RAP" OIL ISTUT OIL. 513 



A rich yellow oil, perfectly clear and transparent, is obtained 

 from the seeds of Berg era koeniyii. 



RAPE OIL. The imports of rape oil, from Brassica napus, into 

 Liverpool, are about ] 5 to 20 tuns annually. 



Rape oil has been found to be better suited than any other oil 

 for the lubrication of machinery, when properly purified from the 

 mucilage, <fcc., which it contains in the raw state. Rape oil is now 

 used extensively for locomotives, for marine engines, and also for 

 burning in lamps. It is stated that a locomotive consumes be- 

 tween 90 and 100 gallons of oil yearly ; and the annual consump- 

 tion of oil by the London and North- Western Railway, for this 

 purpose alone, is more than 40,000 gallons. The oil obtained from 

 good English rape seed is purer and of superior quality to that 

 from foreign or colonial seed ; and as an acre of land yields nearly 

 five quarters of seed, which is worth at present 50s. per quarter, 

 it is a profitable crop. 



Rape seed is now largely imported for expressing oil. The 

 imports, which in 1847 were but 87,662 quarters, weighing 

 17,532 tons, had reached, in 1851, 107,029 quarters, weighing 

 21,606 tons. The price of new seed is 25 to 27 the last of 

 ten quarters. The oil is 34 per tun. 



The refuse cake, after the seed is crushed for oil, is in demand 

 as food for cattle, being worth 4 the ton. 



We imported in 1851, from France, 289 tuns of rape-seed oil, 

 worth about 17,000, on which there was no duty levied. 



There are exported annually from Hesse Darmstadt, 34,660 

 cwts. of poppy and rape oils. 



The oil of the colza is much used in Europe, and highly prized. 

 In France it has been adopted for all the purposes of light- 

 houses. In this country it has lately come into extensive 

 domestic use, for burning in the French moderateur lamps, being 

 retailed at from 3s 4d. to 4s. the gallon. 



DOME A OIL. The Poonay or Palang tree (CalopTiyllum In- 

 ophyllwn), the Alexandrian laurel, is a beautiful evergreen, native 

 of the East Indies, which flourishes luxuriantly on poor sandy 

 soils, in fact where scarcely anything else will grow. The seeds 

 or berries contain nearly 60 per cent, of a fragrant, fixed oil, which 

 is used for burning as well as for medicinal purposes, being con- 

 sidered a cure for the itch. As commonly prepared it has a dark 

 green color. It is perfectly fluid at common temperatures, but 

 begins to gelatinise when cooled below 50 degrees. 



THE EARTH-NUT (Arachis hypogcea, ovliypocarpogea). This very 

 singular plant has frequently been confounded with others, partly 

 through the carelessness of travellers, and by the improper use of 

 names, which tended to mislead and confuse. Its common appella- 

 tive, the earth-nut, has led to the conclusion that it was a species of 

 nut, such as is known in England under the name of " pig nut," 

 " hawk nut," and "groundnut." This, as well as the "earth 

 chesnut," belongs to a totally different genera. On the Continent 

 and in the East Indies a similar contusion had long existed by the 



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