There are exported annually from Hesse Darmstadt, 34,660 cwts. of poppy and rape oils.

The oil of the colza is much used in Europe, and highly prized.  In France it has been adopted for all the purposes of lighthouses.  In this country it has lately come into extensive domestic use, for burning in the French moderateur lamps, being retailed at from 3s. 4d. to 4s. the gallon.

DOMBA OIL.—­The Poonay or Palang tree (Calophyllum Inophyllum), the Alexandrian laurel, is a beautiful evergreen, native of the East Indies, which flourishes luxuriantly on poor sandy soils, in fact where scarcely anything else will grow.  The seeds or berries contain nearly 60 per cent. of a fragrant, fixed oil, which is used for burning as well as for medicinal purposes, being considered a cure for the itch.  As commonly prepared it has a dark green color.  It is perfectly fluid at common temperatures, but begins to gelatinise when cooled below 50 degrees.

THE EARTH-NUT (Arachis hypogaea, or hypocarpogea).—­This very singular plant has frequently been confounded with others, partly through the carelessness of travellers, and by the improper use of names, which tended to mislead and confuse.  Its common appellative, the earth-nut, has led to the conclusion that it was a species of nut, such as is known in England under the name of “pig nut,” “hawk nut,” and “ground nut.”  This, as well as the “earth chesnut,” belongs to a totally different genera.  On the Continent and in the East Indies a similar confusion had long existed by the appellation of “ground pistachio,” which caused the fruit to be confounded with the nut of the tree Pistacia vera.  Some resemblance, on the other hand, existing between these—­as well as from their being eaten by different nations, and used as an article of food, and also for producing oil—­rendered the true description still more difficult.  Botanists are, however, no longer at a loss, having well established the nature and character of all these plants.  The Arachis “nut” partakes of the nature of the pea or bean of our own country, and is a low annual plant of the order Diadelphia decandria of Linn.; originally from Africa, but now extensively cultivated in every quarter of the globe.  It has been naturalised in Europe, and with the climate of the South of France it may be turned to good account.

It has been said to be indigenous in Florida, Peru, Brazil, and Surinam; but the plant may be grown on a light sandy soil, under a moderate heat, equal to that of Italy or the South of France.  The class to which it belongs approaches to the pea tribe; but its remarkable difference to this, as to the pulse we know as a bean, is the circumstance of its introducing its fruit or pod—­if we may so call it—­into the earth, for the purpose of ripening its seed.  The Arachis, or earth nut, has obtained its name from this operation.  The flowers, leaves, and stems are produced in the ordinary manner we see in the