230 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



snow, but on a nearer view exhibited one immense 

 garden *." 



A red, sandy soil, on which few other plants will 

 grow, seems to be the best adapted to the Camellia 

 oleifera. Its pure esculent oil is procured from the 

 seeds of the plant by a very easy process. In the 

 first place the seeds which alone contain the oil 

 are reduced to a coarse powder. This is done by 

 various methods : they are placed in a hollowed trunk 

 of a tree shaped like a canoe, and there bruised by 

 a wheel or mill-stone rolling over them ; they are 

 pounded in a large mortar by a heavy pestle at the 

 end of a lever, set in motion by a water-wheel ; or 

 they are crushed by a horizontal wheel having small 

 perpendicular wheels shod with iron fixed to its cir- 

 cumference, and acting in a groove also lined with 

 iron. When sufficiently ground in either of these 

 ways they are put into bags, transferred to a vessel 

 containing a small quantity of water and slowly 

 boiled, or rather stewed. From the vessel they 

 are carried to a press of very rude construction, 

 having a small opening through which the oil runs 

 into vessels placed to receive it. This shrub, which 

 is as beautiful as it is useful, was brought to England 

 by some gentlemen of Lord Macartney's embassy. 

 It was here considered as the Camellia sesajiqua 

 of authors, from which, however, Mr. Clarke Abel 

 apprehends it is very distinct. 



OIL OP THE ALEURITES CORDATA, OR ALRASIN. 



From the seeds of this plant, the Japanese, who are 

 inferior to few people in making the most of the gifts 

 of nature, extract an oil for the purpose of burning 

 in lamps. Thunberg thus describes the simple pro- 



* Mr. Clarke Abel's Journey in China, p. 174; bis volume 

 tontains a drawing of the plant. 



