Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 18.djvu/399

Rh point. The fruits are round, four-valved capsules, about three inches in diameter, and grow in bunches. They inclose a white, solid kernel of irregular shape and firm consistency. To get the oil, the natives boil the kernels in water and let them stand in a heap for a few days. They then peel them, crush them with stones or pound them in wooden



mortars, and make a paste of them which they spread on a slab of stone hollowed out, and exposed at a slight inclination to the heat of the sun. The oil with which the paste is impregnated runs into a calabash which is placed to receive it. The negroes on some of the plantations put the paste into a bag and press the oil out with weights. The