AEGAN TEEE. 401 



the ground. The young trees bore the rough treatment of the 

 voyage in midwinter remarkably ■well ; and it is easy to see that 

 this is a plant of ready culture in favourable climates. 



' The value of the husks of the fruit as food for cattle, and 

 the uses of the wood, are mentioned in the above extracts. The 

 nature of the oil seems only to have been considered in relation 

 to olive oil. But vegetable oils are now so much in demand, 

 especially by Messrs. Price & Co., for their great candle- works 

 at Vauxhall, as well as at Birkenhead, near Liverpool, that I 

 was anxious to know the opinion of Mr. G. F. Wilson, the 

 scientific director of those vast eatabKshments, on the nature of 

 Argan oil. Some seeds were consequently communicated to 

 that gentleman, and he lost no time in experimenting upon 

 them, and assuring me that " they contain a large percentage of 

 a very fine oil. We have tried it in several ways, in each case 

 with a favourable restdt. Some is now being exposed to a 

 severe test, to show how the air acts upon it : I have, however, 

 little fear but that it will answer. Our city friends are inquiring 

 for us the best means of getting a ton or two of the nuts for 

 experiments on a large scale. The only unfavourable point I 

 see is the small weight of kernel to that of hard shell ; — 



6 Nuts gave — kernel 30 grains 



„ „ hard shell 350 grains 

 „ „ outer husk 193 grains. 



The hard shell probably should be sent home with the seed 

 when the kernels are required to yield a sweet oil ; for unless 

 prepared with great care, hardly to be expected in a wild 

 country, the oil would not be nearly so sweet if sent home 

 expressed, instead of in its kernel and shell. Perhaps if the 

 kernel is pounded and rammed tightly into casks, we might 

 obtain sweet oil without great waste in freight." 



' In a botanical point of view this plant is scarcely of less in- 

 terest than in an economical. It has had the hard fate, often the 

 consequence of being with difficulty procured, to be much misun- 

 derstood, and, except by Schousboe, to be imperfectly described ; 

 and references are given in works to plants as being identical 

 which have no relationship with it ; or to descriptions which, if 

 the same, exhibit little or no resemblance. 



' The first botanist who appears to have noticed this plant is 

 D D 



