136 



OIL-SEEDS AND OILS 



increasing attention to the cultivation of ground-nuts, and our 

 supply is practically unlimited. 



SESAME (Sesamum Indicum). This is an annual which 

 grows about four feet high. It bears bell-shaped pinkish 

 flowers, similar to those of the campanula. These flowers occur 

 singly at the junction of the leaf-stalk and stem of the plant. 

 The tiny seeds (about one-fifth of an inch long) are contained 



in a pale green leathery 

 capsule about one and a 

 half inches long. They are 

 very numerous. 



They are chiefly valuable 

 for the oil which is expressed 

 from them. It is yellow in 

 colour, and in many respects 

 resembles ground-nut oil 

 and olive oil. It is used in 

 India, as ground-nut oil is, 

 for cooking, for anointing 

 the body, as a lamp oil, and 

 for other purposes. In 

 Europe it is chiefly used 

 for making Soap, also, the 

 purer and better kinds, for 

 making Margarine, and 

 Vegetable Butters. When 

 the oil has been expressed, the residue is used as food for cattle. 

 Sesame oil has one curious property possessed by no other 

 oil. If a mixture of sulphuric and nitric acid be shaken 

 up with it, it turns green, so that when used in the manu- 

 facture of margarine its presence can always be detected and 

 the margarine cannot then be sold as ordinary butter. 



SOURCES or SUPPLY. It is grown all over India, and in Egypt, 

 Kenya Colony, Uganda, and West Africa. As in the case 

 of ground-nut oil and many others, we have hitherto neglected 

 it and imported only small quantities, but in the future 



SESAME PLANT 



