Bene is planted in April or May, and is ready to harvest about six months later. It is sometimes planted between rows of cotton, and occasionally hoed to keep out weeds. It begins to flower when twelve inches high. As the stems elongate, new flowers appear, and we eventually find ripe capsules below, green ones in the middle, and flowers at the top. The flower-capsules burst and the seed shatters before the others are ripe. The seed may be gath ered by shaking into a sheet when the pods are dry.
The seeds are valued for their oil. The seeds yield about half their weight of oil-of-sesame, which is odorless and does not easily become rancid. The oil and seed are used in cooking and in medicine, in the making of confections, soap, and as an adulterant of olive oil.
Sesame has been known from ancient times in India, Greece and Egypt, and is much more used in these countries and in Europe than in this country. It is said to have been brought to South Carolina by the early slaves. It now runs wild in parts of the extreme South, and is cultivated in small patches, chiefly by the negroes.
During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1905, the importation of oil-of-sesame amounted to 1,394, 975 pounds, valued at $91,314. Since the seeds are not itemized in the customs returns, the amount of seed imported is not ascertainable.
Literature.
Allen, Commercial Organic Analysis, London ; Brannt, A Practical Treatise on Animal and Vege table Fats and Oils, Philadelphia ; Gill, Handbook of Oil Analysis, Philadelphia (1898); Lewkowitsch, Chemical Analysis of Fats, Oils and Waxes, New York (1898); Sadtler, A Handbook of Industrial Organic Chemistry, Philadelphia (1900); Bureau of Chemistry, United States Department of Agricul ture, Bulletin No. 77, Olive oil and Its Substitutes,
L. M. Tolman and L. S. Munson ; same, Bulletin No. SO, Part II, Rose Geranium Oil and Its Substi tutes, Lyman F. Kehler ; Hopkins, The Oil-Chem ists' Handbook, New York (1900); Andes, Vegeta ble Fats and Oils (trans. by C. Salter), London (ls97); Benedikt, Chemical Analysis of Oils, Fats, Waxes, and of the Commercial Products Derived Therefrom, London (1895); Dent, Fats and Oils (in Groves and Thorp, editors, Chemical Technology, Vol. II. 1895): Lewkowitsch, The Laboratory Com panion to Fats and Oils Industries, London (1901); Wright, Animal and Vegetable Fixed Oils, Fats, Butters and Waxes, London (1903).
nately, there is no generic term for the growing of all ornamental plants, covering such phases as floriculture and the rearing of trees and shrubs for adornment and for shade.
The extension of floriculture and allied occupa tions is due, of course, to the rise in taste ; but the rise of taste has been promoted and hastened by the increasing effectiveness of the plant-grow ing business. The business is becoming more effect ive because a much greater variety of plants is increasingly available, because of the perfecting of the glasshouse, of more expeditious and satis factory means of transportation and handling, and