FIXED OILS. 229 



wedges of timber, to fill up the vacuities between the 

 casks and bales and other packages that compose 

 their cargo. 



BEN OIL. 



Ben oil is obtained from the seeds of a tree growing 

 in the Indies, Ceylon, and Egypt. Linnaeus calls it 

 Guilandina moringa, but Lamarck has changed it 

 to Moringa zeylanica or M. oleifera. The fruit is a 

 three-valved pod, full of three-cornered seeds, the 

 size of large peas, and covered with a thin, soft, pale- 

 grey shell. These seeds contain a white oleaginous 

 kernel, of a very sweet taste. 



After being decorticated, the oil of ben is extracted 

 from them by expression. About a hundred pounds 

 of the seed yield twenty-three pounds of oil. This 

 oil is sweet, scentless, and scarcely under any circum- 

 stances does it become rancid. At a low tempera- 

 ture it separates into two parts : the one solid, the 

 other liquid. The watch-makers use the liquid part, 

 in preference to any other oil, for lubricating the 

 wheels and other works in watches and clocks. 



THE OIL PLANT, OR CAMELLIA OLEIFERA. 



This beautiful shrub is a native of China, where it is 

 cultivated in large plantations and produces much of 

 the oil consumed by the Chinese. Its product being 

 oil, and its appearance closely resembling the tea- 

 plant, the Chinese give it the expressive and appro- 

 priate name of " the oil-bearing tea-plant." It fre- 

 quently attains the height of a moderate-sized cherry- 

 tree, and bears a profusion of large, single, white 

 blossoms. " This circumstance," says one of our 

 best travellers in China, u gave an interesting and 

 novel character to the places which it covered. They 

 often looked in the distance as if lightly clothed with 



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