252 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



obtained. This tree is a native of the Andes, 

 towering in majestic beauty on mountains which rise 

 many hundred toises above the level of the sea, and on 

 the verge of perpetual snow. Humboldt describes 

 the tree as attaining to the prodigious height of one 

 hundred and sixty feet, while it differs from all the 

 other species of palms in flourishing under a much 

 colder temperature. The trunk of the ceroxylon is 

 covered with a peculiar kind of varnish, possessing 

 some of the properties of wax. "Vauquelin subjected 

 this product to chemical analysis, and found that it 

 contained two-thirds of resin and one-third of wax; 

 thus differing materially from the inflammable sub- 

 stances obtained from the myrica and the corypha 

 just described. 



The Tallow-tree, or Croton sebiferum, yields a sub- 

 stance very much resembling tallow in consistence, in 

 colour, and even in smell. This tree grows abun- 

 dantly in China, where the inhabitants convert its 

 produce into candles. 



Mr. Clarke Abel describes it as being one of the 

 largest, the most beautiful, and the most widely 

 diffused, of the plants found by him in China. He 

 first saw it a few miles south of Nankin, whence it 

 occurred in greater or less abundance all the way to 

 Canton. " We often saw it," he says, " imitating 

 the oak in the height of its stem and the spread of 

 its branches. Its foliage has the green and lustre 

 of the laurel. Its small flowers, of a yellow colour, 

 are borne at the ends of its terminal branches. 

 Clusters of dark-coloured seed-vessels succeed them 

 in autumn ; and, when matured, burst asunder and 

 disclose seeds of a delicate whiteness *." 



The seed-vessels are hard brownish husks, not 

 unlike those of chesnuts, and each of them contains 

 * Travels in China, p. 177. 



