FIELD naturalists' clul\ 305 



lmshels annually, where it is expressed, and the oil is said to be 

 frequently imported into England under the name of ' Pulza- 

 seed ' oil, and as a substitute for Linseed oil. The color is some- 

 what paler, but it found to answer equally well. Now, this plant 

 is in common use as a fence plant in most places here, and it can 

 be propagated in almost any soil by cuttings, with the greatest 

 facility, while it grows rapidly and bears profusely. All the 

 cultivation it would need would be planting the cuttings and 

 gathering the seed when ripe, so it would not be hard to plant 

 up a large area with it. The expression is performed in the dry, 

 on the seed slightly roasted and crushed ; 1,000 Sbs. of seed give 

 640 barrels kernels, which yield 260 gallons of oil, which is 

 probably worth about £12 to £15 per ton, but I have seen no 

 recent quotations. In addition, the Physic nut plant might yield 

 some economic bye products, such as gum or resin. If the oil 

 were expressed locally no doubt the mare resulting would be 

 useful for manure. Some valuable climbing plant, say Sarsaparilla, 

 might be grown along with it, though perhaps this cultivation 

 may not compare in value with any of the others, an estate 

 yielding 100 or more tons of the seed per annum would 

 do so at a very small cost, the plants being free from damage 

 by ants, animals, and would not be the dead loss to its 

 proprietor that the estate abandoned to bush usually becomes. 

 Several other oil bearing plants are well worthy of notice, but 

 none is so easy of propagation or is likely to pay with as little 

 cultivation as this. 



It remains for me to say, that while it is a matter of notoriety 

 that the Pioneer British Planters of Indigo, Sugar, Coffee, Tea, 

 Cinchona, <fec, made larger and more rapid profits out of those 

 products than any of their successors, it is worthy of note that 

 the two latter would never have become the sources of benefit 

 they now are, but for the enlightened and persistent efforts of the 

 Government of India to introduce and in every way foster their 

 industrial progress : — An example that in the present depressed 

 state of our agricultural staples, our local Government might 

 follow with advantage. 



Bibliography. 



Genl. A. Codazzi — " Geographiade Venezuela." H. H. Smith 

 — " Brazil, the Amazon and the Coast" 1879. Dr. H. H. Rusby 

 in " Tropical Agriculturist " (Ceylon). H. Sender — " Die Tropische 

 Agricultur." Spon's " Encyclopedia of Manufactures and Raw 

 Materials." G. R. Porter's " Tropical Agriculturist " Fortune's 

 " Residence among the Chinese." Simmond's Coml. Prods, 

 of the Vegetable Kingdom." 



