512 OLEAGINOUS PLANTS. 



Brought forward 15 16 7 



Deduct Bills of Lading, &c. 



82 13 

 Deduct the Board's expenses for gathering and 



preparing, &c 28 8 7 



Leaving a clear profit of 54 4 5 



This statement shows that from a plant, \vhich is indigenous to the colony, 

 and might he cultivated to almost any extent, and mostly on soils unavailahle 

 for other purposes, an article of great export could he derived at a comparatively 

 small expense ; it is with that view that I desire to direct public attention more 

 prominently to it. 



In the Museum of the Royal Botanic Gardens, at Kew, wax 

 is shown as scraped from the the trunk of the wax palm 

 (Ceroxylon andicola), and candles made from it, as also some 

 made of acorns and closely resembling common tallow. Concrete 

 milk and butter made from the Shea butter tree, and others 

 growing in Para, are also exhibited. 



Wax candles have been made from the seeds of Myrica macro- 

 carpa in Colombia, and also from vegetable wax in Java. Some of 

 these are to be seen in the Museum of the Pharmaceutical Society 

 of London. 



CASTOR OIL PLANT. 



Castor oil is expressed from the seeds of Ricinus communis 

 (Palma CJiristi), a plant with petale-palmate leaves, which is 

 found native in Greece, Africa, the South of Spain, and the East 

 Indies, and is cultivated in the West Indies, as well as in North 

 and South America. In the temperate and northern parts of 

 Europe, the plant is an herbaceous annual, of from three to 

 eight feet high ; in the more southern parts it becomes scrubby 

 and even attains an height of twenty feet ; while in India it is often 

 a tree thirty to forty feet high. The best oil is obtained by expres- 

 sion from the seeds without heat, and is hence called " cold drawn 

 oil." A large quantity of oil may be produced by boiling the seeds, 

 but it is less sweet and more "apt to become rancid than that 

 procured by expression. 



The Palma Ckristi grows continuously for about four years, and 

 becomes a large tree in constant bearing, ripening its rich clusters 

 of beans in such profusion, that 100 bushels may be obtained 

 annually from an acre, and their product of oil two gallons per 

 bushel. 



There are several species, all of hich yield oil of an equally 

 good quality. A shrubby variety is common in South Australia, 

 and other parts of New Holland. Eicinus livid its is a native of 

 the Cape of Good Hope. It is a hardy plant, of the easiest cul- 

 ture, and will thrive in almost any soil, whether in the burning 



