The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom Part 74

Oil obtained from the fruit of _Melia Azadriachta_, for medicine and lamps. Apricot oil in the Himalayas, sunflower oil, oil of cuc.u.mber-seed for cooking and lamps, oil of colocynth seed, a lamp oil.

The seeds of b.a.s.t.a.r.d saffron (_Carthamus tinctorius_) yield oil.

Mustard oil, the produce of various species of _Sinapis_, &c. Shanghae oil, from _Bra.s.sica Chinensis_. Illiepie oil, from _Ba.s.sia 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 _Caesalpina 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 cac.o.o.ns of Jamaica (_Fevillea scandens_) yield a considerable quant.i.ty of oil or fat, as white and hard as tallow. It has been employed for similar purposes on the Mosquito sh.o.r.es.

The seeds of the _Argemone mexicana_, and of the _Sanguinaria canadensis_, also contain a bland, nutritious, colorless, fixed oil.

The ma.s.s 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 Ba.s.sia 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 Ba.s.sia. 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 sh.e.l.l of the cashew-nut (_Anacardium occidentale_ var. _indic.u.m_), in the East.

In j.a.pan a kind of b.u.t.ter, 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 b.u.t.ter tree, _Pekea_ (?) _Ba.s.sia 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 quant.i.ty of oil.

The seeds of the plants of the cuc.u.mber 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 gra.s.s 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 j.a.pan 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 _Bra.s.sica 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 hypogaea, 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 cla.s.s 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 circ.u.mstance 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 r.e.t.a.r.ded, 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 circ.u.mstances the Arachis will produce half its weight of oil. When heated and pressed the quant.i.ty 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 j.a.pan 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 circ.u.mstances, 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 a.s.sist 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 quant.i.ty 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 subst.i.tute 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 quant.i.ties, sending s.h.i.+pping 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 quant.i.ty 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 s.h.i.+lling to eighteen-pence per bushel, in goods and cash. Form of the nut, long, light sh.e.l.l, contains two kernels covered with a brown rind, when sh.e.l.led 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.