6b ON THE TALLOW TREE, ETC. 



The kernels yield above 30 per cent, of oil. It is called ismg-yu, 

 sells for about 3 cents, (ljd.) per lb., answers well for lamps, though in- 

 ferior for this purpose to some other vegetable oils in use. It is also 

 employed for various purposes in the arts, and has a place in the Chinese 

 ' Pharmacopoeia,' because of its quality of changing grey hair black, and 

 other imaginary virtues. 



The husk which envelopes the kernel, and the shell which encloses 

 them and their sebaceous covering are used to feed the furnaces, 

 scarcely any other part being needed for this purpose. The residuary 

 tallow cakes are also employed for fuel, as a small quantity of it re- 

 mains ignited a whole day. It is in great demand for chafing dishes 

 during the cold season, and finally, the cakes which remain after the oil 

 has been pressed out, are much valued as a manure, particularly for 

 tobacco fields, the soil of which is rapidly impoverished by the Virginia 

 weed. 



Artificial illumination in China is generally procured by vegetable 

 oils, but candles aie also employed by those who can afford them, and 

 fur lanterns. In religious ceremonies no other material is used. As 

 no one ventures out after dark without a lantern, and as the gods 

 cannot be acceptably worshipped without candles, the quantity con- 

 sumed is very great. With an unimportant exception the candles are 

 always made of what I beg to designate as vegetable stearine. 



"When the candles, which are made by dipping, are of the required 

 diameter, they receive a final dip into a mixture of the same material 

 and insect-wax, by which their consistency is preserved in the hottest 

 weather. They are generally coloured red, which is done by throwing a 

 minute quantity of alkanet root (Anchusa tinctoria,) brought from 

 Shantung, into the mixture. Verdigris is sometimes employed to dye 

 them green. The wicks are made of rush, coiled round a stem of coarse 

 grass, the lower part of which is slit to receive the pin of the candle- 

 stick, which is more economical than if put into a socket. Tested in 

 the mode recommended by Count Rumford, these candles compare 

 favourably with those made from spermaceti, but not when the clumsy 

 wick of the Chinese is employed. Stearine candles cost about 8 cents, 

 (4d.) the pound. 



Prior to the thirteenth century bees-wax was employed as a coating 

 for candles ; but about that period the white-wax insect was discovered, 

 since which bees wax has been wholly superseded by the more 

 costly but incomparably superior product of this insect. It has been 

 described by Abbe Grosier, Sir Geoige Staunton, and others, but those 

 accounts differ so widely among themselves, as well as from that given 

 by native authors, as to render further inquiry desirable. From the 

 description given by Grosier, entomologists have supposed the insect 

 which yields the pe-la, or white wax, to be a species of Coccus. Staunton, 

 on the contrary, describes it as a species of Cicada (Flata limbata.) As 

 described by Chinese writers, however, it is evidently an apterous 



