SESAME  , the most important plant of the genus Sesamum (nat. ord . Pedalineae), is that which is used throughout

India and other tropical countries for the sake of the oil expressed from its seeds . S. indicum is a herb 2 to 4 ft. high, with the lower leaves on long stalks, broad, coarsely toothed or lobed . The upper leaves are lanceolate, and bear in their arils curved, tubular, two-lipped flowers, each about in. long, and pinkish or yellowish in colour . The four stamens are of unequal length, with a trace of a fifth stamen, and the two-celled ovary ripens into a two-valved pod with numerous seeds . The plant has been cultivated in the tropics from time immemorial, and is sup-posed on philological grounds to have been disseminated from the islands of the Indian Archipelago, but at present it is not known with certainty in a wild state . The plant varies in the colour of the flower, and especially in that of the seeds, From Bentley and Trimen, Medicinal Plants, by permission of J . & A . Churchill, which range Sesame (Sesamum indicum). from l i g h t 1, Corolla cut open with stamens. y e 11 o w o r 2, Flower after removal of corolla. whitish t o 3, Ovary cut lengthwise. black . Sesame 4, Fruit, oil, otherwise 5, Seed cut lengthwise . 3 and 5 enlarged . known as gin- gelly or til (not to be confounded with that derived from Guizotia oleifera, known under the same - vernacular name), is very largely used for the same purposes as olive oil, and, although less widely known by name, is commercially a much more important oil .

The oil is included in the Indian and Colonial Addendum (1goo) to the

British Pharmacopeia . The seeds and leaves also are used by the natives as demulcents and for other medicinal purposes . The soot obtained in burning the oil is said to constitute one of the-ingredients in India or Chinese ink . The plant might be cultivated with advantage in almost all the tropical and semi-tropical colonies of Britain, but will not succeed in any part of Europe . A detailed account of its history and the cultivation of the plant in India is given by Sir G . Watt, Dictionary of Economic Products of India (1893) .