MARGOSE OIL. ILLEPE OIL. 537 



Oil, of the finest kind, is made in India by expression from the 

 kernels of the apricot. It is clear, of a pale yellow color, and 

 smells strongly of hydrocyanic acid, of which it contains, usually, 

 about 4 per cent. 



" On inquiring into the use made of the sunflower, we were 

 given to understand that it is here (in Tartary) raised chiefly 

 for the oil expressed from it. But it is also of use for many other 

 purposes. In the market places of the larger towns we often found 

 the people eating the seeds, which, when boiled in water, taste not 

 unlike the boiled Indian corn eaten by the Turks. In some dis- 

 tricts of Russia the seeds are employed with great success in 

 fattening poultry ; they are also said to increase the number of eggs 

 more than any other kind of grain. Pheasants and partridges eat 

 them with great avidity, and find the same effects from them as other 

 birds. The dried leaves are given to cattle in place of straw ; and 

 the withered stalks are said to produce a considerable quantity of 

 alkali." Bremner's Interior of Russia. 



658 barrels linseed oil were brought down to New Orleans from 

 the interior in 1849, and 1009 in 1848. 



During the period of the Great Exhibition special enquiry was 

 made by many manufacturers as to the different oils of Southern 

 India, suitable for supplying the place of animal fat in the 

 manufacture of candles, and generally adapted for various other 

 purposes. Enquiries should be directed to the specific gravity, 

 the boiling point, the per centage of pure oil in the seeds, and the 

 means of obtaining a regular supply. The demand for vegetable 

 oils in European commerce has been steadily on the increase for 

 several years past, and the quantities consumed are now so large 

 that the oleaginous products of India and the colonies must sooner 

 or later have a considerable commercial importance, from the value 

 which they are likely to acquire. Indeed some have already 

 established a footing in the home market, and Drs. Hunter, 

 Cleghorn, and others in India, have specially directed the attentkm. 

 of the natives and merchants to the subject. 



MARGOSE, OB, NEEM OIL. From the pericarp or fleshy part of 

 the fruit of the Melia AzederacJita , the well known Margosa oil is 

 prepared ; which is cheap and easily procurable in Ceylon. Dr. 

 Maxwell, garrison surgeon of Trichinopoly, states that he has 

 found this oil equally efficacious to cod-liver oil in cases of con- 

 sumption and scrofula. He began with half-ounce doses, morning 

 and evening, which were gradually reduced. 



ILLEPE OIL. The seeds of three species of Bassia, indigenous to 

 India, yield solid oils, and are remarkable for the fact, that they 

 supply at the same time saccharine matter, spirit, and oil, fit for 

 both food and burning in lamps. The lllepe (_B. longifolia) is a 

 tree abundant in the Madras Presidency, the southern parts of 

 Hindostan generally, and the northern province of Ceylon. In 

 Ceylon the inhabitants use the oil in cooking and for lamps. 

 The oil cake is rubbed on the body as soap, and seems admirably 

 adapted for removing the unctuosity of the skin caused by 



