‘Sir James Smith, article Sideroxylon spinosum in Rees’s “Cyclopædia” (1819), throws no new light upon the subject; he omits the reference to Commelyn. Retz, in “Obs. Bot.” vol. vi. p. 26, refers the plant to Elæodendron, in which he is followed by Willdenow, and by Schousboe, which latter author has given by far the fullest and best account of the plant botanically and economically.
‘M. Corréa de Serra, “Annales du Museum d’Histoire Naturelle,” 1809, tom. viii. p. 393, tab. v. f. l., has published a very good analysis of the fruit, with very brief characters and no observations. At length Mr. Brown, “Botanicorum facile princeps,” in his invaluable Prodromus, under his Observations on Sapoteæ, says, “Sideroxylon spinosum, L., fructu valde diversum proprium hujus ordinis genus efficit;” and, acting upon his suggestion, Rœmer and Schultes, “Systema Vegetabilium,” vol. iv. pp. xlvi. and 502, have formed of this plant a new genus, Argania, in which they have been followed by Endlicher and Alphonse De Candolle. In this latter work a very full generic character is given, which need not here be repeated.’
‘It is singular that no further allusion to this tree should appear in Jackson’s “Account of the Empire of Marocco” than the following: “Oil Arganic is also in abundance in Suse; it is much used for frying fish and burning-lamps. When used for frying fish, a quart of it should be boiled with a large onion cut in quarters; and when it boils, a piece of the inside of a loaf, about the size of an orange, should be put in; after which it should be taken off the fire and let stand to cool, and when quite cold should be strained through a sieve; without this precaution it is supposed to possess qualities which promote leprosy.”—Dr. Barretta.’
The limited distribution of the Argan is one of its most noticeable features, for as a genus it is not far removed from Sideroxylon, a very widely spread tropical and subtropical genus of both hemispheres, and which reaches its northern limit in Madeira (in the same latitude as that attained by the Argan), where one species, S. Mermulana, Lowe, is found on the rocky heights of the interior. The order is not found in the Canary Islands, but reappears in the Cape de Verdes in a species of Sapota, and is well represented in the humid regions of Western Africa. It would thus appear that Argania and the Madeiran Sideroxylon are two outlying representatives of a very tropical order; and, considering the proximity of the areas they inhabit, and their position in the extreme west of the Old World, they are, in a Botanico-Geographical point of view, plants of a very high interest, as evidences of a relationship between the Floras of these areas, which must originally have been established under very different conditions from those which now prevail.
The Argan was, as stated above, introduced into England in 1811, and was long established on a south wall, but ultimately was killed in an unusually severe winter. Numerous plants were raised, from seed sent by Sir John Hay, by Mr. Grace, and from those brought by myself, and the plant may be seen in the Economic-plant House at Kew. It is of very slow growth, which has disappointed colonists and others, to whom the fruits have been largely distributed from Kew.
FOOTNOTES:
[1]Not El Araisch, SSW. of Tangier on the Atlantic coast, but some place in the interior, and N. of the city of Marocco.
[2]This is no doubt Elæoselinum humile (Ball), which we found near or at the above defined locality. Ball formed a very decided opinion that Jackson’s plant, whether the true Ammoniacum or not, was a species of Elæoselinum.
[3]It is mentioned under this name by Homer in his description of the Island of Calypso. See Daubeny On the Trees and Shrubs of the Ancients, p. 42.
[4]See Cook’s Sketches in Spain, vol. i. p. 5 (1831); and Loudon’s Gardener’s Magazine, Ser. ii. vol. iii. p. 522.