148 BOTANY OF INDIA. 



SAPOTE^. 



In several trees of this family we find a singular substi- 

 lute for an animal product. The mihwah-tree, or Indian 

 butter-tree (Bassia butyracea), the oil or lUeepei-tree 

 (Bassia longifoUa), and the shea-tree or butter-tree of 

 Africa, probably also a species of Bassm, are among the 

 number. The mahwah-tree is the most remarkable one 

 in India ; it is about the size of an English oak, according 

 to Forbes, but with a beautiful large shining foliage. The 

 flowers are produced in full clusters at the ends o{ the 

 smaller branches, and look exactly like berries ; the true 

 fruit, however, resembles a walnut, the olive-shaped seeds 

 of which are replete with a thick oil, which is used as a 

 substitute for ghee. To obtain the oil, the kernels are 

 bruised to the consistence of thick cream, and then sub- 

 mitted to pressure. The oil or fat becomes immediately 

 of the consistence of hog's lard, and is of a delicate white 

 colour. The flowers are equally prized, for when dried m 

 the sun they have been compared to Malaga raisms, botii 

 in flavour and appearance. They are eaten in fact m va- 

 rious ways,— as a preserved fruit, as an ingredient m cur- 

 ries and other dishes, or even in their fresh state. A good 

 tree will produce in one season nearly three hundi^ed-weight 

 of flowers. Their greatest consumption, however, is m 

 the distillation of a kind of spirit^which goes by the name 

 of m^hwah-arrack, and is so cheap that an English -pint 

 may be had for one picc, about the value of a halfpenny. _ 



the oil expressed from the fruit of Bassia longijolia is 

 constantly used by thP common people instead of ghee and 

 cocoanut oil. The flowers are also, collected for food, as 

 in the preceding species, and almost every part of the plant 

 put to some use. It is said that owls, squirrels, lizards, 

 do^s, and jackals eat the flowers, and that the latter some- 

 tinies become mad by partaking too freely of them.* Both 

 these plants must yield to the butter-tree of Africa. The 

 kernel," says Park, " is enveloped in a sweet pulp, uncler 

 a thin green rind ; and the butter produced from it, besides 

 the advantage of its keeping the whole year without salt, is 

 whiter, firmer, and to my palate of a richer flavour than 

 the best butter I ever tasted made from cow s milk, iue 



* Asiatic Reaearclies, vol. viii. p. 480. 



