OILS AND VEGETABLE FAT. 283 



chased the other oil, on account of its greenish tinge 

 and strange appearance. On being shown to others, a 

 chemist, recognizing it as the bitter oil of India, pur- 

 chased it at the rate of 60 per tun; and he must have 

 made a good profit on it, as the article fetches as much 

 as 90 per tun. The Dilo grows to the height of sixty 

 feet, and the stem is from three to four feet in diameter, 

 generally thickly crowded with epiphytal orchids and 

 ferns. The dark oblong leaves form a magnificent crown, 

 producing a dense shade ; and w r hen, during the flower- 

 ing season, they are interspersed with numerous white 

 flowers, the aspect of the whole tree is truly noble. 

 The exudation from the stem is, according to Bennett, 

 the Tacamahaca resin of commerce, used by Tahitians 

 as a scent. Carpenters and cabinet-makers value the 

 wood on account of its beautiful grain, hardness, and 

 red tinge. Boats and canoes are built of it, and it is 

 named with the Yes.(^22^A- Gray) as the 



best timber produced in Fiji. In order to extract the 

 oil, the round fruit is allowed to drop and the outer 

 fleshy covering rot on the ground. The remaining por- 

 tion, consisting of a shell somewhat of the consistency 

 of that of a hen's egg, and enclosing the kernel, is baked 

 on hot stones, in the same way that Polynesian vegeta- 

 bles and meat are. The shell is then broken, and the 

 kernel pounded between stones. If the quantity be 

 small, the macerated mass is placed in the fibres of the 

 Vau (Paritium tiliaceum and tricuspis\ and forced by 

 the hand to yield up its oily contents ; if large, a rude 

 level press is constructed by placing a boom horizontally 

 between two cocoa-nut trees, and appending to them per- 



