33 



ON THE TALLOW TREE (STILLINGIA SEBIFERA) AND THE 

 PELA, OR INSECT WAX OF CHINA. 



BY D. J. MACGOWAN, M.D. 



The botanical characters of this member of the Eupkorbiaceae are 

 too well known to require description, but hitherto no accurate account 

 has been published of its various uses ; and although it has become a 

 common tree in some parts of India and America, its value is 

 appreciated only in China, where alone its products are properly 

 elaborated. 



In the ' American Encyclopaedia,' it is stated that this tree is almost 

 naturalised in the maritime parts of South America, and that its cap- 

 sules and seeds are crushed together and boiled, the fatty matter being 

 skimmed as it rises, hardening when cool. 



Dr. Roxburgh in his excellent ' Flora Indica,' says : — " It is now very 

 common about Calcutta, where in the course of a few years it has be- 

 come one of the most common trees. It is in flower and fruit most part 

 of the year. In Bengal it is only considered an ornamental tree. The 

 sebaceous produce of its seeds is not in sufficient quantity, nor its 

 quality so valuable as to render it an object worthy of cultivation. It 

 is only in very cold weather that this substance becomes firm ; at all 

 other times it is in a thick, brownish fluid state, and soon becomes 

 rancid. Such is my opinion of the famous vegetable tallow of China.*' 



Dr. Roxburgh was evidently misled in his experiments by pursuing 

 a course similar to that which is described in the ' Encyclopaedia Ameri- 

 cana,' and in many other works, or he would have, formed a very different 

 opinion of this curious material. Analytical chemistry shows animal 

 tallow to consist of two proximate principles — stearine and claine. Now 

 what renders the fruit of this tree peculiarly interesting, is the fact that 

 both these principles exist in it separately in nearly a pure state. By 

 the above-named process, stearine and claine are obtained in a mixed 

 state, and consequently present the appearance described by Roxburgh. 

 Nor is the tree prized merely for the stearine and claine it yields, though 

 these products constitute its chief value ; its leaves are employed as a 

 black dye ; its wood, being hard and durable, may be easily used for 

 printing blocks, and various other articles, and finally, the refuse of the 

 nut is employed as fuel and manure. 



The Stillingia sebifera is chiefly cultivated in the provinces of 

 Kiangsi, Kongnain, and Chihkiang. In some districts near Hangchan, 

 the inhabitants defray all their taxes with its produce. It grows alike 

 on low alluvial plains and on granite hills, on the rich mould at the 

 margins of lakes, and on the sandy sea-beach ; the sandy estuary of 

 Hangchan, yields little else. Some of the trees at this place are known 

 to be several hundred years old, and though prostrated, still send forth 



