off the oil as it rises to the surfare ; and 

 as its production and preparation is carried 

 on solely by the negro population, who 

 bring it to the merchants in small quanti- 

 ties for sale, it is anticipated that ere long 

 the Negro kings will find th-3 trade in palm 

 oil more profitable than that in human 

 beings. In 1860 the imports of palm oil 

 into the United Kingdom amounted to 

 804,326 cwts., representing a money value 

 of 1,786,S95L The chief use to which this 

 substance is applied is for the manufacture 

 of candles, and it is the principal article 

 used for that purpose in the extensive 

 works of Price's Patent Candle Company ; 

 besides which it is greatly employed in 

 soap-making, and likewise for greasing the 

 wheels of railway carriages. In Africa it 

 is eaten as butter, and a kind of soup is 

 made by boiling the fruits. The hard black 

 shell of the nut takes a fine polish, and is 

 frequently made into rings and other orna- 

 mental articles by the negroes. [A. S.] 



EL.EOCARPUS. A genus of Tiliacece, 

 natives mostly of tropical parts, princi- 

 pally of India and Java, a few occurring 

 in Australia and New Zealand. They either 

 form trees, attaining sometimes the height 

 of fifty or sixty feet, or large shrubs ; 

 they have simple leaves, and racemes of 

 small flowers, with a calyx of five sepals, 

 and five petals either toothed or beautifully 

 fringed, the stamens indefinite, inserted 

 upon a swollen lobed disk, and having long 

 downy unequal-celled anthers usually ter- 

 minating in a bristle. The ovary is from 

 two to five-celled, and the fruit contains a 

 very hard rough-shelled nut, divided into 

 as many one-seeded cells as the ovary, or 

 sometimes all but one cell imperfect. E. 

 Qanitrus, a tree, growing forty or fifty 

 feet high, is native of India and the Malay 

 Islands, where the hard stones of the fruit 

 are commonly used for stringing into rosa- 

 ries, or for making necklaces, bracelets, 

 buttons, heads of pins, and similar articles. 

 E. Hinau, the Hinau of the New Zealand- 

 ers, is a tree fifty or sixty feet high, with a 

 trunk three or four feet thick, producing 

 a very hard white timber, Avhich, however, 

 is not very valuable, being apt to split when 

 exposed to wet or heat. The bark affords 

 an excellent and permanent dye, varying 

 from light brown, to puce, or deep black ; it 

 is greatly used by the natives for dyeing 

 their garments. The pulp surrounding the 

 stone of the fruit of this and other species 

 is eatable; and in India the fruits of 

 several are either used in curries or pickled 

 like olives. [A. S.] 



EL^EODENERON. A genus of trees or 

 shrubs belonging to the Celastracece, oc- 

 curring in greatest numbers in S. Africa, 

 but also represented in Australia, India, 

 and the W. Indies. The leaves are oppo- 

 site or alternate, elliptical or lanceolate 

 and smooth ; and the inconspicuous green 

 or white flowers are disposed in axillary 

 cymes, and have a four or five-parted calyx, 

 a four or five petaled corolla, inserted under 

 a fleshy ring and longer than the calyx, 

 a like number of stamens inserted on the 



margin of the fleshy ring in which the 

 ovary, crowned with a short style and a 

 rounded stigma, is immersed. The fruits 

 are green fleshy drupes, sometimes about 

 the size of a hazel-nut, but often much 

 smaller, with a thin fleshy outer covering, 

 surrounding a hard three to five-celled nut. 

 E. australe furnishes a close-grained firm 

 wood, which is used in N. S. Wales for 

 tm-ning and cabinet work ; this tree attains 

 a height of thirty to forty feet, with a dia- 

 meter of eight to fourteen inches. The 

 drupes of E. Kabu are eaten at the Cape. 

 The bark and roots of E. Boxburghii, an 

 Indian species, are considered efficacious 

 in all cases of swelling, and are used exter- 

 nally rubbed with water. The root is also 

 said to be powerfully astringent and useful 

 in snake bites. [A. A. B.] 



EL^EOSELINUM. The generic name of 

 plants belonging to the order of umbelli- 

 fers, distinguished from their allies by 

 having each half of the fruit with five 

 principal and four secondary ribs, two of 

 the latter being wing-like. E. meoides is a 

 native of Sicily, and occurs also in Algiers ; 

 its leaves are twice pinnate, rough on the 

 stalks and nerves, the leaflets numerous 

 and very narrow. [G. D.] 



ELAIO. In Greek compounds = olive 

 colour, a mixture of green and brown. 



ELAPHOGLOSSUM. A genus of poly- 

 podiaceous ferns of the tribe Acrostichec?, 

 distinguished by their simple fronds, and 

 simple or parallel forked free veins, which 

 are club-shaped at the apex. Thus defined 

 the genus includes a large proportion of 

 the species formerly referred to Acrosti- 

 chum. In some of them the fronds are 

 smooth and naked, but in others they are 

 clothed with variously shaped and often 

 strongly coloured scales which form pretty 

 objects for microscopical examination. 

 Upwards of 150 species are admitted, the 

 larger proportion of them occurring in the 

 "West Indies and South America, a con- 

 siderable number in India and the East, 

 and others extending to the Mascaren 

 Islands, Madagascar, the Cape, and Sierra 

 Leone, and to Australia and the islands of 

 the Pacific. The fertilefronds are distinct 

 from the sterile ones, generally more or 

 less often very much contracted, and not 

 unfrequently elevated on longer stalks, 

 their under surface being entirely covered 

 with spore-cases. [T. M.] 



ELAPHOMTCES. Underground Fungi, 

 differing from truffles by reason of the 

 contents of the thick peridium being ulti- 

 mately resolved into a mass of dusty 

 sporidia from the absorption of the asci. 

 They were, in consequence, for along time 

 associated with puffballs. We have three 

 wild species in this country, two of which 

 are pretty generally diffused. The peridium 

 is either smooth or rough with warts. Of 

 our more common species, E. granulatus is 

 far less rough externally, and has a thinner 

 peridium, which is not variegated within 

 like E. variegatus. All the species appear to 

 be involved in an intricate mass of rootlets 



