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OIL-PLANTS OF FRENCH GUIANA.
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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
Fig. 1.—Carapa Guianensis Fruits and Leaves (reduced).
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
