Note 52 — Chapter II
Reading edition
The Argan Tree, the Elcedendron Argan of some and the Argania Sideroxylon of other commentators, for botanists like doctors often disagree, seems to belong to the family of the Sapotaceæ. Its habitat is very limited, being apparently confined to the sandy district between Mogador and Saffi, in which it forms a dense wood stretching for forty miles. In habit it resembles an Acacia, being thorny, twisted in trunk and limbs, and able to survive the longest droughts without apparent suffering. It produces a nut about the size of an olive, from which an oil is extracted and used in cooking by the Moors. It is unpalatable to those Europeans who have never eaten a Turkey Buzzard.