The price, in Liverpool, for palm oil, in October, 1853, was L38 10s. to L39 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.  Europoea, or sativa, grown in the south of Europe, of which district they are for the most part natives.

The entire exports of olive oil from the kingdom of Naples have been estimated at 36,333 tuns a year, which, taken at its mean value when exported at L62 per tun, is equivalent to the annual sum of L2,252,646.

There are one or two distinct species, natives of the East Indies and the Cape of Good Hope.  This genus of plants, besides their valuable products of oil and fruit, are also much admired for the fragrance of their white flowers.  There is a yellow-blossomed variety, native of China, O. fragrans, the Lan-hoa of the Chinese, which is used to perfume their teas.