GOLD OF PLEASURE, Camelina, a, genus of plants of the natural order crucifera, having an erect calyx, small bright yellow, flowers, and inflated pear-shaped or wedge shaped pouches. The species ace few. The common gold of pleasure (C. satire), (Fr Canie/ine, Ger. Dotter) is an annual plant 1+ to 3 ft. high, with terminal racemes and pear-shaped pouches; the leaves smooth, bright green, entire or slightly toothed, the Middle stem•leaves arrow-shaped and embracing the stem. Notwithstanding its high. sounding English name, the plant is of humble and homely appearance, It grows in fields and waste places in Europe and the n. of Asia; it is not regarded as a true of Britain, although often found in fields, particularly of flax, its seed being very mingled With impOrted froin time continent. In ninny parts of Ger many, Belgium, and the south of Europe, it is extensively cultivated for the sake of the abundant oil contained in its seeds. The seeds and the oil-cake made from them are also used for feeding cattle, although inferior to linseed, the oil-cake obtained from linseed. The oil, although sweet and pure at first, is very apt to become rancid, and is less valued than that of rapeseed or colza; the seeds of gold of pleasure are often mixed, with rape-seed for the production of oil. The value of the plant in agri
culture depends much on its adaptation, to poor sandy soils, although it prefers those of a better quality; and on the briefness of its period of vegetation, adapting it for being sown after another crop has failed, or for being plowed down as a green manure. 'The seed is sown either broadcast or in drills, The crop is cut or pulled when the pouches begin to turn yellow; but the readiness with which seed is scattered in the field, render ing the plant a weed for future years. is an objection to its cultivation. It is not much cultivated in any part of Britain. The stems are tough, fibrous, and durable, and are used for thatdhing and for milking brooms; their fiber is even separated like that of flax, and made into very coarse cloth and packing-paper. The seeds are used for emollient poultices. which allay pain, particularly in cutaneous diseases.