A Catechism of Familiar Things; Their History, and the Events Which Led to Their Discovery. With a Short Explanation of Some of the Principal Natural Phenomena. For the Use of Schools and Families. Enlarged and Revised Edition.

CHAPTER VIII.

CA­PERS, AL­MONDS, OR­ANGES, LEMONS, CIT­RONS, LIMES, OLIVES, OILS, MEL­ONS, TAMARINDS, AND DATES.

What are Ca­pers?

The full-​grown flow­er-​buds of the Ca­per Tree, a small shrub, gen­er­al­ly found grow­ing out of the fis­sures of rocks, or among rub­bish, on old walls and ru­ins, giv­ing them a gay ap­pear­ance with its large white flow­ers. It is a na­tive of Italy: it is al­so com­mon in the south of France, where it is much cul­ti­vat­ed.

How are they pre­pared, and for what are they used?

They are gath­ered, and dried in the shade; then in­fused in vine­gar, to which salt is added; af­ter which they are put in bar­rels, to be used as a pick­le, chiefly in sauces.

What are fre­quent­ly sub­sti­tut­ed for Ca­pers?

The buds of broom pick­led in the same man­ner, or the berries of the nas­tur­tium, an Amer­ican an­nu­al plant, with pun­gent fruit.

What are Al­monds?

The nut of the Al­mond Tree, a species of the peach, grow­ing in most of the south­ern parts of Eu­rope; there are two kinds, the bit­ter and the sweet.

What are their qual­ities and use?

The sweet al­monds are of a soft, grate­ful taste, and much used by the con­fec­tion­er in nu­mer­ous prepa­ra­tions of sweet-​meats, cook­ery, &c. Both sorts yield an oil, and are use­ful in medicine.

Of what coun­try is the Or­ange a na­tive?

It is a na­tive of Chi­na, In­dia, and most trop­ical coun­tries; but has long been pro­duced in great per­fec­tion in the warmer parts of Eu­rope and Amer­ica. Or­anges are im­port­ed in im­mense quan­ti­ties ev­ery year, from the Azores, Spain, Por­tu­gal, Italy, &c. They are brought over in chests and box­es, packed sep­arate­ly in pa­per to pre­serve them. The or­anges in com­mon use with us are the bit­ter or Seville, the Chi­na or sweet or­ange, and those from Flori­da.

Where are the Azores sit­uat­ed?

In the At­lantic Ocean, about 800 miles west of Por­tu­gal. These is­lands are very pro­duc­tive in wine and fruits.

Where is Seville?

In Spain; it is an an­cient and con­sid­er­able city, the cap­ital of the province of An­dalu­sia. The flow­ers of the Seville or­ange are high­ly odor­if­er­ous, and just­ly es­teemed one of the finest per­fumes. Its fruit is larg­er than the Chi­na or­ange, and rather bit­ter; the yel­low rind or peel is warm and aro­mat­ic. The juice of or­anges is a grate­ful and whole­some acid.

_Odor­if­er­ous_, sweet-​scent­ed, fra­grant; hav­ing a brisk, agree­able smell which may be per­ceived at a dis­tance.

Who first in­tro­duced the Chi­na Or­ange in­to Eu­rope?

The Por­tuguese. It is said that the very tree from which all the Eu­ro­pean or­ange trees of this sort were pro­duced, was still pre­served some years back, at the house of the Count St. Lau­rent, in Lis­bon. In In­dia, those most es­teemed, and which are made presents of as rar­ities, are no larg­er than a bil­liard ball. The Mal­tese or­anges are said by some to be the finest in the world.

Who are the Mal­tese?

The in­hab­itants of Mal­ta, an is­land of the Mediter­ranean, sit­uat­ed be­tween Africa and Sici­ly.

Whence are Lemons brought?

The Lemon is a na­tive of East­ern Asia, whence it was brought to Greece, and af­ter­wards to Italy; from Italy it was trans­plant­ed to Spain, Por­tu­gal, and the South of France, whence lemons are im­port­ed in great plen­ty.

What is the Cit­ron?

The fruit of the Cit­ron Tree, re­sem­bling the lemon, but some­what larg­er, and hav­ing a fin­er pulp. The cit­ron was al­so brought orig­inal­ly from the East of Asia, but has since been pro­duced in the warm parts of Eu­rope, like the or­ange and lemon; Genoa es­pe­cial­ly is the great­est nurs­ery for them. Its rind is prin­ci­pal­ly brought to this coun­try in a can­died state, and is ap­plied by con­fec­tion­ers to var­ious pur­pos­es.

Where is Genoa?

A city of North­ern Italy, on the Mediter­ranean, be­tween the rivers Bis­ag­no and Pol­cev­era.

What is the Lime?

The Lime is by some thought to be a species of lemon, by oth­ers not; it is a small­er fruit, and in the West In­dies is great­ly pre­ferred to the lemon. It is cul­ti­vat­ed in the South of Eu­rope, the West In­dies, and the warm parts of Amer­ica. The agree­able scent called Berg­amot is pre­pared from the rind of a small species of lime.

What are Olives?

The fruit of the Olive Tree, an ev­er­green, now com­mon in the woods of France, Spain, and Italy; but in the wild state pro­duc­ing a small fruit of no val­ue; when cul­ti­vat­ed, how­ev­er, (which it is ex­ten­sive­ly, both for the fruit and the quan­ti­ty of oil which it yields,) it forms one of the rich­est pro­duc­tions of South­ern Eu­rope. The olive came orig­inal­ly from Asia. Its use is very an­cient; it is fre­quent­ly spo­ken of in the Bible, both as in a wild and cul­ti­vat­ed state. The promised land of the Is­raelites was “a land of oil, olive, and hon­ey.” From the time that the dove re­turned to Noah in the Ark with an “olive leaf plucked off,” in all ages and coun­tries, wher­ev­er this tree is known, down to the present day, has an olive-​branch been the fa­vorite em­blem of peace.

What na­tion holds the olive in great re­pute?

This tree was a great fa­vorite with the an­cient Greeks, and scarce­ly an an­cient cus­tom ex­ist­ed in which the olive was not in some way as­so­ci­at­ed: at their mar­riages and fes­ti­vals, all parts of their dwellings, es­pe­cial­ly the doors, were or­na­ment­ed with them, and the same cus­tom pre­vails at the present day, both in pub­lic and pri­vate re­joic­ings. It was al­so scarce­ly less a fa­vorite with the Ro­mans, al­though it was not held in the same sa­cred light as amongst the Greeks. The olive-​branch has like­wise been uni­ver­sal­ly con­sid­ered the em­blem of plen­ty, and as such, is found on the coins of those coun­tries of which it is _not_ a na­tive. Two cen­turies af­ter the foun­da­tion of Rome, both Italy and Africa were strangers to this use­ful plant; it af­ter­wards be­came nat­ural­ized in those coun­tries, and at length ar­rived in Spain, France, &c. Olive trees some­times at­tain a great age.

How are the Olives eat­en?

The olives while on the tree are in­tol­er­ably bit­ter, with­out any of that pe­cu­liar taste which gains them ad­mit­tance at the rich­est ta­bles; to fit them for which they are pick­led. Ripe olives are eat­en in the East­ern coun­tries, es­pe­cial­ly amongst the Greeks, as an ar­ti­cle of food, par­tic­ular­ly in Lent. The oil, which they yield in great quan­ti­ties, is very high­ly es­teemed; be­ing that chiefly used for sal­ads, &c., in medicine, and in var­ious man­ufac­tures.

_Lent_, a time of fast­ing; the time from Ash-​Wednes­day to East­er.

How is the Oil drawn from the Olive?

By press­es or mills made for the pur­pose. The sweet­est and best olive oil comes from the South of France, from Naples, Flo­rence, and Luc­ca; quan­ti­ties are al­so brought from Spain and the Io­ni­an Is­lands.

Where is Naples?

In the South of Italy.

Where are Flo­rence and Luc­ca sit­uat­ed?

In Italy. Flo­rence is a very an­cient, large, and cel­ebrat­ed city, the cap­ital of Italy; Luc­ca, for­mer­ly a re­pub­lic, be­longs now to the king­dom of Italy.

_Re­pub­lic_, a state in which the supreme pow­er of gov­ern­ment is lodged in rep­re­sen­ta­tives cho­sen by the peo­ple, in­stead of be­ing vest­ed in an em­per­or or king.

You said that the olive is an Ev­er­green: to what plant or shrub is the term par­tic­ular­ly ap­plied?

To any shrub or tree whose leaves con­tin­ue fresh and green all the year round, win­ter and sum­mer, as the lau­rel, pine, cedar, hol­ly, &c., which do not shed their leaves in au­tumn as oth­er trees.

Is oil a pro­duc­tion con­fined to the Olive alone?

By no means. Oil is a fat­ty, in­flammable mat­ter, drawn from many veg­etable and an­imal bod­ies. The oils in com­mon use are of three dif­fer­ent kinds. The first are mere _oily_ or fat­ty bod­ies, ex­tract­ed ei­ther by pres­sure, or by de­coc­tion: of the first kind are those of al­monds, nuts, olives, &c.; and of the oth­er, those of dif­fer­ent berries, &c., which are pro­cured by boil­ing the sub­stance in wa­ter, which caus­es the oil to col­lect on the top.

_De­coc­tion_, act of boil­ing--a chem­ical term.

What are the sec­ond and third kinds of Oils?

The sec­ond are those drawn from veg­eta­bles by com­mon dis­til­la­tion in the alem­bic, with the aid of wa­ter; these con­tain the _oily_ and volatile part of the plant, and are called _es­sen­tial_ oils. The third sort are those pro­duced by dis­til­la­tion, but of a dif­fer­ent kind in an open ves­sel, and with­out the help of wa­ter. They are like­wise di­vid­ed in­to _veg­etable_ oils, _an­imal_ oils, and _min­er­al_ oils; which last are those drawn from am­ber, and a few oth­er sub­stances par­tak­ing both of the veg­etable and min­er­al na­tures, as Petroleum, com­mon­ly known as kerosene or coal oil.

_Alem­bic_, a chem­ical ves­sel used in dis­till­ing. It con­sists of a ves­sel placed over a fire, con­tain­ing the sub­stance to be dis­tilled; the up­per part, which re­ceives and con­dens­es the steam, is called the head; the beak of this is fit­ted to a ves­sel called a re­ceiv­er.

_Volatile_, eas­ily es­cap­ing, quick­ly fly­ing off.

Whence is the word Oil de­rived?

From the Latin _oleum_, formed from _olea, olive-​tree_, the fruit of which abounds in oil.

What im­mense fish is it that fur­nish­es us with a quan­ti­ty of _an­imal_ oil?

The Whale, the largest and no­blest in­hab­itant of the wa­ters. It is pro­tect­ed from the cold by a case or coat­ing of blub­ber, that is, a thick oily fat from which the oil is made; num­bers of them are caught for the sake of that. Am­ber­gris, high­ly prized in per­fumery, is a prod­uct of the sperm whale.

In what seas are they found?

Chiefly in the North­ern Seas: ex­ten­sive whale fish­eries are car­ried on by the Amer­icans, En­glish, Dutch, &c., and num­bers of ves­sels are sent out for the pur­pose of tak­ing the fish: they usu­al­ly sail in the lat­ter end of March, and be­gin fish­ing about May. The whale fish­ery con­tin­ues gen­er­al­ly from that time till the lat­ter end of June or Ju­ly. There are al­so oth­er fish­es and an­imals which af­ford us oils of dif­fer­ent kinds, which are used for var­ious pur­pos­es in medicine and the arts.

Is the oil called _cas­tor_, which is so much used in medicine, the prod­uct of an an­imal or a plant?

Cas­tor oil is ex­pressed from a West In­di­an shrub, called Pal­ma Christi; and es­pe­cial­ly from the ripe seeds, which are full of this oil. It is pre­pared by col­lect­ing these ripe seeds, and free­ing them from the husks; then bruis­ing and beat­ing them in­to a paste; they are next boiled in wa­ter, when the oil ris­ing to the sur­face is skimmed off as it con­tin­ues to ap­pear. The Cas­tor-​oil plant is found grow­ing abun­dant­ly in Suma­tra, par­tic­ular­ly near the sea-​shore.

Where is Suma­tra sit­uat­ed?

In the Ori­en­tal Archipela­go, off the south east­ern part of the con­ti­nent of Asia.

In what oth­er coun­tries is this plant found?

In some parts of Africa, Syr­ia, and Egypt. It was an­cient­ly cul­ti­vat­ed in the two last-​men­tioned coun­tries in large quan­ti­ties, the seeds be­ing used for the oil they yield­ed, which was burnt in lamps.

[Il­lus­tra­tion: BEAVERS BUILD­ING THEIR HUTS.]

Is not the Pal­ma Christi much af­fect­ed by soil and sit­ua­tion?

Great­ly so. In some places it at­tains the stature of a tree, and is not a bi­en­ni­al plant, but en­dures for many years, as in the warm plains of Irak, Ara­bia, and some parts of Africa.

_Bi­en­ni­al_, last­ing for the space of two years on­ly.

What are Mel­ons?

A species of the Cu­cumis, a genus of plants to which the cu­cum­ber be­longs. There are great va­ri­eties of this fruit cul­ti­vat­ed in dif­fer­ent parts of the world; that sort called the Can­tale­up (so named from be­ing cul­ti­vat­ed at a place of that name in the neigh­bor­hood of Rome, whith­er it was brought from Ar­me­nia,) is a species of musk-​mel­on; the ma­ture fruit is juicy, and del­icate­ly fla­vored.

Where is Ar­me­nia sit­uat­ed?

Ar­me­nia is a large coun­try sit­uat­ed in Asi­at­ic Turkey, to the west of the Caspi­an Sea.

What species of Mel­on is that which al­most makes up for a scarci­ty of good wa­ter in hot coun­tries?

The wa­ter-​mel­on, which af­fords a cool, re­fresh­ing juice, and quench­es the thirst pro­duced by the ex­ces­sive heats. It re­quires a dry, sandy soil, and a warm cli­mate; the pulp of the fruit is re­mark­ably rich and de­li­cious.

What are Tamarinds?

The fruit of the Tamarind Tree, a na­tive of both the In­dies, Asia, Africa, &c. It is of a roundish form, and com­posed of two pods in­closed one with­in the oth­er, be­tween which is a soft pulpy sub­stance, of a tart but agree­able taste; the in­ner pod con­tains the seeds or stones.

_Tart_, sharp, acid.

For what are they used?

We use them on­ly as medicine; but the Africans, and many of the Ori­en­tal na­tions, with whom they are com­mon, make them in­to a kind of pre­serve with sug­ar, which they eat as a del­ica­cy, and which cools them in the vi­olent heats of their cli­mate.

From what na­tion was the knowl­edge of their use in medicine ob­tained?

From the Ara­bi­ans.

What does the word Ori­en­tal sig­ni­fy?

Be­long­ing to the East; there­fore those coun­tries of the globe sit­uat­ed in the East are called Ori­en­tal, those in the West, Oc­ci­den­tal, from _Oriens_, sig­ni­fy­ing East, and _Oc­ci­dens_, West.

What are Dates?

The fruit of the Palm, a beau­ti­ful and grace­ful tree, pe­cu­liar to the warmer re­gions of the globe; the growth of the palm is ex­treme­ly sin­gu­lar, for al­though some species at­tain to the height of the largest for­est trees, their struc­ture dif­fers ma­te­ri­al­ly from that of a tree, prop­er­ly so called. The leaves of the young plant arise di­rect­ly from the sur­face of the ground, and there is no ap­pear­ance of any stem for sev­er­al years; this stem once formed, nev­er in­creas­es in size, the growth of the plant be­ing al­ways up­ward, so that the stem it­self is formed by the pri­or growth of the green por­tions of the palm.

_Struc­ture_, the man­ner of for­ma­tion.

How of­ten does this tree cast its cir­cle of leaves?

Ev­ery year; so that the num­ber of years a palm has ex­ist­ed is known by the scars which are left by their falling off. The palm is an ev­er­green.

What are the us­es of this Tree?

The Palm is of the ut­most im­por­tance to the in­hab­itants of the trop­ical re­gions; the fruit and sap pro­vid­ing them with food, the fi­brous parts with cloth­ing, and the leaves form­ing the greater part of their slight­ly-​con­struct­ed huts; the leaves of some species are formed in­to fans, hats, and para­sols; oth­ers are writ­ten on, in the same man­ner that we write on pa­per; ar­ti­fi­cial flow­ers are made of the pith of some; the light and sup­ple rat­tan walk­ing-​cane is the slen­der shoot of an­oth­er kind; and sol­id and use­ful uten­sils are made of the shell of the co­coa-​nut. The fi­bres of the Date Palm are formed in­to ropes and twine; a liquor is drawn from the trunk, called palm wine; the trunks of the old trees fur­nish a hard and durable wood; and even the nuts or stones of the fruit are use­ful for feed­ing cat­tle; a whole­some flour is al­so made of the fruit, when dried and re­duced to pow­der.

_Con­struct­ed_, put to­geth­er.

Whence is its name de­rived?

From the Latin word _pal­ma_, a hand, giv­en to these pro­duc­tions of the veg­etable world, from the sup­posed re­sem­blance of their broad leaves to the hu­man hand. The Date, the fruit of the Date Palm, de­rives its name from the Greek _dacty­lus_, a fin­ger, from its mode of grow­ing in clus­ters spread­ing out like the fin­gers of the hand. The Palm some­times forms im­pen­etra­ble forests; but more fre­quent­ly is found in small groups of two or three, or even singly, be­side springs and foun­tains of wa­ter, af­ford­ing a kind­ly shade to the thirsty trav­eller.

_Im­pen­etra­ble_, not eas­ily pen­etrat­ed or got through.

From what coun­tries are Dates brought?

From Egypt, Syr­ia, Per­sia, Africa, and the In­dies. Among the Egyp­tians and Africans, they make a prin­ci­pal ar­ti­cle of food. Dates, when ripe, are of a bright coral red, of an ob­long form, and pos­sess a sharp bit­ing taste: they are usu­al­ly gath­ered in au­tumn, be­fore be­ing per­fect­ly ripe.