th August, 1853, report that the ground nut season had closed; the quantity shipped during the season having exceeded 900,000 bushels. The yield has increased 20 per cent, each year for the last three years, and it is expected the increase will be still greater in the forthcoming season.

TEUSS OIL.--The Chinese use what is called teuss or tea oil, for food and other purposes. I have alluded to it under the head of pulse, at page 312. It is obtained, however, from a species of the ground nut, and is sold in Hong Kong, at 2s. 6d. the gallon, being imported from the main land. By a local ordinance it is imperative on every householder at Victoria, Hong-Kong, to have a lamp burning over his door at night. When burning, this oil affords a clear, bright light, and is not so offensive to the smell as train and other common lamp oils.

TOBACCO SEED OIL.--A discovery, which may prove of some commercial importance, appears to have been made by a British resident in Russia, namely, that the seed of the tobacco plant contains about fifteen per cent. of an oil possessing peculiar drying properties, calculated to render it a superior medium, especially for paints and varnishes. The process employed for the extraction of the oil is to reduce the seed to powder, and knead it into a stiff paste with _quantum sufficit_ of hot water, and then submit it to the action of strong fires. The oil thus obtained is exposed to a moderate heat, which, by coagulating the vegetable albumen of the seed, causes all impurities contained in the oil to form a cake at the bottom of the vessel employed, leaving the oil perfectly limpid and clear.

POPPY OIL.--About 80 cwt. of poppy seed is imported annually into Hull, and small quantities come into other ports to be crushed into oil. The seeds of the poppy yield, by expression, 56 per cent. of a bland and very valuable oil, of a pale golden color, fluid to within ten degrees of the freezing point of water. It dries easily, is inodorous, and of an agreeable flavor like olive oil.

Dr. J.V.C. Smith, writing from Switzerland, to the editor of the "Boston Medical Journal," says:--

"Immense crops are raised here of articles wholly unknown to the
American farmers, and perhaps the kinds best fitted to particular
localities where grain and potatoes yield poorly under the best
efforts. One of these is poppies. Thousands of acres are at this
moment ready for market--which the traveller takes for granted, as
he hurries by, are to be manufactured into opium. They are not,
however, intended for medical use at all, but for a widely different
purpose. From the poppy seed a beautiful transparent oil is made,
which is extensively used in house painting. It is almost as
colorless as water, and possesses so many advantages over the flax
seed oil that it may ultimately supersede that article. Where flax
cannot be grown poppies often can be, in poor sandy soil. Linseed
oil is becoming dearer, and the demand for paint is increasing. With
white lead, poppy oil leaves a beautiful surface, which does not
afterwards change, by the action of light, into a dirty yellow.
Another season some one should make a beginning at home in this
important branch of industry. The oil may be used for other
purposes, and even put in the cruet for salads."

TALLICOONAH or KUNDAH OIL, is obtained from the seeds of the _Carapa Touloucouna_ (of the Flore de Senegambie). The tree grows to the height of 40 feet; the fruit is a large, somewhat globular five-celled capsule. The seeds (of which there are from 18 to 30 in each capsule), vary in size from that of a chesnut to a hen's egg. They are three-cornered, of a brownish or blackish red color. It is found abundantly in the Timneh country, and over the colony of Sierra Leone. It is manufactured in the following manner:--The nuts having been well dried in the sun, are hung up in wicker racks or hurdles, and exposed to the smoke of the huts, after which they are roasted and subjected to trituration in large wooden mortars, until reduced to a pulp. The mass is then boiled, when the supernatant oil is removed by skimming. The natives principally prepare the oil to afford light; the leaves are used by the Kroomen as a thatch. It is held in high estimation as an anthelmintic. The oil is sold in Sierra Leone at 2s. a gallon, and could be procured in abundance from the coast as an article of commerce.

CARAP or CRAB OIL (_Carapa guianensis_).--This is a sort of vegetable butter, being sometimes solid and sometimes half fluid, which is obtained from the seed of a large tree abundant in the forests of Guiana, and also found in Trinidad. It is said to turn rancid very soon when exposed to the air, but this is probably caused by the presence of impurities, arising from the crude and imperfect way in which it is prepared by the natives, who boil the kernels, leave them in a heap for a few days, then skim them, and lastly reduce them into a paste in a wooden mortar, which is then spread on an inclined board, and exposed to the heat of the sun, so that the oil may melt and gradually trickle down into a vessel placed below to receive it. A prize medal was awarded for this oil at the Great Exhibition in 1851.

Carap oil in Trinidad is highly esteemed as an unguent for the hair, and also for applying to the wounds of animals, for destroying ticks and other insects which infest cattle--also for the cure of rheumatism. An oil called Carap oil is also obtained in the East, from the almonds of _Xylocarpus granatum_, or _Carapa Molluccensis_, of Lanark, which is used by the natives to dress the hair and anoint the skin, so as to keep off insects.

Cacao fat, the butter-like substance obtained from the seeds of _Theobroma cacao_, is esteemed as an emollient.

The nuts of the Great Macaw tree (_Acrocomia fusiformis_), a majestic species of palm, furnishes much oil. This tree is the _Cocos fusiformis_, of Jacquin, and other intertropical botanists. It is a native of Trinidad and Jamaica, and is found also very commonly in South America.

The method of extracting the oil is as follows:--The nut or kernel is slightly roasted and cleaned, then ground to a paste, first in a mill, and then on a livigating stone. This paste, gently heated and mixed with 3-10ths of its weight of boiling water, is put into a bag, and the oil expressed between two heated plates of iron; it yields about 7-10ths or 8-10ths of oil. If discolored it can be purified, when melted, by filtration. It is then of the consistence of butter, of a golden yellow hue, the odor that of violets, and the taste sweetish. If well preserved it will keep several years without spoiling, which is known to have taken place by the loss of its golden hue and delightful aroma.

It is frequently sold in the shops as palm oil, and of late has entered largely into the composition of toilet soaps. As an emollient it is said to be useful in some painful affections of the joints; the negroes deem it a sovereign remedy in "bone ache." The nut itself is sometimes fancifully carved by the negroes, and is highly ornamental, being of a shining jet black, and susceptible of a very high polish. This tree may be increased from suckers.

_A. sclerocarpa_ is the Macahuba palm of Brazil.

THE AGAITI, as it is called by the Portuguese, or napoota by the natives and Arabs (_Didynamia Gymosperma?_), much cultivated in all Eastern Africa for its oil, which is considered equal to that of olives, and fetches as high a price in the Indian market. The plant, which is as tall and rank as hemp, and equally productive, having numerous pods throughout the stems, is found everywhere in a wild as well as cultivated state.

The "Cape Shipping Gazette," of August, 1850, says:--

"The attention of the George Agricultural and Horticultural Society
having been drawn to the fact that an excellent oil, equal to the
olive oil of Italy, can be extracted from the kernel of the fruit
known by the name of "T Kou Pijte" and "Pruim Besje," they have
offered a reward of £10 for the best sample, not less than a half
aum of this oil--and £15 if it shall be adjudged equal to the best
oil of Italy. This fact is deserving of notice, as an instance of
the advantages which are likely to result from the attention now
being devoted to the natural productions of the colony."

_Madia sativa_ is a handsome annual plant, native of Chili, which has been naturalised in Europe. It grows about two feet high, and produces flowers in July and August, of a pale yellow color.

The whole plant is viscid and exhales a powerful odor, which is somewhat like heated honey. It requires rather a rich soil, of a ferruginous character. The root is fusiform, the stem cylindrical, and furnished with sessile, three to five longitudinally-nerved leaves, which are apposite on the lower portion of the stem, and alternate on the upper. M. Victor Pasquier, who has written on the culture of the plant, analysed the seed, and found 100 parts to consist of 26.5 of testa, and 73.5 of kernel; 100 parts of the latter yielded 31.3 of vegetable albumen, gum, and lignine, 56.0 of _fixed oil_, and 12.5 of water. In dry seasons the oil is both more abundant and better than in damp seasons. The produce of oil, compared with that of the poppy, is equal; with colza, as 32 to 28; with linseed, 32 to 21; with the olive, 32 to 16.

The leaves and stems of this plant are rejected by cattle; but the oil-cake, which always contains a considerable portion of the oil, forms a nutritive food, of which they are very fond. The oil expressed without heat is transparent, of a golden yellow color, inodorous, rather fatter than the oil of rape or olives, and of a soft, agreeable, nutty taste. It is fit to be employed in the preparation of food, in salads, and for all the purposes of the best and mildest fixed oils. It burns with a brilliant, reddish-white flame, and leaves no residue. It is little liable to become rancid, and is completely decolorised by animal charcoal.

The oil of the seeds of this plant, now extensively cultivated in France, will yield, according to the observations of Braconnet, a solid soap, similar to that made from olive oil. Boussingault obtained from the oil a solid, as well as a fluid acid. The solid one is probably palmic acid, it fuses at exactly 140 degrees of Fahrenheit. The fluid acid in its properties resembles the oleic acid discovered by Chevreul, and seems to dry easily.

The following is the composition of each, as determined by his analysis:--

Solid acid. Fluid acid.
Carbon 74.2 76.0
Hydrogen 12.0 11.0
Oxygen 13.8 13.0
------ ------
100. 100.

COCUM OIL, or butter, is obtained from the seeds of a kind of mangosteen (_Garcinia purpurea_), and used in various parts of India to adulterate ghee or butter. It is said to be exported to England for the purpose of mixing with bears' grease in the manufacture of pomatum. It is a white, or pale greenish yellow, solid oil, brittle, or rather friable, having a faint but not unpleasant smell, melting at about 95 degrees, and when cooled after fusion remaining liquid to 75 degrees.

An excellent solid oil, of a bright green color, is obtained from Bombay, having a consistence intermediate between that of tallow and wax, fusible at about 95 degrees, and easily bleached; it has a peculiar and somewhat aromatic odor. There is some uncertainty as to the plant from which it is obtained. It was referred to the _Salvadora persica_, and to the _Vernonia Anthelminticea_, a plant common in Guzerat and the Concan Ghats.

A pale yellow clear oil is obtained from the seed of _Dolichos biflorus_(_?_). Oil is also expressed in India from the seed of the _Argemone mexicana_, which is used for lamps and in medicine; and from the seeds of the cashew nut (_Anacardium occidentale_), from _Sapindus marginatus_, and the country walnut (_Aleurites triloba_.) The fruit of the _Chirongia sapinda_, (or _Buchanania latifolia_,) yields oil. From the seeds of the _Pongamia glabra_, or _Galidupa arborea_, a honey brown and almost tasteless oil is procured, which is fluid at common temperatures, but gelatinises at 55 degrees.

Other sources of oil are the _Celastrus paniculatus_ (_?_) _Balanites Egyptictca_ and the saul tree (_Shorea Robusta_).

THE CANDLE-TREE or PALO BE VELAS, (_Parmentiera cereifera_, Seemann.)--This tree, in the valley of the Chagres, South America, forms entire forests. In entering them a person might almost fancy himself transported into a chandler's shop. From all the stems and lower branches hang long cylindrical fruits, of a yellow wax color, so much resembling a candle as to have given rise to the popular appellation. The fruit is generally from two to three, but not unfrequently four feet long, and an inch in diameter. The tree itself is about 24 feet high, with, opposite trifoliated leaves, and large white blossoms, which appear throughout the year, but are in greatest abundance during the rainy season. The _Palo de Velas_ belongs to the natural order _Crescentiaceae_, and is a _Parmentiera_, of which genus hitherto only one species, the _P. edulis_, of De Candolle, was known to exist. The fruit of the latter, called _Quauhscilote_, is eaten by the Mexicans, while that of the former serves for food to numerous herds of cattle. Bullocks especially, if fed with the fruit of this tree, guinea-grass, and _Batatilla_ (_Ipomoea brachypoda_, Benth.), soon get fat. It is generally admitted, however, that the meat partakes in some degree of the peculiar apple-like smell of the fruit, but this is by no means disagreeable, and easily prevented, if, for a few days previous to killing the animal, the food is changed. The tree produces its principal harvest during the dry season, when all the herbaceous vegetation is burned up, and on that account its cultivation in tropical countries is especially to be recommended; a few acres of it would effectually prevent that want of fodder which is always most severely felt after the periodical rains have ceased.--("Hooker's Journal of Botany.")

CINNAMON SUET is extracted by boiling the fruit of the cinnamon. An oily fluid floats on the surface, which on cooling subsides to the bottom of the vessel, and hardens into a substance like mutton suet. The Singhalese make a kind of candles with it, and use it for culinary purposes. It emits a very pleasant aroma while burning. According to the analysis of Dr. Christison, it contains eight per cent, of a fluid not unlike olive oil; the remainder is a waxy principle.

CROTON OIL is obtained by expression from the seeds or nuts of _Croton Tiglium_, an evergreen tree, 15 to 20 feet in height, belonging to the same order as the castor oil plant, producing whitish green flowers, and seeds resembling a tick in appearance, whence its generic name. It is a native of the East Indies. 100 parts of seeds afford about 64 of kernel. 50 quarters of croton nuts for expressing oil were imported into Liverpool from the Cape Verd Islands, in 1849.

The _Croton Tiglium_ grows plentifully in Ceylon, and the oil, if properly expressed, might be made an article of trade. The best mode of preparing it is by grinding the seeds, placing the powder in bags, and pressing between plates of iron; allow the oil to stand for fifteen days, then filter. The residue of the expression is triturated with twice its weight of alcohol, and heated on the sand-bath from 120 to 140 degs. Fahrenheit, and the mixture pressed again. In this step the utmost caution is necessary in avoiding the acrid fumes. One seer of seed furnishes by this process rather more than eleven fluid ounces of oil, six by the first step, and five by alcohol.

The oil acts as an irritant purgative in the dose of one drop. In large doses it is a dangerous poison. When applied externally it produces pustules.

In 1845, eight cases of croton oil and six cases of the seed were exported from Ceylon.

Other species of Croton, as _C. Pavana_, a native of Ava and the north-eastern parts of Bengal, and _C. Roxburghii_, yield a purgative oil. The bark of _C. Eleuteria_, _C. Cascarilla_, and other species is aromatic, and acts as a tonic and stimulant. It forms the cascarilla bark of commerce already spoken of. When bruised, it gives out a musky odor and is often used in pastilles.

The oil obtained from the seeds of _Jatropha curcas_, a native of South America and Asia, is purgative and emetic, and analagous in its properties to croton oil. It is said to be a valuable external application in itch. In India it is used for lamps.

OIL OF BEN, known as Sohrinja in Bengal, and Muringo in Malabar is obtained from the seeds or nuts of the horseradish tree, _Moringa pterygosperma_, Burmann; the _Hyperanthera Moringa_, of Linnæus. This clear limpid oil having no perceptible smell, is much esteemed by watchmakers and perfumers; it is expensive and not often to be procured pure, consequently the oil would be a very profitable export. It grows rapidly and luxuriantly everywhere in Jamaica, particularly on the north side of the island--as well as Trinidad and other quarters of the West. It is easily propagated either by cuttings from the tree (the branches) or by seeds, and bears the second year. The produce of each tree may be estimated at from one to two gallons. From the flowers a very pleasant perfume might be easily distilled.

The following account I derive from my friend Dr. Hamilton--

"It is a small tree, of about twenty feet in height, of most rapid
growth, coming into flower within a few months after it has been
sown, and continuing to produce seeds and blossoms afterwards
throughout the year. The tree is now naturalised in the West Indies.
The timber is said to dye a fine blue, and the gum, which, exudes
from wounds in the bark, bears a strong resemblance to that obtained
from the _Astragalus tragacantha_, for which it might, no doubt, be
substituted.

The numerous racemes of white blossoms with which the tree is
constantly loaded, are succeeded by long triangular pods, somewhat
tourlose at the ends, and about two feet in length, when arrived at
the full growth. These pods, while yet young and tender, are not
unfrequently cooked and served up at the planter's tables like
asparagus, for which they are not a bad substitute. The pods, when
full grown, contain about fifteen seeds; each considerably larger
than a pea, with a membraneous covering expanding into three wings,
whence the specific name of _pterygosperma_. On removing the winged
envelope the seeds appear somewhat like pith balls; but upon
dividing them with the nail, they are found to abound in a clear,
colorless, tasteless, scentless oil, of which the proportion is so
large that it may be expressed from good fresh seeds by the simple
pressure of the nail. Geoffry informs us, that he obtained 30½
ounces of oil from eight pounds of the decorticated seeds, being at
the rate of very nearly 24 lbs. of oil from 100 lbs. of seed.

Notwithstanding the great value of its oil, and the facility with
which it can be obtained in the West Indies, the moringa has been
hitherto valued merely as an ornamental shrub, and cultivated for
the sake of its young pods or the horseradish of its roots, as
luxuries for the table.

The oil is peculiarly valuable for the formation of ointments, from
its capability of being kept for almost any length of time without
entering into combination with oxygen. This property, together with
the total absence of color, smell, and taste, peculiarly adapts it
to the purposes of the perfumer, who is able to make it the medium
for arresting the flight of those highly volatile particles of
essential oil, which constitute the aroma of many of the most
odoriferous flowers, and cannot be obtained by any other means, in a
concentrated and permanent form. To effect this, the petals of the
flowers, whose odor it is desired to obtain, are thinly spread over
flakes of cotton wool saturated with this oil, and the whole
enclosed in air tight tin cases, where they are suffered to remain
till they begin to wither, when they are replaced by fresh ones, and
the process thus continued till the oil has absorbed as much as was
desired of the aroma; it is then separated from the wool by
pressure, and preserved under the name of _essence_, in well stopped
bottles.

By digesting the oil thus impregnated in alcohol, which does not
take up the fixed oil, a solution of the aroma is effected in the
spirit, and many odoriferous tinctures or waters, as they are
somewhat inaccurately termed, prepared. By this process most
delicious perfumes might be obtained from the flowers of the _Acacia
tortuosa_, _Pancratium carribeum_, _Plumeria alba_, _Plumeria
rubra_, and innumerable other flowers, of the most exquisite
fragrance, which abound within the tropics, blooming unregarded, and
wasting their odors on the barren air."

THE OIL PALM.

There are several species of this genus of beautiful palms of the tribe _Cococinæ_, but that chiefly turned to account is _Elais guineensis_, a native of the Coast of Guinea to the south of Fernando Po, which furnishes the best oil.

There are three other varieties--_E. melanococca_, a native of New Granada, _E. Pernambucana_, common on the coast of Brazil, and _J. occidentalis_, indigenous to Jamaica. All the species grow well in a sandy loam and may be increased by suckers.

The value of the oil of this palm, as an article of commerce, is exemplified by the large annual imports, averaging more than 516,000 cwt. for many years past.

Our supplies of palm oil are almost wholly derived from the West Coast of Africa, of which it is the staple article of export.

Palm oil has the greatest specific gravity of any of the fixed vegetable oils. It is used principally in this country for making yellow soap. But the inhabitants of the Guinea coast employ it for the same purposes that we do butter.

The trade in palm oil has almost driven out the slave trade from the Bight of Benin, which was a few years ago one of its principal seats. The old slave traders at Whydah have generally gone into the palm oil trade, and are carrying it on to a very great extent. In August 1849, no less than twelve vessels were lying at that port taking in oil; whilst, only three years before, it was rare to see three vessels there at once, and of those in all probability two would be slavers.

This palm is called Maba by the natives about the Congo river. It is moneocious, which indeed Jacquin, by whom the genus was established, concluded it to be, although first described as dioecious by Gaertner, whose account has been adopted, probably without examination, by Schroder, Willdenow, and Persoon.

The average imports of this oil into Liverpool alone, have now been for some years upwards of 18,000 tons, worth nearly £800,000 sterling, and giving employment to upwards of 30,000 tons of shipping; thus proving that the natives who formerly exported their brethren as a matter of traffic, now find, at least, an equally profitable trade in the exportation of the vegetable products of their native soil.

Palm oil is produced by the nut of the tree, which grows in the greatest abundance throughout Western Africa. The demand for it, both in Europe and America, is daily increasing, and there is no doubt it will, ere long, become the most important article of African trade.

IMPORTS INTO LIVERPOOL.
casks. tons.
1835 28,500 9,500
1836 33,500 11,000
1837 26,000 9,900
1838 27,520 10,320
1839 36,500 14,300
1852 about -- 23,500

In the colony of Liberia, I notice the manufacture of a new article of African production, which is called "Herring's Palm Kernel Oil or African Lard." It is thus spoken of in the newspapers of that Republic :--

We had been for a long time impressed with an idea that the oil
contained in the kernel of the palm nut, was superior both in
quality and appearance to that of palm oil, which is obtained from
the exterior part.

On making an effort to extract the oil from the kernel (which was by
means of a little machine, of our own invention and contrivance), we
found that our thoughts upon the matter were correct, that the oil
possessed admirable beauty in its appearance, with a taste, when
used for cooking purposes, unexcelled by that of the best lard.

After being made and set by, it assumes a consistence like that of
hard butter, and has to be cut out with a knife or spoon; its
appearance in this state is very beautiful, presenting such
richness, clearness, and adaptedness to table purposes, that one
would not suppose that this oil is obtained from the same tree from
which palm oil is, for there is as much disparity both in their
appearance and taste as there is between lard and butter.

The exquisite transparency which the kernel oil bears in a liquid
state, especially when undergoing the purifying process, is a cause
of admiration. On showing some of it to several foreigners, I was
asked in two instances which was the oil and which the water, or
whether it was oil or water; thus you may have an idea of its
clearness. We make two qualities of this oil, differing however in
taste only, the one being for table uses and the other for
exportation and for whatever use they may choose to put it to
abroad.

There have been many conjectures in respect to the uses to which
this oil might he put in foreign countries; but that it will be a
useful article, and especially in our trade, when made more
extensively, there can be no doubt, for the quantity in which it
might be had would undoubtedly introduce it to a respectable rank
among the other commodities of our productive country so eagerly
sought after.

There is nothing, to my knowledge, that can be turned to as good
account and at the same time so abundant and easily obtained, as the
palm kernel, for they are as common as the pebbles of stony land,
especially in this section of the country, where we have palm
orchards of spontaneous growth for miles together, and interspersing
the surrounding country in almost innumerable numbers.