ALMOND OIL — TEEL. 



533 



The imports of olive oil into the port of Liverpool were 9,815 

 tuns in 1849, and 10,038 tuns in 1850. It was brought from 

 Manila, Malaga, and Corfu, but chiefly from Barbary, Palermo, 

 Grallipoli, and the Levant. In 1850 we imported from France 

 259,646 imperial gallons of olive oil, ofiiciallj valued at £34,638 ; 

 the average in ordinary years is only about 20,000 gallons from 

 the continent. 



Almond oil. — To the south of the Empire of Morocco there 

 are forests of the Arzo tree, which is thorny, irregular in its form, 

 and produces a species of almond exceedingly hard. Its fruit 

 consists of two almonds, rough and bitter, from which an oil is 

 produced, very excellent for frying. In order to use this oil it 

 requires to be purified by fire, and set in a flame, which must be 

 gufiered to die away of itself; the most greasy particles are thus 

 consumed, and its arid qualities wholly destroyed. When the 

 Moors gather these fruits they drive their goats under the trees, 

 and as the fruit falls the animals carefully nibble off the skins, 

 and then greedily feed. 



The oil of almonds is more fluid than olive oil, and of a clear, 

 transparent, yellowish color, with a very slight odor and taste. It 

 is occasionally employed for making the finer kinds of soap, and 

 also in medicine. 



In manufacturing it the fruit are first well rubbed or shaken in 

 a coarse bag or sack, to separate a bitter powder which covers their 

 epidermis. They are then pounded to a paste in mortars of 

 marble, which paste is afterwards subjected to the action of a press, 

 as in the case of the olive. 



About 80 tuns of almond oil are annually imported into this 

 country, the price being about Is. per pound. Five-and-a-half 

 pounds of almond oil will yield by cold expression one pound six 

 ounces of oil, and three-fourths of a pound more if the iron plates 

 are heated. 



Sesame oe Teel. — Of this small annual plant there are 

 two or three species. Sesainum orientale, the common sort; and 

 S. indicum, a more robust kind, cultivated at a different season, 

 are both natives of the East Indies. >S^. indicvm bears a pale 

 purple flower, and S. orientale has a white blossom. It is 

 the latter which is chiefly grown, and the seeds afford the 

 Gringellie oil or suffed-til, already extensively known in 

 commerce in the East. The expressed oil is as clear and 

 sweet as that from almonds, and probably the Behens oil, used in 

 varnish, is no other. It is called by the Arabs " Siriteh," and the 

 seed, " bennie " seed, in Africa. S. orientale is grown in the West 

 Indies under the name of " wangle." It is said to have been first 

 brought to Jamaica by the Jews as an article of food. 1,050 bags 

 of gingelly teel, or sesame seed, were imported into Liverpool, ip. 

 1849, from the East, South America, and Africa, for expressing oil, 

 and 3,700 bags in 1850. There are two kinds of seed, light and 

 dark, and it is about the same size as mustard seed, only not round, 



A hectare of land in Algeria yields 1,475 kilogrammes of seed. 



