42 ON THE MORINGA PTERYGOSPERMA . 
Each pod, when full grown, contains about fifteen seeds : 
each considerably larger than a pea, with a membranous 
covering expanding into three wings, whence the specific 
name of pterygosperma : a kind of isthmus is interposed 
between each of these seeds, forming the pod into as many 
cells as it contains seeds. 
On removing the winged envelope, the seeds appear 
somewhat like pith-balls; but, upon dividing them with the 
nail, they are found to abound in a clear, colourless, taste- 
less, scentless oil, of which the proportion is so large that 
it may be expressed from good fresh seeds by the simple 
pressure of the nail. Geoffry informs us, that he obtained 
30| ounces of oil from 8 pounds of the decorticated seeds, 
being at the rate of very nearly 24lbs. of oil from 100 lbs. of 
seeds. The oil thus obtained is the celebrated oil of Ben 
or Behen, which, at one period, constituted a valuable 
branch of commerce with the east, until excessive imposts 
and extensive adulteration brought it into unmerited dis- 
repute. 
The moringa tree, as we learn from Dr. Broughton's 
Catalogue of East's Garden, inserted in the third volume 
of Edward's History of the West Indies, was introduced 
into Jamaica from the East Indies in the year 1784, and 
most probably found its way into the other islands about 
the same time. Yet though thus established for the best 
part of three-quarters of a century among our planters, not- 
withstanding the great value of its oil, and the facility with 
which it can be obtained, the moringa tree has been hitherto 
valued merely as an ornamental shrub, and cultivated for 
the sake of its young pods, or the horseradish of its roots, 
as luxuries for the table. 
The oil which is so profusely obtained from the seeds is 
peculiarly valuable for the formation of ointments, from its 
capability of being kept for almost any length of time with- 
out entering into combination with oxygen. 
This property, together with the total absence of colour, 
