The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom / Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c.

by P. L. Simmonds

The price, in Liverpool, for palm oil, in October, 1853, was £38 10s. to £39 per ton.

We export annually nearly four million gallons of oil made from linseed, hemp seed, and rape seed.

PALM OIL RETAINED FOR HOME CONSUMPTION

	cwts.
1835	242,733
1836	234,357
1837	211,919
1838	272,991
1839	262,910
1840	314,881
1841	300,770
1842	353,672
1843	377,765
1844	363,335
1848	510,218
1849	493,331
1850	448,589
1851	493,598
1852	408,577

The quantity of the four principal vegetable oils annually imported into Great Britain, is shown by the following figures:—

	Palm oil.	Coco-nut oil.	Castor oil.	Olive oil.
	cwts.	cwts.	cwts.	tuns.
1848	510,218	85,463	4,588	10,086
1849	493,331	64,452	9,681	16,964
1850	448,589	98,040	—	20,738
1851	608,550	55,995	—	11,503
1852	623,231	101,863	—	8,898

THE OLIVE-TREE (Olea Europea).—There are several varieties of this plant, two of which have been long distinguished—the wild and the cultivated. The former is an evergreen shrub or low tree, with spiny branches and round twigs; the latter is a taller tree, without spines, and with four-angled twigs. The fruit is a drupe about the size and color of a damson. Its fleshy pericarp yields by expression olive oil, of which the finest comes from Provence and Florence. Spanish or Castile soap is made by mixing olive oil and soda, while soft soap is made by mixing the oil with potash.

The wild olive is indigenous to Syria, Greece, and Africa, on the lower slopes of Mount Atlas. The cultivated species grows spontaneously in Syria, and is easily reared in Spain, Italy and the South of France, various parts of Australia and the Ionian Islands. Wherever it has been tried on the sea-coasts of Australia, the success has been most complete. There are several fine trees near Adelaide, some of them fourteen feet high, bearing fruit in abundance. Unfortunately no one has attempted to cultivate the plant on a large scale, but in a few years Australia ought to suply herself with olive oil.

The olive tree is also grown in Hong-Kong.

There are five or six varieties of O. Europœa, or sativa, grown in the south of Europe, of which district they are for the most part natives.