A. A species of grain which is cultivated as food for beasts.

Q. What are olives?

A. They are the fruit of a tree called the olive tree, which grows in France, Spain, Italy, Greece, and the north of Africa. When olives are ripe an oil called olive oil may be obtained from them.

Q. What are raisins?

A. They are dried grapes, and are named partly from the places where they grow, as Smyrna, Valencia; and partly from the kind of grapes of which they are made, as muscadel, blue sultana.

Q. How are raisins cured?

A. Either by cutting the stalks of the bunches half through when the grapes are nearly ripe, and leaving them on the vine until the sun dries and candies them; or by cutting the grapes when ripe and dipping them in a ley made of the ashes of the burnt tendrils, after which they are exposed to the sun to dry.

Q. What are currants?

A. A small kind of dried grape used in

cookery. They are brought chiefly from Zante and Cephalonia, two islands in the Mediterranean.

Q. What are figs?

A. The dried fruit of the fig tree, which grows in Turkey, Italy, Greece, France, Spain, and Northern Africa.

Q. Where do the best figs come from?
A. From Turkey.

Q. From what places do we obtain oranges ?

A. From Portugal, Spain, the Azores, and many places in the Mediterranean. Q. What are lemons?

A. They are the fruit of a tree which is a native of India, but has been introduced into Europe. They furnish a cooling acid juice.

Q. What is citron ?

A. The fruit of the citron tree, which is a large species of lemon tree.

Q. What is the lime?

A. An acid fruit produced by a species

of the lemon tree.

Q. What is ginger?

A. It is the root of a plant socalled from

Gingi, in China, and cultivated in great quantities in the West Indies, especially in Jamaica. It has a pungent, aromatic odour, and a hot, biting taste. Q. What are nutmegs?

A. They are the kernels of the fruit of a tree which grows principally in the Islands of Banda, in the East Indies, and reaches to the height of twenty or thirty feet. Q. What is black pepper?

A. The berry or fruit of the pepper plant, which grows in India, Siam, and the islands of the Indian Archipelago. When ripe it is of a bright-red colour, but becomes nearly black when dried. Q. What is white pepper?

A. The berry or fruit of the same plant as the black pepper.

Q. How is white pepper made?

A. By bleaching the finest berries of the pepper plant, and freeing them from the outer rind.

Q. What is cayenne pepper?

A. A pepper used in cookery, and made from the fruit of different species of capsicums.

Q. What is mustard?

A. The seed of the mustard plant ground into powder.

Q. What are capers?

A. The flower-buds of the caper bush, which is a low shrub growing wild in the southern parts of Europe.

Q. How are they preserved?

A. The buds are collected before the flowers expand, and preserved in vine

gar.

Q. What is allspice ?

A. The fruit of the pimento, a tree which grows in the West Indies. Q. What is cinnamon ?

A. It is the inner bark of a tree found in Ceylon, on the Malabar coast, in Sumatra, and in Borneo.

Q. What are cloves?

A. A very pungent, aromatic spice, formed of the dried flowers of a plant growing in the Moluccas.

Q. What is vanilla?

A. The fruit of a tree which is a native

of tropical America.

Q. What is it used for?

A. In consequence of its fragrant odour it is used in confectionery, in making liqueurs, and in flavouring chocolate. Q. What is mace?

A. A spice. It is the second coat which covers the nutmeg.

Q. What are almonds?

A. They are the fruit of the almond tree, of which there are two descriptions, one producing sweet and the other bitter almonds. The kernel is the part that is used.

Q. What is oil of almonds?

A. An oil extracted from both descriptions of almond; but the bitter almond yields more oil than the sweet almond. Q. How is the oil obtained ?

A. By bruising the kernels and pressing them in hempen bags, a gentle heat being generally employed at the same time to make the oil more limpid.

Q. What is gum Arabic?

A. A juice which is obtained from a species of acacia tree in Arabia, by making incisions in the tree. When dissolved in water it forms a cement.