is 4s. 6d. per gallon.  It is capable of being refined so as to answer the purpose of a salad oil; the nut is prolific, and eaten by the natives and Europeans, boiled, roasted, or in its raw state; and frequently introduced at the table as we do the Spanish Barcelona nut at dessert.  It grows in the rainy season, and is collected in the dry, and sold in the colony for one shilling to eighteen-pence per bushel, in goods and cash.  Form of the nut, long, light shell, contains two kernels covered with a brown rind, when shelled white in appearance.

It is a low creeping plant, with yellow flowers; after they drop off, and the pods begin to form, they bury themselves in the earth, where they come to maturity.  The pod is woody and dry, containing from one to three peas, or nuts, as they are called, hence the common names, ground-nut or pea-nut.  They require to be parched in an oven before they are eaten, and form a chief article of food in many parts of Africa.

From a narrow strip of land, extending about 40 miles northerly from Wilmington (North Carolina), comes nearly the entire quantity of earth nuts (known as pea-nuts) grown in the United States for market.  From that tract and immediate vicinity, 80,000 bushels have been carried to Wilmington market in one year.

The plant has somewhat the appearance of the dwarf garden-pea, though more bushy.  It is cultivated in hills.  The pea grows on tendrils, which put out from the plant and take root in the earth, where the nut is produced and ripened.  The fruit is picked from the root by hand, and the vines are a favorite food for horses, mules, and cattle.  From 30 to 80 bushels are produced on an acre.  There are some planters who raise from 1,000 to 1,500 bushels a year.—­("Hunt’s Merchant’s Magazine,” vol. xv., p. 426.)

The ground-nut is exceedingly prolific, and requires but little care and attention to its culture, while the oil extracted from it is quite equal to that yielded by the olive.  Almost any kind of soil being adapted for it, nothing can be more simple than its management.  All that is required is the soil to be turned over and the seed sown in drills like potatoes; after it begins to shoot it may be earthed with a hoe or plough.  In many parts of Western Australia they are now grown in gardens for feeding pigs, the rich oil they are capable of yielding being entirely overlooked.  In regard to their marketable value at home, I will give a copy of a letter of a friend of mine, received from some London brokers, largely engaged in the African trade:—­

“Wilson and Rose present compliments to Mr. N., and beg to inform him the price of African ground nuts is as under:—­Say for River Gambia, L11 per ton here.  Say for Sierra Leone, L10 per ton here.  For ground nuts free on board at the former port, L8 per ton is demanded; these are the finest description of nut, the freight would be about L4 per ton; the weight per bushel imperial measure, and in the shell, is about 25 lbs.”

The following, also, is an extract from a letter written in 1842, by Mr. Forster (the present M.P. for Berwick), an eminent African merchant.  Speaking of the staple of Africa, he says:—­