584 



OLEAaiifrous plants. 



which estimated at 50 cents the kilogramme, amounts to 737 francs, 

 whilst the cost of production is only 259 francs, leaving a profit 

 of 478 francs (nearly £20). The oil obtained from this seed is 

 inferior to good oliye oil, but is better adapted for the manufac- 

 ture of soap. 



This plant is not unlike hemp, but the stalk is cleaner and 

 semi-transparent. The flower also is so gaudy, that a field in 

 blossom looks like a bed of florist's flowers, and its aromatic 

 fragrance does not aid to dispel such delusion. It flourishes most 

 upon land which is light and fertile. The fragrance of the 

 oH is perceptibly weaker when obtained from seed produced on 

 wet, tenacious soils. A gallon of seed seems to be the usual 

 quantity sown upon an acre. In Bengal, S. orientale is sown 

 during February, and the crop harvested at the end of May ; 

 but S. mdicum is sown on high, dry soil, in the early part of the 

 rains of June, and the harvest occurs in September. About 

 Poonah it is sown in June and harvested in November. In 

 Nepaul two crops are obtained annually ; one is sown as a first 

 crop in April and May, and reaped in October and November ; 

 the other as an autumn crop, after the upland rise in August and 

 September, and reaped in November and December. 



In Mysore, after being cut it is stacked for a week, then ex- 

 posed to the sun for three . days, but gathered into heaps at night ; 

 and between every two days of such drying, it is kept a day in 

 the heap. By this process, the pods bui^st and shed their seeds 

 without thrashing. 



The seeds contain an abundance of oil, which might be substi- 

 tuted for olive oil ; it is procured from them in great quantities, 

 in Egypt, India, Kashmir, China, and Japan, where it is used both 

 for cooking and buiming. It will keep for many years and not 

 acquire any rancid smell or taste, but in the course of a year or 

 two becomes quite mild, so that when the warm taste of the seed, 

 which is in the oil when first expressed, is worn off", it is used for 

 all the purposes of salad oil. It possesses such qualities as fairly 

 entitle it to introduction into Europe; and if divested of its 

 mucilage, it might perhaps compete with oil of olives, at least for 

 medicinal purposes, and could be raised in any quantity in the 

 British Indian Presidencies. It is sufliciently free from smell to 

 admit of being made the medium for extracting the perfume of the 

 jasmine, the tuberose, narcissus, camomile, and of the yellow rose. 

 The process is managed by adding one weight of flowers to three 

 weights of oil in a bottle, which being corked is exposed to the 

 rays of the sun for forty days, when the oil is supposed to be 

 sufficiently impregnated for use. This oil, under the name of 

 Gingilie oil, is used in India to adulterate oil of almonds. 



The flour of the seed, after the oil is expressed, is used in 

 making cakes, and the straw serves for fuel and manure. 



The oil is much used in Mysore for dressing food, and as a 

 common lamp oil. Prom 200 to 400 quarters under the name of 

 Niger seed are imported annually into Liverpool for expressing oil. 



