422 



POPPY-SEED OIL. 



distinguisli seven different varieties of this tree. The wax tree grows 

 in great abundance on the mountainous declivities of the province of 

 Kinas, and in Hiozo, Hizen, Simabara, Chutugo, and Chekusin ; the 

 fields are hedged in with it. The seeds, which ripen in October and 

 November, are of the size of a small pea, and united in bunches ; the 

 fat or wax is lodged between the kernel and the outer skin. When 

 gathered they are exposed to the sun for a few days, and then stored 

 in straw. When they have attained their proper maturity they are 

 freed from the stems by threshing with flails of bamboo. They 

 are crushed and winnowed, steamed, placed in hemp-cloth bags, 

 steamed again, and afterwards pressed in a wooden wedge press all 

 by hand. In order to facilitate the flow of the solid oil or vegetable 

 wax, a small percentage of oil from the Pirella ocimoides, Lin., is 

 added. The raw products form on cooling a coarse greenish, tallowy 

 mass, which is remelted in an earthen vessel with water and ashes ; 

 the yield is about 15 per cent, of the berries used. The wax is 

 reduced to small scraps by means of a kind of planing tool, then 

 washed and bleached in the sun and air, when it assumes a pure white 

 colour. It is much used in Japan for candles. The exports of this 

 wax from Hiozo and Osaka were 7410 piculs in 1874, and 10,056 piculs 

 in 1875. Prices ranged between 11^ and 8 J dollars per picul. The 

 consumption has greatly fallen oif in Loudon within the last few years, 

 owing to previous high cost of the article, which induced buyers to 

 substitute paraffin and other cheaper materials, and even the above 

 low prices have not left a profit to shippers. 



The wax is now generally prepared in large square blocks or cakes 

 of 133 lbs., in place of the old saucers or round cakes of from 4 to 4J 

 inches in diameter and 1 inch thick, by which a saving in freight is 

 effected. The value of this wax, shipped from Hiozo in 1875, was 

 93,277 dollars ; from Osaka, 955 piculs, valued at 8986 dollars. The 

 total value of the Japan wax exports were, in 1874, 215,642 dollars; 

 in 1875, 186,244. Of vegetable tallow there was exported from Kew 

 Kiang in China, in 1875, 2747 piculs. 



Poppy-seed Oil. — The seeds yield by expression about 50 per cent, 

 of a bland and very valuable oil, of a pale golden colour, fluid to within 

 10° of the freezing point of water. It dries easily, is inodorous, of 

 agreeable odour, and partially soluble in alcohol. The seed is worth 

 about 51s. to 53s. per quarter in the English market. By simple 

 exposure to the rays of the sun in shallow vessels, the oil is rendered 

 perfectly colourless. It is expressed by means of a heavy circular 

 stone, placed on its edge, made to revolve by a long lever, and the 

 apparatus is worked by draught bullocks. 



Mr. Bingham furnishes the following note: "The seed has no 

 narcotic qualities, but has a sweet taste, and is used, parched, by 

 the lower class of natives as a food ; it is also much used by the 

 sweetmeat makers as an addition in their wares. This and the seed 

 of the Teel [Sesamum orientale) are the only oil-seeds, with the excep- 

 tion of the cocoanut, which are used for that purpose. It produces, 

 under the native method, a clear limpid oil, which burns very quickly. 

 About 30 per cent, of oil is generally extracted, and the cake is then 



