Chap. 7.] 
AKTIEICIAL OILS. 
287 
hence it is, I suppose, that we find no mention made of them 
by Cato ; at the present day the varieties are very numerous. 
We will first speak of those which are produced from trees, 
and among them more particularly the wild olive.^^ This 
olive is small, and much more bitter than the cultivated one, 
and hence its oil is only used in medicinal preparations : the 
oil that bears the closest resemblance to it is that extracted 
from the chamelsea,^ a shrub which grows among the rocks, 
and not more than a palm in height ; the leaves and berries 
being similar to those of the wild olive. A third oil is that 
made of the fruit of the cicus,^ a tree which grows in Egypt 
in great abundance ; by some it is known as croton, by others 
as sili, and by others, again, as wild sesamum : it is not so very 
long since this tree was first introduced here. In Spain, too, 
it shoots up with great rapidity to the size of the olive-tree, 
having a stem like that of the ferula, the leaf of the vine, 
and a seed that bears a resemblance to a small pale grape. 
Our people are in the habit of calling it ricinus,"^^ from the 
resemblance of the seed to that insect. It is boiled in water, ^® 
and the oil that swims on the surface is then skimmed off' : 
but in Egypt, where it grows in a greater abundance, the oil is 
extracted without employing either fire or water for the pur- 
pose, the seed being first sprinkled with salt, and then sub- 
jected to pressure : eaten with food this oil is repulsive, but it 
is very useful for burning in lamps. 
Amygdalinum, by some persons known as metopium,"^"^ 
61 It may be remarked, that in this Chapter Pliny totally confounds 
fixed oils, volatile oils, and medicinal oils. Those in the list which he here 
gives, and which are not otherwise noticed in the Notes, may be considered 
to belong to this last class. 
The oleaster furnishes but little oil, and it is seldom extracted. The 
oil is thinner than ordinary olive oil, and has a stronger odour. 
^3 The Daphne Cneorum and Daphne Cnidium of botanists. See B. 
xiii. c. 3-5, also B. xxiv. c. 82. Fee doubts if an oil was ever made from 
the chamelaea. 
See B. xxiii. c. 41 : the Bicinus communis of Linnseus, which 
abounds in Egypt at the present day. Though it appears to have been 
formerly sometimes used for the table, at the present day the oil is only 
known as " castor " oil, a strong purgative. It is one of the fixed oils. The 
Jews and Abyssinian Christians say that it was under this tree that Jonah 
sat. 65 A ^' tick." 
6s This method, Fee says, is still pursued in America. 
6"^ See B. xiii. c. 2. One of the fixed oils. 
