Feb: 1907.] 



89 



Edible Products 



colour of the seed, are grown in the Malay Peninsula and in Java ; two forms are 

 reported from Trincomalee in Ceylon (Tropical Agricultxirist, III., p, 567), two have 

 been introduced into Queensland and North Australia, and two exist in Japan. 



Handy (U. S. Dept. Agric. Parmer?' Bulletin, No. 25, 1896, has gathered 

 together the following analyses which place Japanese nuts as richest in oil, in the 

 next rank those from the Tropics of the Old World, and those from North America 

 last. His analysis of Alabama nuts is vitiated by an obvious miscalculation, and we 

 omit it. 



Origin. 



Japanese : 



"Tojin-mame" 



" Nankin-mame " ... 

 Tropics of the Old World : 



Congo 



Rufisque 



Egyptian 



Bombay 

 Southern United States : 



Tennessee (1888) crop 

 (1889) crop 



Georgia... 

 " Spanish," grown in Georgia 



Percentage in dry substance. 



Water. 



Oil. 



Pro- 

 t6ids. 



Soluble 



Non- 

 nitroge- 

 nous 

 matter. 



Fibre. 



Ash. 



7-50 



54-60 



26-49 



12-64 



4-32 



1-95 



1561 



54-54 



32 66 



5-99 



4-88 



1-93 



5-01 



52'88 



28-33 



14-51 



1-55 



2-73 



4-59 



52-48 



29-73 



14-02 



1-24 , 



2-53 





52-30 



22-97 



20-27 



rei 



2-85 



7-71 



50-47 



33-73 



10'15 



2-33 



332 



3-87 



49-35 



28-65 



17'23 



2-37 



2-40 



4-86 



48 60 



27-07 



19-39 



2-52 



2-51 



12-85 



43-13 



30-49 



21-86 



2-34 



2-18 



13-15 



41-17 



32-18 



20-43 



3'50 



2.72 



Other analyses may be found in Church, Food Grains of India, p. 127, 

 Schadler, Technologie der Pette u. Ole, and in the Journal de Pharmacie, Chim., 

 sec. 4, XVIII, Heuze (Les Plantes industrielles, Paris, 11.,) places the yield of 

 oil of Spanish grown nuts at 60 per cent ; we are unaware of the authority 

 whence he drew the statement, but believe the amount exaggerated. 



Variation with Conditions.— Statements are made to the effect that the 

 hotter the climate in which the seed matures the greater its oil contents. The first 

 indication of this idea is in the following seutences from the Annual Report of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture, 1870, p. 93 :— " It is possible that the farther 

 south the nut is grown the more oil will be developed in the seed. The Algerian 

 growth furnishes 25 to 27 per cent. The quantity of oil in the Virginian growth is 

 less than that of Algiers." The last is in the new edition of Sender's Tropische 

 Agrikultur, II, 1899 (dated 1900), p. 457, where we read:— "Like castor oil seeds, 

 gx-ound nuts are richer in oil the more tropical the climate uuder which they are 

 cultivated. West African nuts from near the equator contain 50-55 per cent, of oil, 

 North American only 25-27 per cent., and at times only 20 percent-" Despite the 

 important bearing of such a generalisation, we have been unable to find trustworthy 

 analyses which can be produced in support of it. Those which have been given above 

 emphasise racial differences rather than variations due to the available solar 

 energy. The contention is, however plausible enough, and may be illustrated by 

 bringing forward the relative poorness in oil which makes nuts from Virginia and 

 the more northern States to be preferred for eating over those from Georgia 

 Tennessee, Florida, &c. 



Proceeding to the effect of the soil upon the plant, there is indication that 

 the oil-contents of the seed fall short in poor soil. Subba Rao (Bulletin, DepU 



