SEED OILS 133 



Trees on the edge of the plantation have produced considerable 

 quantities of nuts for several years, while those in the main 

 stand have produced comparatively few. Some trees flowered 

 and produced fruit when three years old. 



Difficulty has been experienced in germinating the seeds of 

 Aleurites moluccaua. The seeds are very hard-shelled, and un- 

 treated seeds have been known to stay in a seed bed for as 

 long as 38 to 150 days before germination. The most satis- 

 factory method of treatment used was to place the seeds on the 

 ground in a single layer and cover them with dried leaves or 

 kogon grass (Imperata exaltata) . The grass is then burned. 



Immediately after burning and while the seeds are still hot, 

 they are thrown into cold water, which results in the cracking 

 of the hard shells. The results obtained by this kind of treat- 

 ment showed an average germination of more than 30 per cent. 

 The seeds of lumbang are supposed to retain their vitality for 

 a year or more, but we have very little certain knowledge on 

 this point. 



As the seeds of lumbang have very hard shells and germinate 

 slowly, large quantities of them accumulate on the ground under 

 trees. They can, apparently, lie in this condition for a long time 

 without losing much, if any, of their oil content. 



The yield of nuts per tree has not been determined accurately, 

 and the common method of gathering the nuts makes such a 

 determination difficult. Some people in Laguna, who engage 

 in the business, estimate the yield from a tree at from 5,000 

 to 15,000 seeds a year. As the nuts average about 10 grams 

 each, this would be 50 to 150 kilograms per tree. One man 

 said that he had thirty trees in his plantation and that every 

 year he obtained an average of 300 kilograms of husked seeds. 

 This would be about 30 kilograms of unhusked nuts per tree. 

 Aguilar informs us that he obtained from Cavite two sacks of 

 nuts, each sack weighing about 25 kilograms and each of which, 

 according to the collector, was obtained from a single tree. 

 This estimate agrees rather closely with the one just mentioned. 

 According to the above estimates a tree would yield from 5 to 

 30 kilograms of oil per year. 



The fruits are allowed to fall and lie on the ground until that 

 part of the fruit which surrounds the seed has decayed, after 

 which the nuts are collected. 



Aleurites moluccana is a large tree reaching a diameter of 80 

 to 150 centimeters. The younger parts and inflorescences are 

 hairy. The leaves have long petioles. The blades are 10 to 

 20 centimeters long and are either entire or lobed. The fruit 



