Chap. 7.] ARTIFICIAL OILS. 287 



hence it is, I suppose, that we find no mention made of them 

 by Cato ; at the present day the varieties are very numerous. 

 We will first speak of those 61 which are produced from trees, 

 and among them more particularly the wild olive. 62 This 

 olive is small, and much more bitter than the cultivated one, 

 and hence its oil is only used in medicinal preparations : the 

 oil that bears the closest resemblance to it is that extracted 

 from the chamelsea, 63 a shrub which grows among the rocks, 

 and not more than a palm in height ; the leaves and berries 

 being similar to those of the wild olive. A third oil is that 

 made of the fruit of the cicus, 64 a tree which grows in Egypt 

 in great abundance ; by some it is known as croton, by others 

 as sili, and by others, again, as wild sesamum : it is not so very 

 long since this tree was first introduced here. In Spain, too, 

 it shoots up with great rapidity to the size of the olive-tree, 

 having a stem like that of the ferula, the leaf of the vine, 

 and a seed that bears a resemblance to a small pale grape. 

 Our people are. in the habit of calling it " ricinus," 65 from the 

 resemblance of the seed to that insect. It is boiled in water, 66 

 and the oil that swims on the surface is then skimmed off: 

 but in Egypt, where it grows in a greater abundance, the oil is 

 extracted without employing either fire or water for the pur- 

 pose, the seed being first sprinkled with salt, and then sub- 

 jected to pressure : eaten with food this oil is repulsive, but it 

 is very useful for burning in lamps. 



Amygdalinum, by some persons known as " metopium," 67 



61 It may be remarked, that in this Chapter Pliny totally confounds 

 fixed oils, volatile oils, and medicinal oils. Those in the list which he here 

 gives, and which are not otherwise noticed in the Notes, may he considered 

 to belong to this last class. 



62 The oleaster furnishes but little oil, and it is seldom extracted. The 

 oil is thinner than ordinary olive oil, and has a stronger odour. 



63 The Daphne Cnoorum and Daphne Cnidium of botanists. See B. 

 xiii. c. 3% also B. xxiv. c. 82. Fee doubts if an oil was ever made from 

 the chamclaea. 



64 See B. xxiii. c. 41 : the Ricinus communis of Linnaeus, which 

 abounds in Egypt at the present day. Though it appears to have been 

 formerly sometimes used for the table, at the present day the oil is only 

 known as " castor " oil. a strong purgative. It is one of the fixed oils. The 

 Jews and Abyssinian Christians say that it was under this tree that Jonah 

 sat. es a " tick." 



63 This method, Fee says, is still pursued in America. 

 67 See B. xiii. c. 2. One of the fixed oils. 



