48 



CASE In the upper part of the Case are shown male spadices and 

 6). fruits of the African Oil Palm {Elms guineensis, Jacq.). 



The palm has a thick decumbent trunk crowned with a 

 tuft of large pinnate leaves, with strong prickly stalks. The 

 female spadices are very large, and are crowded with fleshy 

 fruits about the size of a large olive, and of an orange-yellow 

 colour, from which the oil is extracted. The tree is very 

 abundant in Western Tropical Africa. 



Note Whisks from Fernando Po and Gambia, made of 

 the midribs of the leaves of the Oil Palm, and used by the 

 people to keep insects from the body. 



Also series showing progressive stages in the preparation of 

 fibre and the manufacture of cordage from the leaflets of the 

 Oil Palm in Lagos. (See Kew Bulletin 1892, p. 62.) 



Seeds and kernels of tlie Oil Palm are also shown, and 

 specimens of oil cake for feeding cattle, made from ground palm 

 kernels. 



No. 121. Samples of Palm Oil of different qualities. 1 . 

 Used for cooking purposes in Gambia. 2. Used medicinally 

 in Gambia. 3. Oil obtained from palm kernels. Samples cf 

 crude palm oil of an orange-red colour, as imported for candle 

 and soap making, are also exhibited. It is obtained from the 

 pulp of the fruits in Africa by boiling them in water and 

 shinmiing off the oil as it rises to the surface. As imported 

 palm oil is usually about the consistence of butter, of an orange- 

 red colour, with a sweet violet odour when fresh. 1,169,943 

 cwts. of palm oil were imported to this country in 1893. 



No. 122. Soap made from Palm Kernel Oil. 



No. 123. Palmitic Acid Candles. 



No. 124. Glycerine, a T)ye-product of candle and soap 

 making, from palm oil. It was at first thrown away as a 

 waste product. At the present time it is applied to a large 

 number of uses in the arts and sciences. 



No. 125. Palm oil products, the results of the process of 

 candle-making by Messrs. Price & Co. 



Some fine fruit-bearing spadices are shown in the lower part 

 of the Table Case, immediately opposite ; also a wooden mortar 

 used at Sierra Leone for pounding the seeds for the extraction 

 of the oil, and a glass jar or vase lined on the inside with a 

 deposit of palmitic acid. 



