Q7S 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[June 1, 1872. 
Ohio, which continues in a fluid state at a very low 
temperature. It is used for delicate machinery, and 
when properly refined would he suitable for watchmakers. 
The pig-nut, C. glabra , is preferred in the manufacture, 
on account of its thin shell and greater yield of oil, which 
is hitter. The oil obtained from the ordinaiy shell-bark, 
•and large sweet liickory-nut, might come into general 
use for the table. 
The sapucaya-nut is a pleasant edible nut, which comes 
in small quantities from South America. The fruit in 
the capsule is suspended from the branches, and presents 
an appearance like small cocoanuts. The monkeys are 
'■exceedingly fond of the nuts. 
The “cabombas,” or cups of the Zabucai or monkey-pot 
\Lccgthis urnigera , Mart.), which contain the sapucaya- 
muts of commerce, are frequently of great size and exces¬ 
sive hardness, and are closed by a lid like that of a pyx 
or soap-box. The aborigines of pails of South America 
use these not only as goblets, but as pots and dishes. 
Hence Linnaeus called the plant Iccythis ollaria. The 
lid of the cup falls off when ripe. Portuguese turners 
make pretty boxes and other fancy articles out of these 
solid cups. In the Brazilian Court, at the London Exhi¬ 
bition of 1862, some handsomely-carved and mounted 
specimens were shown. 
The butter-nut, or Souari nut, is the fruit of Cargocar 
tomentosa , of South America. Only very small quantities 
are received. It yields an edible oil. The fruit of 
another species, Cargocar brasiliensis , fui'nishes, in Brazil, 
the Piquia concrete oil, of a brown colour, retaining 
much of the flavour of the fruit. 
In China and Japan, under the name of gingko nuts, 
the seeds of Salisburia adiantifolia are eaten. 
Before passing from this section of edible nuts, I may 
-draw attention to the vaidous fancy uses in the series 
kindly shown by Messrs. Foi’tnum and Mason, which 
includes pistachio nuts and pistachio chocolates, glace 
walnuts and marron glaces, green candied almonds, burnt 
almonds, sugared almonds, and sugared nuts. And in 
■contrast with these finished products of the confectionery 
Irade, we have the almond and cocoanut rock of the 
.sweet shops, for childi’en, which sell under the curious 
mames of stick-jaw and eggs and bacon. 
Oil Nuts. 
I pass on now to a consideration of the oil-yielding 
ffiuts. I might properly speak of the olive as the princi¬ 
pal one, which would as equally of right come into the 
■category as some other oil-bearing seeds and fruits I 
shall have to allude to, but then, as it is never spoken of 
commercially as a nut, I must pass it over. 
After the olive, the palm family furnish the principal 
quantities of oil to commerce, in those two impoi’tant and 
well-known oils, palm oil and cocoa-nut oil. From the 
fruit and kernels of the oil palm of Western Africa 
(Ulais guincensis ) we now di’aw our largest supply of 
vegetable, oil. In the year 1808, 200 tons of palm oil 
were received from Africa ; in 1827 the quantity had in¬ 
creased to 4700 tons. Some few years later it had risen 
to 14,000 tons. What do we find it now ? Last year 
(1871) 51,087 tons, valued at £1,789,000, were imported. 
Palm oil has become one of the most important ai’ticles 
of commerce from the west coast of Africa, especially to 
this country, although we are not the only importers. 
The collection and shipment has done more than any¬ 
thing else to suppress the slave trade. The oil, as manu¬ 
factured for home consumption in Afi'ica, is slightly 
.different from that prepared for export. It is darker 
coloured, and is obtained by beating, pressing, and boil¬ 
ing the fruit (sarcocarp). Palm-nut oil is obtained from 
the seed or kei’nel by roasting, beating, and boiling. 
Formerly these kernels were thrown away; now they 
form an important trade. In 1863, the palm kernel 
trade, then newly introduced, furnished for shipment at 
Lagos 2665 tons of oil; in 1869, 20,394 tons were exported 
from that port, besides one and a half million gallons of 
palm oil. 
The next great source of oil from the palm is that ob¬ 
tained from the pulp of the cocoa-nut; and considering 
the wide-spread range of this palm, it is sti'ange that the 
import of the oil has made such little progress compared 
with its great rival, the African oil palm. One reason 
may possibly be that the fruit is more genei’ally used 
for food, and for the refreshing drink in the nuts when 
young. The cocoa-nut palm is cultivated in great 
abundance on the Malabar and Coi'omandel coasts, 
Ceylon, the Laccadives, and everywhere in the Straits 
Settlements and the islands of the Eastern Archipelago. 
In the West Indies, Central America, and Brazil, the 
cocoa-nut is extensively grown ; there are groves of it for 
about 280 miles along the coast of Brazil, from the river 
St. Francisco to the bar of Mamarguasse. From Para 
alone 7| million cocoa-nuts, worth £130,000, are annually 
shipped to the United States and elsewhere. 
The cocoa-nut is ver 3 r widely spread over the Pacific 
Islands. From the Fiji Islands 500 to 600 tons of oil 
and 1500 cwt. of cocoa-nut fibre are annually shipped. 
The trees there, however, suffered severely a few years 
ago from a violent hurricane, from which they have 
hardly yet l'ecovered. 
Many yeai’s ago Dr. Royle estimated the average pro¬ 
duce of cocoa-nuts from the whole of Malabar at from 
three hundred to four hundred millions annually, valuedat 
£500,000, and copperah, or the dried kernels, was ex¬ 
ported for as much more. Thirty years ago there were in 
Travancore more than million cocoa-nut trees, and 
since that period the cultivation has largely increased, 
as the demand for the oil and the coir has advanced. 
From Cochin more than 3000 tons of the latter are 
exported. 
I have not alluded to cocoa-nuts under edible nuts, 
although the 3^ millions imported here doubtless go to 
the fruiterers’ shops and hucksters. They are brought 
principally from the West Indian Islands, British 
Guiana, and Hondui-as, and range in pi'ice from 125. 0>d. 
to 175. 6d. per 100. Some small quantity of dried cop¬ 
perah is also imported, for the oil-presser’s use. The 
husk forms an important article of commerce, and is 
readily bought by the brushmakers, being even more 
valuable than the nut. The quantity of nuts imported 
would yield about 530,000 lb. of coir. 
The products of the cocoa-nut are numerous ; besides 
the oil, fibi’e, yarn, rope, and matting, brushes and 
brooms are made of the coir from the husk; spoons, 
ladles, drinking-cups, and carved fancy articles from the 
shell. 
So far back as 1857 the value of the products of the 
cocoa-nut, shipped from Ceylon, was £274,462, viz.:— 
Value. 
£ 
Cocoa-nuts. . . . 
1,420,856 No. .. 
3,717 
Coir rope.... 
18,881 cwt. .. 
13,984 
Coir yarn. . . . 
Copperah or dried 
31,652 „ .. 
21,364 
cocoa-nut pulp 
20,381 „ .. 
12,143 
Oil. 
1,767,431 gals. .. 
223,254 
These were chiefly the produce of native plantations, 
situated on the south-west side of the island. 
There were about 22,000 acres of cocoa-nut trees under 
cultivation by Europeans, which were being annually 
added to, but none of them were then fully in bearing. 
In the ten years ending with 1869 the value of the 
shipments from Ceylon were— 
Oil.£1,445,928 
Coir. 349,622 
i * 
1,795,550 
The quantity of oil shipped does not vary much, being 
on the average 1 ^ million gallons yearly ; but the coir 
has doubled in the last ten ycai’s, now amounting to 
