68 A NATURALIST IN WESTERN CHINA 



of commerce. Very often no attempt is made to separate the 

 fat and the oil. The seeds with their white fatty covering are 

 crushed and steamed together and submitted to pressure, 

 the mixed product so obtained being known as " Mou-yu." 

 The yield of fat and oil is about 30 per cent, by weight of the 

 seeds. In China all three products are largely employed in 

 the manufacture of candles. The pure " Pi-yu " has a higher 

 melting point than the " Ting-yu " or the mixture " Mou-yu." 

 All Chinese candles have an exterior coating of insect white 

 wax, but when made from " Pi-yu " only the thinnest possible 

 covering of wax is necessary (one-tenth of an ounce to a pound) . 

 All three products of the Vegetable Tallow tree are exported 

 in quantity to Europe, where they are used in the manufacture 

 of soap, being essential constituents of certain particular forms 

 of this article. Chinese vegetable tallow is an increasingly 

 important article of trade. In 1910 some 178,204 piculs, 

 valued at Tls. 1,878,418, were exported from Hankow. 



Every one is familiar with some form or other of the 

 lacquer-work of China and Japan, but the varnish employed for 

 lacquering has not yet found a market in Western countries, 

 owing to certain poisonous properties it possesses, and to the 

 want of knowledge as to the correct way of applying it. 

 Lacquer is prepared from a varnish obtained in its crude state 

 from Rhus verniciflua, the " Che shu " of the Chinese. This 

 tree grows 25 to 60 feet tall, producing handsome pinnate 

 leaves, i to 2| feet long, and large panicles of small greenish 

 flowers, which are followed by fruits rich in fatty oil. It is 

 wild in the woods and abundantly cultivated along the margins 

 of fields throughout central China, especially in the moun- 

 tainous areas of western Hupeh and eastern Szechuan, but 

 is much less common west of these regions. Its altitudinal 

 range is from 3000 to 7500 feet, the optimum being 4000 

 to 5000 feet. This tree, like the art of lacquering, was intro- 

 duced from China into Japan in very early times, and is 

 commonly cultivated there to-day. It is one of the many plants 

 which first reached Europe from Japan, of which country 

 it was erroneously considered native. 



In China, Varnish trees are the property of the ground 

 landlord and not of the tenant who holds the land ; the varnish 



