266 INTRODUCTION TO PLANT GEOGRAPHY [CHAP. 



oil, obtained from the Peanut ; and castor oil, obtained from the 

 Castor-oil plant and formerly used chiefly in medicine but now much 

 more widely in industry. 



4. Vegetable fats or tallows, which are more or less solid at ordinary 

 temperatures. These include coconut oil, obtained from the ' meat ' 

 of the Coconut, and widely used for making margarines, candy- 

 bars and other sweets, soaps, cosmetics, stock-feed, and as an 

 illuminant ; palm oil, obtained from the African Oil Palm and used 

 for some of the same purposes as coconut oil ; palm-kernel oil, the 

 Brazilian palm oils, cocoa butter, and many others. 



Waxes are chemically allied to fats but tend to be harder. They 

 usually occur as coverings of leaves, etc., and help to prevent too 

 great a loss of water by transpiration. Among those of value to 

 mankind are carnauba wax, obtained from a South American Palm, 

 widely used in the manufacture of candles, soaps, paints, varnishes, 

 ointments, and many other products ; cauassu wax, which can be 

 used for much the same purposes ; and the American candelilla, 

 myrtle, and jojoba waxes. 



Lather-forming products of the cultivated Soapwort, of the 

 South American Soapbark tree, of the Soapberry, and of California 

 Soaproot, are used commercially as soap substitutes — as are many 

 others more locally. 



Smoking and Chewing Materials 



Of these ' fumitories and masticatories ' the most universally 

 employed is tobacco, obtained principally from a tropical American 

 species that is now very widely cultivated, but to some extent also 

 from a North American species which was extensively grown by 

 the Indians before the time of Columbus. Important chewing 

 materials are betel, obtained from the widely cultivated Betelnut 

 Palm and said to be used by over 400,000,000 people ; cola nuts, 

 from the West African Cola tree which has now been widely intro- 

 duced elsewhere, whose use results in slight stimulation and tem- 

 porary increase in physical capacity ; and, in addition, chewing gum 

 and spruce gum. 



In contrast to the above more or less harmless principles, the 

 true narcotics contain powerful alkaloids that make them gravely 

 detrimental to human health if used habitually, although they are 

 valuable in medicine in exceedingly small amounts. Among the 

 chief are opium and cocaine, obtained as already mentioned above 



