AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES. 155 



gravity of 0-9235, becoming congealed at — 5° C. Its flavour is 

 agreeable, though not so mild as that of olive-oil, which is much 

 dearer, so that it is often adulterated with it. Sesame-oil is readily- 

 recognised by the red colour which it assumes when equal quantities 

 of sugar and hydrochloric acid, with a specific gravity of ri8 are 

 sprinkled into it. Groundnut-oil is third in the Marseilles oil-trade. 

 It is recognisable and distinguishable from olive-oil by the Arachic 

 acid, which proceeds with a mother-of-pearl appearance from the 

 hot alcoholic solution of the precipated fatty acids in cooling.^ 



The sesame-plant is, however, not extensively cultivated in Japan. 

 One often sees a bed of it here and there, or more frequently a 

 border of it encircling beds of other herbs or whole fields. Hence 

 the demand for food-oil is only partly met by this article, and 

 recourse must be had to various others as substitutes. 



7. Ye- (pronounced A) no-abura,more properly Yegoma-no-abura, 

 oil from seeds of the Yegoma-plant {Perilla ocynioides^ L.). It has 

 served from time immemorial in Japan and China as a drying- 

 oil, instead of linseed-oil. Like flax-growing in general, this oil 

 was unknown to the East Asiatics until recent times. Perilla 

 ocymoideSy L., a Labiate characterized in all its parts by a strong, 

 peculiar odour, is of slow growth. Its seed-time is in April, but the 

 plants do not attain their full size till about the end of September 

 or the beginning of October. Their many-branched stalks have by 

 that time reached a height of i-i'SO m. Then little white 

 blossoms begin to appear in axillary ears, but soon drop off and 

 cover the ground in the early half of October. Only a fortnight 

 later the seeds are ripe — a quick development characteristic of 

 most labiate plants. These seeds are of a greyish brown colour. 

 They are much smaller than rape-seeds, and very friable. They 

 fall readily out of their capsules, so that harvest must take place 

 before they are fully ripe, otherwise there is danger that a stronger 

 wind than usual may shake a large part of the crop to the ground. 



According to the experiments of the chemist Cloez, in Paris, 

 Perilla seeds grown in the South of France yielded, by pressure, 

 30 per cent, of thin, colourless drying-oil ; 34*5 per cent, by extrac- 

 tion with bisulphide of carbon ; while Japanese seeds gave 39-2 per 

 cent. This, like linseed-oil, is useful in painting, and in Japan 

 possesses great importance for several technical purposes. It is 

 used especially : — 



(i) In the manufacture of oiled papers (Abura-kami) for lanterns, 

 umbrellas, and waterproof cloaks. 



(2) In the manufacture of the so-called leather-paper (Kami-kawa). 



(3) As an ingredient of several kinds 'of lacquer. 



(4) As an addition to the fruit-meal of the lacquer and tallow- 

 tree, to obtain Japanese plant-wax more easily and perfectly.^ 



• Dingler's Polyt. Journ.^ 1882, p. 324. 



2 For details in regard to the uses of Perilla-oil here mentioned, see the 

 corresponding sections. 



