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muskroot; rootstocks or underground stems furnish the 
oils of calamus, ginger, orris-root, and wild ginger; herbage 
is the source of the oils of pennyroyal, tansy, spearmint, 
and peppermint; wood furnishes the material to make the 
oils of red-cedar wood and sandalwood; bark is the source 
of the oils of birch, cinnamon, and sassafras; leaves yield 
the oils of hemlock, spruce, pine, cedar, eucalyptus, and 
wintergreen; flowers yield the oils of cloves, lilac-flower, 
and orange flowers; fruits yield the oils of pepper, lemon, 
caraway, and fennel; seeds furnish the oils of mustard, 
wormseed, nutmeg, and almonds; while resins give us the 
oils of elemi, mastic, myrrh, and frankincense. 
The fixed oils, at least from a commercial standpoint, 
are less numerous than the volatile oils, and those in com- 
mon use are mostly derived from the fruits and seeds of 
plants; for example, olive-oil is contained in the fruit of 
the olive, linseed-oil is contained in the seed of the flax 
plant, castor-oil is stored up in the seed of the castor-oil 
plant, and cotton-oil abounds in the cotton seed. The 
castor-oil seed or ‘“‘bean’”’ consists, to the extent of about 
half its weight, of a fat or fixed oil. The ripe seeds are 
coarsely broken, and the shells, weighing about one third, 
are separated. The kernel is then pressed, and the oil 
squeezed out. By using heat a larger amount of oil is 
obtained, but the heat partly decomposes it, setting free 
ricinoleic acid, the result being a discoloration, a bad odor 
and taste, and a griping action. For this reason, it should 
be ‘“‘cold-pressed”? for medicinal purposes. In the in- 
testines, partial decomposition of the oil occurs, whence 
results the purgative action. Perfectly fresh, cold-drawn 
castor-oil may have no disagreeable odor or taste, and has 
been used on bread, as a substitute for butter. The pulp 
remaining after the removal of the oil contains the very 
powerfully poisonous albuminoid, ricin. It is owing to 
this substance that castor-oil seeds are poisonous. About 
one fifth of the weight of cotton seed consists of a fat or 
fixed oil, the finer grades of which are largely used for 
