136 THE USES OF PLANTS. 



salad oil in the West Indies, where it is cultivated, as 

 a watchmaker's lubricant, and for hair oil.* 



LEGUMINOS^E. 



Psoralca corylifolia, L., BAWCHAN seeds of India, 

 have been imported for oil-crushing. 



Arachis hypogcea, L., GROUND-NUT, already men- 

 tioned (p. 39, supra], is the staple of the Marseilles 

 soap-industry, the better qualities being substituted 

 for olive. Three and a half million pounds are 

 annually imported into France. 



ROSACEyE. 



ALMOND OIL, the glyceride of oleic acid, C 18 H 34 O 2 , 

 extracted as a fixed oil, by pressure, to the extent of 

 about 45 per cent., from BITTER ALMONDS (Amyg- 

 dalus communis, L., var. amara, DC.), or over 50 per 

 cent, from SWEET ALMONDS (var. dulcis, DC.), and 

 the essential BITTER ALMOND OIL, C 7 HO, distilled 

 from the residual cake, have been before mentioned 

 (p. 59, supra}. 



ATTAR or OTTO OF ROSES, is a mixture of a liquid 

 containing oxygen with an odourless solid hydro- 

 carbon or stearoptene. It is obtained by distillation 

 from the petals chiefly of Rosa Damascena, Miller, a 

 variety of R. gallica, L., cultivated mainly on the 

 lower slopes of the Balkans, in Eastern Roumelia, 

 where about 4,000 lb., valued at ^"60,000, is annually 

 produced. Little of that produced in South France, 

 Tunis, Persia, or India reaches England, and Turkish 



* Smith, op. tit., p. 462 ; ' Encyclop. Brit.,' sub voce ' Oils '; 

 'Pharm. Journ.,' v (1845), p. 58. 



