254 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



promote the better cohesion of the material, the 

 candles made of it are dipped in wax ; this external 

 coating- hardens them, and preserves them from gut- 

 tering-. The combustion of these candles is described 

 as being less perfect, yielding a thicker smoke, a 

 dimmer light, and consuming much more rapidly 

 than ours. These serious defects are perhaps attri- 

 butable in a great measure to the unappropriateness 

 of the wick employed, which is merely a little rod of 

 dry light wood (generally bamboo), with the pith of a 

 rush wound round it; the pores of this pith serving 

 as a medium to convey to the wood the inflammable 

 matter with which it is surrounded. 



We learn from Father D'Incarville, in a letter 

 written by him from Pekin, and published in the 

 Philosophical Transactions for 1753, that almost all 

 the candles sold in the southern provinces of China 

 are made with tallow prepared from these berries. 

 There are very few sheep in that part of the country ; 

 animal tallow is therefore very scarce, and this 

 vegetable production is in consequence held in high 

 estimation. 



The Piney tree, or Valeria Indica, growing on the 

 coast of Malabar, yields a substance very much re- 

 sembling that of the crotonse biferum. The peculiar 

 product of this tree is fully described in an interesting 

 paper on the subject, by Dr. Benjamin Babington*, 

 who, from many experiments, has shown that its 

 inflammable properties admirably adapt it for the 

 manufacture of candles, it being in every way supe- 

 rior to animal tallow. 



The useful matter is obtained by simply boiling 



the pulpy fruit of the piney tree in water, when the 



fused vegetable tallow rises to the surface, and, on 



cooling, forms a solid cake. No farther preparation 



* Quarterly Journal of Science, &. vol. xix. 



