GEOUND-NTTT OIL. 



515 



purpose for which olive or almond oil is used. For domestic pur- 

 poses it is esteemed, and it does not become rancid so quickly as 

 other oils. Experiments have been made on its inflammable pro- 

 perties, and it is proved that the brilliancy of light was superior to 

 that of olive oil, and its durability was likewise proved to be seven 

 minutes per hour beyond the combustion of the best olive oil, with 

 the additional advantage of scarcely any smoke. In Cochin-China 

 and India it is used for lamps. It is known as Bhoe Moong or 

 Moong PhuUee in Bengal, and as Japan or Chinese pulse in Java. 



Prom Chiua this plant was probably introduced into the continent 

 of India, Ceylon, and the Malayan Archipelago, where it is 

 generally cultivated. 



In South Carolma the seed is roasted and used as chocolate. 

 The leaves are used medicinally. 



It is gro^n in Jamaica, and there called Pindar nut. 



That the culture of the Arachis in warm climates, or even in a 

 temperate one, under favorable circumstances, should be en- 

 couraged, there can be but one opinion. And when it is considered 

 that its qualities are able to supersede that of the olive and the 

 almond, which are but precarious in their crops — to which may be 

 added, that as a plant it is greedily devoured in the green state 

 by cattle — how much may it not serve to assist the new settler in 

 regions of the world which have a climate suited to it. 



It is known by various local names — such as mani manoti by the 

 Spaniards, and has obtained also that of cacahuete in some countries. 

 It has the additional term hypogeci attached to it, which literally 

 signifies subterranean. This is apt to mislead; for the plant 

 grows above ground as other pulse, whereas only its seed and 

 pericarp are inserted, after blooming, into the earth. Hence the 

 better term liyipocarpogea. 



It appears to form an important article of cultivation along the 

 whole of the west coast of Africa, and probably on the east coast, 

 on several parts of which it was found by Loureiro (" Plor. 

 Cochin," p. 430). It was doubtless carried from Africa to various 

 parts of equinoctial America, for it is noticed in some of the early 

 accounts of Peru and Brazil. 800 quarters of this nut were im- 

 p 3rted into Liverpool from the West Coast of Africa, in 1849, for 

 expressing oil, and about half that quantity in 1850. 



Eighty to 90 tuns of the expressed oil are now annually imported. 

 The seeds contain about 44 per cent, of a clear pale yellow oil, 

 which is largely used in India as food, and for lamps, particularly 

 at Malwa and Bombay, &c. Two varieties are grown in Malacca, 

 the white seed and the iDrown seed, and also in Java, in the vicinity 

 of sugar plantations ; the oil cake being used as manure. It ia 

 there known as katjang oil. 



This plant, which seems to be a native of many parts of Asia, 

 has within the last ten years been much cultivated about Calcutta. 

 The seeds contain abundance of fixed oil, have a faint odor, 

 and very mild agreeable taste; 1,950 parts of seed, separated 

 from their coverings and blanched, give 1,405 of kernels, from 



